If you're looking to get into live streaming, you'll want a capture card for your video games. Whether you're playing on a console or PC, it's possible to stream your gameplay online for the entire world to watch.
Live streaming your video game experience can be rewarding and serves more than just one purpose, and it's a trend that has become infectious and infested every hardcore gamer.
Best Capture Cards for Live Streaming ReviewedStreaming your video games is all the craze nowadays. In fact, many people believed the world had gone completely mad, opting to watch others play video games instead of playing them themselves.
Regardless of what the world thinks, it's undeniable that live streaming video games have become a hugely successful practice that has created many internet gaming personalities. Furthermore, live streaming videos are a chance for the community and fans of that particular game to get together, and being social (even if it's online) is mostly a good thing.
Capture cards come in two main forms: external capture cards that are more portable and internal ones that fit into your PC and are much faster. Each type has its perks and disadvantages. We've reviewed our personal favorite capture cards available right now from famous companies like Elgato and AverMedia. Let's get started.
Our Top Pick
Elgato Game Capture HD60 S Excellent capture quality at a good price Elgato's Game Capture HD60 S is their best selling capture card available right now, and for all the right reasons. It has everything you want from a reliable capture card in an elegant, modern design. The card is essentially a plug and play device, and this convenience makes it the most popular capture card among streamers and recorders.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1524412610177-5'); }); Check Price on Amazon Check Price on Best BuyElgato's products are the best when it comes to the capture card niche, and the HD60 S is their top-selling and flagship product.
Elgato is the leading manufacturer of capture cards in the market right now. From their set of high-end internal PCI Express capture cards to the portable ones, they dominate the industry with their extensive knowledge of what makes a great capture card.
From a specs point of view, the Elgato Game Capture HD60 S looks fairly standard. It's a 1080p capture card that runs at 60fps. The USB interface is the modern standard USB 3.0. So what sets it apart from every other competitor with the same specs? The reliability and ease of use.
Simply put, the Elgato Game Capture HD60 S is just a tried and tested piece of hardware. It's reasonably priced for how elegant and efficient it is, and it's an ideal starting and intermediate point for every streamer out there. The 1080p recording is crisp and smooth at 60fps. USB 3.0 connectivity is built into the device, and there's also a Type-C connection available. The capture bitrate reaches up to 40Mbps on this card.
It's important to note however that despite USB 3.0 being backward compatible, this card is a little sensitive to the technology variation. For many users, it tends to struggle to run effectively on USB 2.0 because of the lower power available on the older generation. While this can be considered a glaring con of this device, it's actually not, as USB 3.0 is found in all modern PCs, and the card relies on the additional power and faster speeds to minimize latency during live streaming.
The HD60 S also automates the footage capturing process. It does this with the built-in YouTube and Twitch stream capabilities. The card can also capture your voice on the go, so there's no need to overlay it in post-recording editing.
One thing you'll have to keep in mind with the Elgato Game Capture HD60 S is that its software compatibility is very strict. You should download only the latest software for the operating system you're running on. The features available in the software are fairly limited, but if you're a streamer, chances are you'll be looking at more advanced video editing software to rely on anyway.
Best Portable Capture Card
AverMedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus Pocket-Sized 1080p Capture Card The AverMedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus is a small portable capture card that streams at a resolution of 1080p at 60fps. The card is small and doesn't require any PC to use as it has a microSD card slot in it to record directly on.
Check Price on Amazon Check price on Best BuyWe're fans of the AverMedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus capture card for several reasons. It's a small card that is ideal for capturing gaming content for those who don't want to connect to a PC all the time.
The design may make you question AverMedia's intent with this capture card and its build quality, but don't let the aesthetics fool you. Yes, AverMedia has decided to make its Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus capture card rather excessively flashy. The use of the gamer-esque red and black color scheme speaks volume as a card dedicated for gamers.
Some may consider it tacky, while others would claim it suits their currently existing setup. Regardless, from a purely functional standpoint, the Liver Gamer Portable 2 Plus is an excellent 1080p capture card. One of the key points of the card is just how easy capturing with it is. Whether you're connected to your PC through its USB 3.0 interface or using a microSD card in it to record, the process is extremely simple, and you'll know the card is doing its job thanks to the giant flashing lights on it.
The quality is what you'd expected from a modern 1080p card. At 60fps, everything runs as smooth as you'd expect with a card like this. With the inclusion of a microSD card, the AverMedia Live Gamer Portable 2 Plus offers great PC-free recording. It's not the only card out there that requires no PC to function, but it's far better than most 1080p independent cards due to the great quality.
Additionally, the included RECentral software is intuitive for overlaying text and utilizing useful streaming functions such as picture in picture setups. RECentral is AverMedia's proprietary player and is highly intuitive and easy to use. You can use it with your consoles and record your party chat without having to add an extra cable.
Best PCIe Capture Card
Elgato 4K60 Pro A Monster Internal PC Capture Card Elgator4K60 Pro is a PCI Express capture card capable of recording at 4K video resolution at 60fps. Integrated into your PC build, this card is designed to be used by PC gamers and advanced users only. However, it is by far the best-integrated capture card in the world for this very reason thanks to its great quality capture and usability.
Check Price on Amazon Check Price on NeweggFor anyone building a PC for streaming video games, the Elgato 4K60 Pro is the best option, provided you have a large enough motherboard to accommodate both a beefy graphics card and this PCIe x4 capture card.
4K gaming is definitely the future. Heck, some may even say it's the present. If you believe it's the present and want to stream your gaming experience in 4K, you'll want to consider the Elgato Game Capture 4K60 Pro.
It's easy to confuse this beastly capture card with a graphics card. Like some of the premium and high-quality graphics cards, it has a back plate. Additionally, the front is fully encased, with vent holes to allow heat to dissipate. The card is designed to be combined with a beefy graphics card, because not every card currently available can comfortably run games at 4K resolution.
For capturing video on 4K resolution and the highest settings for most modern games, you'll want a GTX 1080 Ti or the newer Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti. Additionally, since video processing and streaming is a CPU intensive task, you'll want to pair it with a powerful multi-threaded processor such as the Intel Core i9 9900K or even a Ryzen Threadripper 2950X.
Because you'll be packing such a beast of a computer to play and stream video games, you'll need more than just an average motherboard. Conservative spacing between the PCIe slots will cramp this capture card too close to comfort with any beefy high-end graphics card, greatly affecting the thermals of your system. For this reason, you'll want an ATX or even eATX motherboard with multiple PCIe slots that are generously far apart.
When it comes to actual performance, few cards can match this beast. Thanks to the PCIe connection (which is much faster than USB connection), the card can capture 4K footage at 60fps at up to a whopping 140Mbps.
Of course, capturing at 4K resolution with such frame-rates means you'll need a butt-load of storage space. Thankfully, this capture card assists in that too, as it also encodes the capture while recording to save space.
To avoid lag, you'll want to take advantage of the ports on this device and use a lag-free HDMI pass-through to send the live feed to a second 4K monitor. This means an expensive setup, but it's also the only sure-fire way of experiencing your live stream with no latency whatsoever.
4. AV.io4K
If for some reason you want 4K live streaming in a portable format, you should get ready to pay close to what you would for a high-end graphics card, as the AV.io4K costs almost $500. However, this thing no slouch. It's one of the most complete portable capture cards yet is deviously compact.
The card is primarily designed to capture gameplay of PS4 Pro and Xbox One X consoles running at 4K resolution. The AV.io4K offers 1080p streaming at 60fps comfortably but limits its 4K capture to 30fps. This is fine for the PS4 Pro as most 4K video games are locked at 30fps on it, but you may find it troublesome with the Xbox One if your games run at higher frame rates.
Regardless, it's hard to deny that this pocket-sized capture card makes like incredibly easy for console streamers – particularly ones who lean towards Sony's platform. The card is essentially plug and play as there's no installation software required. The output is almost completely lag free even at 4K resolution. Of course, this card costs as much as the console itself, which is an expensive investment. That's the price you have to pay for portability and 4K capturing though.
5. Hauppauge HD PVR Rocket
HD PVR is a sleek and simple game recorder that is small enough to fit in your pocket. One of the highlight features of the HD Rocket is that it doesn't actually need you to plug it into a PC to capture from your gaming console. Instead, it can be powered directly from your console or TV via the included USB cable.
The process of recording game videos is also pretty straightforward. Attach a USB flash drive to your Rocket's USB port and hit the giant red button on the top to start recording. Whenever you want to stop the recording, simply press the red button again and it will stop.
The set up is equally easy for capturing via a PC. The HD Rocket includes the Haupauge Capture application for Windows that allows users to record, trim and upload their game plays to YouTube or stream their antics live.
Additionally, this game capture device has a built-in audio mixer that allows you to add commentary to the footage while you are recording to the thumb drive. Meaning, you don't have to wait to get into editing to add your dulcet tones.
The Rocket captures in MP4 for easy importing and editing, though the capture is stuck to 30fps. Despite the fact that it doesn't support 4K and 60fps, we still recommend the PVR Rocket to anyone looking for a portable device with simple-design and non-obtrusive video recording features.
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