Recording Sims 4 Gameplay for Machinimas

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post in the forums, so I hope that I'm in compliance with all the guidelines.

Anyway, I had a question regarding recording Sims 4 gameplay for Machinimas. I plan to make stories, record, and post videos for my YouTube. I'm in the middle of episode one of my series, and I'm noticing that the process is a ton of work recording the scenes, editing, etc. I don't mind putting in the work, but my videos keep coming out kind of choppy under certain circumstances, so I'm hoping someone could give me some advice. I already checked a lot of discussions here on the forums, but my symptoms are a bit different than most of the others I've found.

I am able to record CAS videos fine. The problems come when I go to record videos of Sims doing stuff, or talking. It's almost as though the movements are slow and choppy. I am doing my recording using OBS (which setting up is a process in itself), my Sims 4 Graphics properties are set to Ultra. With OBS closed, the game moves a bit better but still not perfect. I should also mention that not every video I record is choppy, only those that have a lot of Sim movements.

Seeing as how this is my first time ever recording my gameplay to post, I am using a computer that I've upgraded quite a bit. It's a Dell Optiplex 745 Mini-Tower. The new specs for the system are as follows:

• OS: Windows 7 (x64)
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Quad-Core Processor, 2.66GHz
• Memory: 8.00 GB DDR2 RAM
• Hard Drive: 250GB SATA 5400rpm + 2TB SATA 5400rpm
• Graphics: ATI Radeon HD6450 (1 GB DDR3 on-board)

I have two monitors. One that has a resolution of 1680x1050, and the second has 1440x900. I normally play on the primary screen (1680x1050), and have OBS opened on the secondary one. I know that my graphics card isn't the best, but keeping the age of this PC in mind, I wouldn't want to spend too much more for a graphics card. Not to mention that newer cards arent compatible with the existing computer.

Any advice that you guys can provide would be great. Do you think it's possible to get the recordings to move smoothly on this computer? Maybe it's settings in OBS?

Thanks for your time!