If you ever took up with the idea of streaming or recording gameplay for uploading online then you’ll need to dabble into game capture cards. These are little hardware devices that connect in a variety of ways to either your video game console or even connected internally to your computer. With the help of these pieces of hardware, players can record their gameplay footage for later use or stream their footage onto something like Twitch.
There’s a wide variety of capture cards as well and they can differ in certain aspects. In this list, we are going to highlight a few different capture cards in various price points and functionalities that might suit your personal needs down below. Please note that the prices are the MSRP but you’ll often find these capture cards on sale today through various outlets such as Amazon.
#6 StarTech USB3HDCAP
- Device: External
- Input: HDMI, DVI, VGA, A/V
- Resolution: Maximum 1080p 60FPS
- Price: $180
This particular capture card will be aimed at those that want to capture retro gaming consoles. Retro gaming has a massive following and there will be plenty of different recommendations, mods, and hacks to give players an easier time to get a better quality output but those that are just looking to get by without going down the road of opening up consoles and making modifications will want to look at the StarTech USB3HDCAP. This device has several inputs available to record footage from such as A/V which means some of the earlier consoles will be able to connect right away meanwhile there are several different cables available to give players the ability to connect their retro consoles to A/V if they are dealing with something that doesn’t natively offer A/V or any of the inputs available for the device.
#5 Elgato Game Capture HD60 S
- Device: External
- Input: HDMI Consoles
- Resolution: Maximum 1080p 60FPS
- Price: $179.99
Elgato is one of the most known companies out there for capture cards and its become a standard for quite a few content creators to use some kind of an Elgato device for either streaming or capturing gameplay footage from their video game consoles. The Elgato Game Capture HD60 S is an external capture card so it’s more of a plug-and-play style hardware. Powered through USB C and with connections for HDMI, players can record endlessly with this device and the low latency technology make it great for streaming on places like Twitch and YouTube. Likewise, with the software side of things, you’ll be able to add various overlays or a commentary track.
#4 Razer Ripsaw HD
- Device: External
- Input: HDMI
- Resolution: 1080p 60FPS
- Price: $159.99
Razer is known for a variety of gaming style peripherals but you might have missed out that they also deliver an external capture card for gamers. The Razer Ripsaw HD is a decently small little capture card that can sit on your desk and connect with HDMI connections. It’s also a great little device for those of you on the latest generation of video game console platforms where 4K has become the standard. Unfortunately, you won’t be streaming in 4K, but with the 4K passthrough, players will be able to enjoy 4K gameplay while the stream and capture will be in 1080p.
While you can connect video game consoles with this device, it’s also a suitable piece of hardware for a dual PC setup. For instance, you can connect your monitor and gaming PC to this device while also a streaming monitor for your streaming PC. To top it off, there are connections readily available for a microphone that supports 3.5mm audio input along with a 3.5mm audio output for headphones.
#3 AVerMedia Live Gamer Mini
- Device: External
- Input: HDMI
- Resolution: 1080p 60FPS
- Price: $129.99
Those of you who are looking for an alternative to the Elgato line of devices will often find recommendations for AVerMedia. One of the cheaper options available that’s also a simple plug-and-play device is the AVerMedia Live Gamer Mini. This device acts much like the other external game capture cards we listed prior. You simply connect it to a USB power source and then you’ll be able to connect HDMI devices for capture. There’s not much here for extra features so you’re losing out on the ability to connect a microphone or headset like the Razer Ripsaw HD, but you’ll still have the ability to stream and record gameplay footage in full HD. If you’re looking at something to save a bit of money and still record or stream gameplay footage then this is a viable option.
#2 AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K
- Device: Internal
- Input: HDMI
- Resolution: 2160 60FPS
- Price: $299.99
Those of you that are looking to make a jump up in quality and features may want to look into the AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K. It’s a jump up from the previous AVerMedia Live Gamer Mini as instead of 1080p resolution, this card is based around 4K which is quickly becoming the norm. With this device players can bring out 4K footage at 60FPS but this is mainly for recording footage as you can’t stream 4K quite yet. At any rate, this internal game capture device also comes with some nice RGB lighting effects as well for your PC. This card will also come bundled with editing software called CyberLink PowerDirector. It might not be as versatile as something like Adobe Premiere but this should hopefully get the job done for your content creation needs.
#1 Elgato Game Capture 4K60 Pro MK. 2
- Device: Internal
- Input: HDMI
- Resolution: 2160p 60FPS
- Price: $249.99
Elgato makes a return with the Elgato Game Capture 4K60 Pro MK. 2 which was the successor model of the previous Elgato Game Capture 4K60. This is an internal capture card so you’ll need to connect this with a PC. In particular, if you have a dual PC setup then this would go into your streaming PC. With that said, installing internal capture cards is pretty easy to handle but you will need to make sure that you meet the PC system requirements.
When this card is connected, players can then connect a console or gaming PC to the capture card for streaming or recording gameplay footage. Best of all, this card can handle 4K so you can get some great gameplay footage recorded without having to sacrifice your gameplay quality. Recording gameplay footage is the benefit here for 4K since we’re not seeing 4K streaming quite yet for the likes of Twitch or other popular streaming alternative platforms.
