The Best Game Capture Card To Buy 2018

Elgato has been one of the premier names in the capture card industry for awhile now, with multiple products on the market. Full HD recording - The Colossus 2 can record content in 1080p with a framerate of 30 FPS and uses an H.264 video encoder, which results in well-compressed videos that save a lot of space but sacrifice little in quality. Some capture cards only work with computers.

It doesn't come in the box with the card, you need to go to the Elgato software downloads page and get it. Some capture cards let you do small edits before you've even transferred the videos. The buying guide shows gamers what type of capture cards they can use to record or stream footage in real time.

That's fine if you want to use the software, but I couldn't get my other devices to function as normal without forcibly killing the Elgato process. The HD60S is better suited for streaming, while the HD60 is ideal for recording, editing and uploading at a later date.

While the USB capture cards definitely got better in the recent months up to this day it is the first device that fully uses the USB 3.0 capabilities and supplies exactly what you need to get started with streaming on your Dual-PC or Console setup. Users have the ability to record a 1080p60 file of gameplay at the same time as streaming content.

This is due to the fact that it is marketed towards both PC and console users, and the latter rely solely on HDMI as a means of connection. AverMedia Live Gamer portable comes with 2.64 hardware encoding and you can record high quality footage in 1080p HD at 60 frames per second.

The PS4 and Xbox One include native streaming and capture options and if you're just starting out and wanting to see if this kind of content creation is for you then by all means give them a go first but you'll quickly realise that the time spent dealing with the limitations that come with the native options just make the HD60 S more appealing.

You can capture and stream on a elgato fix laptop equipped with a USB 3.0 port from anywhere with the appropriate internet speeds. We actually use this to help run our weekly PC Gamer Show, and it's a handy tool to have—especially if you don't have a second monitor to help manage your stream.