Best OBS Settings for Streaming Apex Legends in 2026

Apex Legends is a fast-paced battle royale with lots of movement, abilities, and particle effects. Getting your OBS settings right ensures your stream looks clean during intense fights.

Recommended Settings

Twitch

• 1080p 60fps: 6,000 Kbps, NVENC (New), Preset P4–P5

• 720p 60fps: 4,500 Kbps — solid option for lower-end PCs

YouTube Live

• 1080p 60fps: 9,000–11,000 Kbps

• 1440p 60fps: 14,000–16,000 Kbps

Compression Characteristics

Apex Legends has moderate-to-high compression complexity due to:

• Fast player movement (sliding, jumping, ziplines)

• Ability effects (Bangalore smoke, Caustic gas, Seer tactical)

• Detailed environments with varied terrain

At 6,000 Kbps on Twitch, 1080p 60fps looks good for most situations. During heavy ability usage in final rings, you may see minor artifacts — this is normal at Twitch's bitrate cap.

Encoder Settings

NVENC

• Rate Control: CBR

• Bitrate: 6,000 Kbps (Twitch) / 9,000–11,000 Kbps (YouTube)

• Preset: P4 or P5

• Profile: High

• B-frames: 2

x264

• Preset: Faster (Apex is CPU-intensive for game logic)

• Profile: High

In-Game Settings

• Anti-Aliasing: TSAA

• Texture Streaming Budget: Match your VRAM (4 GB, 6 GB, 8 GB)

• Texture Filtering: Anisotropic 4x

• Ambient Occlusion: Low

• Sun Shadow Coverage: Low

• Sun Shadow Detail: Low

• Spot Shadow Detail: Off

• Model Detail: Medium

• Effects Detail: Medium (Low if you need more FPS)

• Impact Marks: Low

• Ragdolls: Low

Performance Tips

1. Cap FPS at 144 — uncapped FPS causes frame time spikes that affect stream smoothness

2. Use Game Capture in OBS, not Display Capture

3. Disable Steam overlay and Discord overlay

4. Set Apex to Fullscreen (not Borderless) for best performance

Quick Reference