Capture Card Worth It For Me?

necronicalpug · Jun 3, 2018

I was thinking of getting a capture card as I want to record my gameplay and possibly stream it but I've encountered some issues.

PC Specs:
CPU: AMD FX-6300
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990-FXA UD3
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3-1333

I have used OBS and tried to stream with it however the quality is terrible.

OBS Settings:
Encoder: H.264 or NVENC
Bitrate: 2000-2500
Frame Rate: 30 (Downscaled from 60)
Resolution: 720p Max (Downscaled from 1080p)

There's an impact on game performance when I try to stream and the stream doesn't look so good either.

Would a capture card help?
I was thinking of getting the Elgato HD60 Pro as I have free slots on my motherboard and I could get one quite cheap. I figure this is my only option to make good recordings or content overall as I can't upgrade nor can I change tariff or ISP to have everything better internet.

Any suggestions?

Frag Maniac · Jun 4, 2018

Since the Elgato HD60 Pro is fairly expensive and the only reason it offers better performance than software capture tools is because it has a built-in hardware encoder, I'd normally tell you to keep it free and just use ShadowPlay with OBS, which uses the built-in hardware encoder in any Nvidia GPU 600 series or higher.

That said, lately ShadowPlay has a problem where Instant Replay mode captures show pixelation and freezing at some point after the halfway mark of playing back any clip that's over 5 min long.

I haven't tested the non Instant Replay mode, where you just manually start recording and let it run. A few driver releases ago people were saying this problem only exists in Instant Replay mode. However that was before Nvidia started listing problems with ShadowPlay not working as an open issue in the last two driver releases.

To simplify, I would try using manual record in ShadowPlay on the latest (397.93) driver. If it doesn't work or the capture doesn't look right when played back, try the 391.35 driver. If that works, try using ShadpowPlay manual record mode to capture while you stream with OBS.

However PC specs and ISP speed matters a lot for streaming. Your FX-6300, 3GB VRAM, and 8 GB 1333 RAM may not be adequate for what you're wanting to do. If stream quality suffers, you can try lowering resolution and game settings.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx6j8GOPGTc"][/video]

necronicalpug · Jun 5, 2018

Frag Maniac :

Since the Elgato HD60 Pro is fairly expensive and the only reason it offers better performance than software capture tools is because it has a built-in hardware encoder, I'd normally tell you to keep it free and just use ShadowPlay with OBS, which uses the built-in hardware encoder in any Nvidia GPU 600 series or higher.

That said, lately ShadowPlay has a problem where Instant Replay mode captures show pixelation and freezing at some point after the halfway mark of playing back any clip that's over 5 min long.

I haven't tested the non Instant Replay mode, where you just manually start recording and let it run. A few driver releases ago people were saying this problem only exists in Instant Replay mode. However that was before Nvidia started listing problems with ShadowPlay not working as an open issue in the last two driver releases.

To simplify, I would try using manual record in ShadowPlay on the latest (397.93) driver. If it doesn't work or the capture doesn't look right when played back, try the 391.35 driver. If that works, try using ShadpowPlay manual record mode to capture while you stream with OBS.

However PC specs and ISP speed matters a lot for streaming. Your FX-6300, 3GB VRAM, and 8 GB 1333 RAM may not be adequate for what you're wanting to do. If stream quality suffers, you can try lowering resolution and game settings.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx6j8GOPGTc"][/video]

Thanks a lot dude, I'll try and play around with ShadowPlay.

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Capture Card Worth It For Me?

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