Best Settings For 4K 60FPS Gameplay For Youtube

Hello I’m wondering what the best possible settings (export) are for uploading gameplay to youtube in 4k 60FPS, I would like do the best settings possible to keep quality intact but not to go completely overboard on file size. Please note I’m a noob in this subject so I’m pretty much going off of what I see in other forums and from youtube videos. Current settings make the video look alright but just wondering what if anything is messed up

Current Settings I’m using
res 3840x2160
aspect 16:9
FPS 60
Color Range mpeg
scan mode progressive
deinterlacer BWDIF (best)
Interpolation Lanczos (best)
Parallel Processing Checked

Codec libx264
rate control constant bitrate
bitrate 30m
buffer size 1500 kib (1s)
gop 30 frames fixed
b frames 2
codec threads 0

Audio
channels 2
sample rate 48000hz
codec aac
rate control constant bitrate
bitrate 384k

Hardware
14700k
4080 Super
32gb ram

Your settings are good enough.

If you plan to export, upload and then delete the export (so file size doesn’t matter locally) I’d probably push the bitrate higher, maybe 60-80M as youtube will convert it down anyway so it’s better to give them as many details as possible before the chop-down.

Keep in mind that at 80M, every second of video will be 10MB in size so 36GB per hour.

Is there a reason that bitrate mode is preferred over quality mode? If only uploading to YouTube, quality mode is the better option 99.99% of the time.

I think it’s just easier not to mess up. There’s really no video that looks bad at 60mbps and you can tell people about the expected file size.

For CRF file size can vary wildly not only depending on footage but also for every encoder (so you’ll have to say different numbers for x264, x265, av1, not to mention nvenc (older gen vs newer), quicksync or amd’s gpus etc). But at 80mbps you can even use… xvid and you’ll probably be fine.

Sorry, I should have clarified. I was wondering why the OP started with 30M bitrate mode instead of using default settings and bumping the quality up a few percent. Bitrate mode may be easier to key in, but the difference in file size for equal perceptual quality is vast. People who archive large collections of their work may need deep pockets to afford the hard drives required to store high bitrates. I’m looking at this from the angle of OP creating gameplay videos, which may be numerous and several hours in length each.

Oh yeah, I agree, for archival just constant 30M no matter the content would be madness, this is strictly for youtube.

I reached out to a few other forums and heres what I’ve changed and seems to work pretty good (more testing to be done) but keeps quality good and file size is decently sized 16gb for an hour of 4k60fps.

res 3840x2160
aspect 16:9
FPS 60
Color Range mpeg
scan mode progressive
deinterlacer BWDIF (best)
Interpolation Lanczos (best)
Parallel Processing Checked

Codec
av1_nvenc
Quality-based vbr
quality 75% cq=13
GOP 30 frames fixed
B frames 2
codec threads 0

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