

Going down this route, you'll require the HDMI splitter found above.
CHEAPEST CAPTURE CARD FOR STREAMING 720P
A lower cost option would be to opt for a 720P 60FPS capture card such as this one. 30 FPS capture cards are quite common but will suffer from screen tearing when playing high paced games.
CHEAPEST CAPTURE CARD FOR STREAMING 1080P
You'll want to at least look for a 1080P capture card that can handle 60 FPS recording. Frames Per SecondįPS is extremely important when capturing gameplay footage. The internal bus of a PCI Express capture card can handle more data, resulting in a cleaner image. The benefits of an internal capture card are quality and input lag. The downside of this will be portability of an external device you can just unplug and bring to each PC. This will require you to open your computer, locate the PCI Express port, unclip the cover from the case and install the capture card into the computer.

This capture card type will be located directly inside the computer using the built in PCI Express port on the motherboard. This feature will help you avoid having to purchase a separate HDMI splitter. Some capture cards will also have an HDMI output to pass through the signal from the computer over to a second monitor or TV. They'll connect via USB and typically will be enclosed devices that have a USB output as well as an HDMI input. Input Type USBĮxternal USB capture cards will almost remind you of an external hard drive. As with any emerging technology, once the standard of (3840 x 2160) becomes available, it will slowly gain traction to become more affordable. Further to those details below.įor a high quality HDMI capture card that can output 1080P or higher, you'll be looking at a capture card to record both retro and modern gaming in excess of the $100 price point.ĤK capture cards at the time of this writing are still very expensive and haven't become mainstream as of yet. Luckily few cost cutting improvements have been made with unbranded HDMI capture cards that make things a bit easier to get a decent output. Most products that cost less than $100 (with a caveat) will only give you an output with S-Video or Composite outputs.
