FPS drops when recording

[garrettk4]

Hi fellow members,

I am having trouble finding the right settings to use Fraps while I record gameplay at the same time. I have been noticing this when I play L4D2 versus mode and things get intense. I quickly found out I cannot record the game when its on high settings, which bummed me out. I always get 60fps when I'm not recording. (Is there any settings I can use to increase that or is 60 the limit). When things get intense (a lot of gunfire zombies, etc.) my fps drops to 30 or lower. Keep in mind that's on low settings in game, but if I'm not recording the fps doesn't drop or does by 2 or 3 frames.

I follow the help me build a computer threads a lot so I know that i5 3570k is considered the best for gaming at this time but in this situation would an i7 be better? Or is it my video cards. (HD 6870 2 running in Xfire). Do I need to overclock?

I'm not a super hardcore person yet about recording but I would like to not be annoyed by fps drops and such. And if it is possible I would like to be able to play on high settings or at least medium without any fps drops while recording.

System Specs:
i5 3570k CM hyper 212+
Corsair 16gb 4x4gb 1600mhz
2 HD 6870s X Fire
Intel 520 120gb SSD
1.5TB HDD< l4d2 & fraps located here>
Corsair HX750
Corsair 600t White
Asus VS247H-P 24-Inch

 

[Outlander_04]

I would try overclocking mildly and seeing if it makes any difference

Sometimes no matter what you do software wont run faster or better

 

[garrettk4]

So mild overclock of the processor say around 4.0ghz? And the graphcis cards too?

 

[Outlander_04]

just the processor

 

[manofchalk]

Your storage solution could be the problem. A HDD can only write data so fast, so FRAPS makes the game slow down to the HDD's pace.
This video shows this in effect, skip to 3:26.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEGDgzlc7mA
The video is kind of old, a single modern SSD should be as fast as his drives in RAID0.

 

[abbadon_34]

What recording settings are you using in FRAPs? Higher frame rates, resolutions, and lossless captures mean exponentially greater disk access which can impact the rest of the system, especially one with fewer drives.

edit: manofchalk beat me by 30 sec!

 

[garrettk4]

Best answer selected by garrettk4.