Best Gaming Capture Card

  The best capture cards are a part of any serious content creator's toolbox. Whether you are recording footage from a PlayStation 5 for your YouTube channel or plugging in a fancy new DLSR camera for your cuisine show on Twitch, a capture card is an absolute necessity for, uh, landing those moments of glory.

Currently, capture cards come in all shapes and sizes and, stylish of all is, they no longer bear you to pry open your PC and stopgap to God you've got a redundant card niche next to your GPU to install. External capture cards are a lot more movable, so much easier to use, and in some cases, cheaper than their internal counterparts since they connect to your PC via USB3.0 or USB TypeC.

We recommend utmost people concentrate on a 1080p target resolution and at least 30 fps with any implicit prisoner card purchase. 60 fps is great if your PC can handle the redundant cargo, but play it safe if you are starting out. There are good 4K capture cards out there, but they are also precious, and those lines' storehouse requirements are harsh. Plus, the bandwidth conditions frequently mean 4K isn't worth the hassle for the utmost Gaming mat for the desk 

Best capture card for PC gaming

1. Elgato Game Capture HD60 X

The Elgato HD60 X is a great device for content generators that do not want to immolate the quality of their games for their bystander's quality. That is because it allows for a high-speed, high-quality pass through up to 4K resolution, and supports Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) technology, too.

You can both enjoy your game and record it for others to enjoy, without really skipping a beat. This capture card technically supports 4K capture at 30 fps, too, though we plant it to be a little fiddly, and Elgato tells us it's further for content generators to use with webcams than anything differently. Still, it's a great little 1080p capture card, and flexible for a wide range of uses either streaming or recording.

Actually, there is no important difference between the HD60 X and the HD60 S that came before it, but seeing as they launch at the same price, it's not like you are paying out of funds for its many advancements.

2. Avermedia Live Gamer Duo

Indeed though streaming is fairly straightforward these days, there are still ways to make effects indeed lightly. The Avermedia Live Gamer Duo is a no-fuss internal capture card for more complicated aqueducts and plays well with utmost equipment, so long as you have the room.

At$ 250, the Live Game Brace may feel precious, but it's basically giving you two prisoner cards for the price of one. It's a great setup for streaming with multiple HDMI inputs like a gaming press, a fancy DSLR camera, or an alternate PC. The only real strike is if you have bournes for 4K recording or streaming, you will have to look further down our list. However, substantially hassle-free, however, If you are looking to stream out at 1080p/ 60 fps.

3. Avermedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus

The Avermedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus packs smooth 60 fps 1080p recording and 4K pass-through so you can still play in Ultra HD ( indeed if it’s not captured in 4K), USB3.0, Mac comity, and dirty great flashing lights to tell you if you’re landing or have left HDCP on.

Besides a seductive form- factor, it also offers intuitive software for live editing and the capability to record straight onto a Micro SD card if you’d prefer to keep your HDD clear of space-absorbing videotape. This capture card is flexible, but particularly tempting if you need to record on the go. It works straight out of the box, too — always a plus.

4. Elgato Game Capture 4K60 Pro MK.2

Pro-users, who want nothing but the stylish, need to look no further than Elgato’s 4K60 Pro. It may need a high-end PC to get off the ground, but this is an excellent piece of tackle for that intent on landing gameplay at the loftiest resolution and frame rate possible.

It’s worth making sure you’ve got enough storehouse space for all those vids, too, because they can get huge veritably snappily. And if you want to go big, Sabrent's 4 TB RocketQ (opens in new tab) or indeed the ultra-expensive Sabrent 8 TB SSD (opens in new tab) will be your dream tickets to storehouse nirvana. The 4K60 Pro's encoder can reduce train size and save you important- demanded memory real- estate, but they can still be chunky in real terms.

5. EVGA XR1

EVGA is best known for its plates cards, so it was a surprise when it blazoned the XR1, its first external capture device for pennants. The flashy OBS certified capture device has an erected-in audio mixer that'll show your situations using these neat-looking RGB LEDs on the unit itself.

The XR1 records and aqueducts at 1080p/ 60 fps and supports advanced Pass-Through of 1440p/ 120 fps and 4K/ 60 fps signals. This means the XR1 will take those native signals and spear them out at 1080p/ 60 fps for your sluice without demanding to change any of your display settings while you game. The capture does a good job, although we did notice the colors were a little washed out; nothing a little tweaking in OBS could not handle, though

Best capture card FAQ

Why do I need a capture card if I just use OBS?

OBS and other third-party capture and streaming software are great, but there are limitations, let's say you want to stream gameplay from a game press or use an HDMI camera rather than a webcam; the easiest way to get them to work on your PC without an external or internal prisoner card.

With software like OBS, you're entirely reliant on your system coffers, similar to your CPU or GPU, when it comes to landing videotape inputs. That can be a drain if you are landing at a high bit rate and trying to play a game contemporaneously. Ultramodern CPUs have gotten good at the necessary multi-tasking, but a devoted prisoner card can help lighten the cargo.

Also if you dual-apply a PC and press, similar to the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, an external capture card can help you pull footage from those biases.

Do prisoner cards reduce quality?

On the negative, a good capture card could increase the quality of your sluice, potentially lighten the cargo on your main PC, and ameliorate the performance of your games while streaming.

Still, still, also yes, If you are asking on purely specialized terms. Capture cards frequently use a commodity called Chroma Subsampling to reduce bandwidth conditions, and that will reduce the quality of the final picture. Though it's worth bearing in mind that once you upload your footage to service, similar to YouTube, they will oppressively drop the quality anyway. So there is not a tremendous loss overall as a result.