Sometimes, when there’s in-game downtime or when playing less intense games, you may find yourself wanting to either watch a youtube clip, a sports game, or a Twitch stream while you’re playing games. Your computer should be able to do both of these things simultaneously, regardless if you’ve got a single monitor or a multiple monitor setup.
However, it seems like a lot of users experience lag and stuttering when watching YouTube or Twitch while running a game at the same time. Why? What can be done?
Hopefully, you’ll be able to find a solution to the problem in this article. Down below you will find a collection of solutions that we’ve used or that others have reported using with success.
How Do I Stop YouTube Clips From Lagging When Playing Games?
It’s hard to give a universal answer to an issue that could be caused by a plethora of different things. Instead, you have to troubleshoot the problem one step at a time to see if you can find the culprit that’s causing the lag. Sometimes it’s hardware, sometimes it’s software.
Down below is a list of methods you can apply to your computer – starting with the easiest methods first (in the hopes that they will solve the issue).
1. Update the graphic drivers
Something so simple as upgrading the GPU’s drivers can cause the stuttering to stop appearing altogether. Installing the most recent driver version for your components can fix bugs and ensure that the device is optimized.
Finding and updating your device drivers is simple. Just follow the steps below.
- Identify the model name of your graphics card. If you’ve got a custom-built computer you might know the name of your GPU. If you don’t; search for Device Manager in Window’s search bar.
- Open the Device Manager and look for the Display Adapter.
- Expand the menu item to show your display adapters. Your graphics card should be listed here.
- Search for the card’s name on Google or go directly to the manufacturer’s website and find the product there. The product page should contain a “support” or “drivers” section where the most recent drivers should be available.
- Download the drivers, run them and follow the installation guide. Restart the computer when prompted.
2. Update other drivers & BIOS
Now that you’ve updated the graphics card drivers, I hope the issue has been solved. If the issue persists I recommend you continue upgrading the rest of your drivers, including the BIOS. You can find suitable drivers for your other components using the method mentioned above.
Updating BIOS (Basic input output system) can solve all types of issues and is definitely worth a try. To find the proper version of BIOS, find the model and make of your motherboard and go to the manufacturer’s website to find the product.
You should find the most recent version of BIOS together with other drivers.
3. Disable GPU Scheduling
In 2020, Windows released a feature called GPU Scheduling. The feature is designed to aid both the CPU and GPU in handling and executing their tasks. Usually, the GPU is responsible for rendering and the CPU is responsible for sending the information and the tasks to the GPU.
This process of sending information, prioritizing it, and executing it is done in batches. The GPU can’t act until the CPU has sent a new batch of information, and this can cause some input lag.
The GPU Scheduling feature provides the GPU with its own dedicated planner for high-priority tasks to speed up the process.
While this sounds great, it has turned out to cause YouTube and other video streaming services to lag and stutter for some users, and disabling the feature seems to reverse the effects.
GPU Scheduling doesn’t increase performance tenfold, but it makes a slight difference – so let’s hope these issues are fixed permanently.
Disable GPU Scheduling:
- Right-click on the desktop background
- Click on Display Settings
- Go to Graphic Settings
- Toggle Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling
- Restart your computer
4. Change to Borderless Window or Windowed Mode
Running games in fullscreen can increase in-game performance as everything else on the computer doesn’t have to be rendered at that moment. This can, in turn, cause background applications to drop in performance because the resources are being allocated elsewhere.
Running a game in windowed or borderless windowed mode could prevent background applications, such as YouTube, from lagging because they’re being prioritized higher as they’re being rendered simultaneously with the game. This can, of course, come at the cost of a slight performance drop in-game.
Changing from fullscreen to any of these two modes is usually done from the game’s video settings. Updating your windows past version 2004 will also aid in this endeavor, as everything prior to 2004 prioritized the main program while lowering the performance of other applications.
5. Disable/enable Hardware Acceleration in your browser
Hardware acceleration is a process that lets the application offload some workload onto the computer’s GPU when possible, making the application run smoother. Hardware acceleration is a feature that you want to have enabled as it improves the overall experience of browsing.
Nevertheless, disabling the feature has actually worked for a small subset of users who experience problems with YouTube lagging. If you find out that the feature was disabled to start with you might see an immediate improvement by turning it on.
While I don’t think you should count on this solution being the one, I truly think it’s worth trying to see if it makes a difference. It’s quite easy to enable/disable hardware acceleration in most browsers.
If you’re using Chrome:
- Select Settings.
- Click Advanced and select System.
- Disable/enable Use hardware acceleration when available.
If you’re using Microsoft Edge:
- Select Settings.
- Click System and performance.
- Disable/enable Use hardware acceleration when available.
6. Reinstall your browser
Reinstalling the browser where the issue appears can solve the issue. While you could try updating the browser, I recommend going to the official site and downloading the most recent installation files, removing the current installation, and running the newly-downloaded .exe file.
You should now have a fresh install on your computer. Before you proceed, make sure you have the most recent version and that there are no updates available. To do this, follow the steps below.
Chrome
- Click the three dots in the upper-right corner.
- Go to Help
- Click About Google Chrome
- Google will start updating if there’s an update available. Relaunch the browser once it has finished.
Microsoft Edge
- Click the three dots in the upper-right corner.
- Go to Settings.
- Click About Microsoft Edge at the bottom of the list on the left-hand side.
- Edge will tell you if it’s up-to-date or not. It will also start updating if there’s an update available.
7. Try another browser
Using another browser might end up solving the problem. If you’re currently using Chrome, and you’ve tried disabling or enabling hardware acceleration without success, you should consider using Microsoft Edge or downloading Firefox or any other browser available online.
If you end up having the same problems on the new browser, make sure to make the same adjustments to the browser’s settings.
8. Upgrade your computer’s performance
If your computer isn’t capable of streaming a YouTube video while displaying a game it might be because your computer isn’t powerful enough to perform two demanding tasks at once – or at least not with your current in-game and streaming settings.
You can either play the video or the game at a lower resolution to see if it makes a difference. If you know that your computer’s GPU, CPU, RAM, or storage are outdated, you should consider upgrading all of them.
But if your budget is somewhat limited, start by upgrading the oldest or weakest component. The weakest link in the chain should be upgraded first because that’s where you may get the highest return on investment.
9. Match your monitors’ refresh rate
If you have a dual monitor setup the reason for YouTube lagging might be that your monitors dont have matching refresh rates.
If a dual monitor setup has a primary monitor that runs at 140Hz (for instance), the secondary monitor should have the same or half the refresh rate to prevent stuttering.
So, a pair of monitors containing a 120hz and a 60hz monitor should go together very well without stuttering, while a setup containing a 120hz monitor paired with a 75hz monitor can cause some discrepancies. Change one of the monitor’s refresh rate to match the other monitor.
10. Disable Nvidia/AMD in-game overlay
Many modern game platforms, communication applications, or recording software have overlays which enable the user to quickly open up the application’s interface even when they’re in a fullscreen game.
If you’re familiar with Steam and Discord I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. A bunch of users have reported that their problem went away as soon as they disabled either Nvidia or AMD’s overlays. This might be worth trying.
11. Reinstall Windows
If you’ve tried everything on the list to no avail, and you’re sure about your computer having the proper specs to run the games at your current settings, then I think it’s worth reinstalling Windows on your computer.
Giving yourself a fresh start and ensuring that every application on the computer is newly-installed might fix your issue.
If none of these worked and you happen to stumble upon another method that worked, please leave a comment how you did it so we can add the information to the article and help others who face the same problem.