Best Screen Capture Software

Fraps, Bandicam, or DXtory?

  • Fraps

    Votes: 4 40.0%
  • Bandicam

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • DXtory

    Votes: 4 40.0%

  • Total voters
    10

EpicEagle44

Honorable
Nov 24, 2013
97
0
10,660
As someone looking to get into recording games on my PC (mainly Skyrim and Minecraft) which screen capture software has the highest quality as well as the lowest FPS loss?
Specs for those interested:
CPU: AMD FX-8320 @ 4.0 GHZ
Cooling: CM Hyper 212 Evo
MOBO: Asrock 970 Extreme3 R2.0
RAM: Team Vulcan 8 GB (2x4)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120 GB
WD Caviar Blue 1 TB
Gpu: ASUS Radeon R9-270X
 
I have been personally using Bandicam for years and its.. like on its own level.. Dxtory is the next best choice but costs alot more.. and is more advanced (technical) to use. If you are searching for a free video recording software thankfully you are using a Volcanic Island gpu you can use Raptr Gaming Evolved to record games at more than decent quality with ABSOLUTELY no cost fps wise or cash. its built right in ^^

-LiveBacteria
 
IMO, neither, although the best amongst them is probably dxtory's paid version.

I'm not that much into recording/streaming, but I tried out AMD's GPU accelerated solution, GVR.
I ran a 1080p 10 minute high quality capture at 60 fps, the audio was very slightly out of sync (probably because I ran the game at 90-100 fps), but noticed a drop of maybe 4-5 fps, where Fraps would usually take a 30 fps toll and the other two around 10...

I'm hearing similar things off Nvidia's solution, ShadowPlay, although it's not your case having an AMD like me.

Otherwise, you could try Open Broadcaster Software, or OBS in short, although I've read of very different results (some get massive framerate spikes, for others it works flawlessly but averagely and for a selected few it's better than paid solutions).
 

Wait you are telling me your 290x had issues running gvr? My 290 doesn't dip at all...

-LiveBacteria
 
Yep, because I'm so stupid that I forgot to mention I tried it with CoD Ghosts and Watch_Dogs...the former is broken itself (I refuse to believe that a not even maxed out MP, purposefully set like that to achieve higher framerates due to a 144hz monitor, consumes between 3.5 and 3.8 GB of VRAM at 1080p) and the latter is so heavily leaning towards Nvidia that it almost hurts 😀

I should try something else, but I barely have anything of the same weight...
 
I don't have DXtory but I do have FRAPs and Bandicam. I always like Camtasia because of it's features too. I ran them all at the same time and watched their resource usage in task manager. FRAPs used the least on idle and Bandicam used the least in recording.
Bandicam has more features than FRAPs and is more lightweight
 

To be clear here... fraps is by far the worst in customization as it only supports the codec made for frap.. while you can use a wide variety or codecs with Bandicam and DXtory, with the two capable of battling it out until it reaches something like recording to two or more hdd's at once for example, then Dxtorys' tech pulls ahead.

Not to mention Bandicam and Dxtory support recording actual desktop space and not just in-game hooking for DirectX and Opengl like Fraps..

-LiveBacteria
 

Sacrifice gameplay?? I am using almost the same system specs aside from my gpu being stronger.. I record with Bandicam on my 8320 @4.7 and lose at most in Hawken 3-5 fps (with PhysX on normal), Minecraft with it barely dips at all. But yes. GameDVR or shadowplay takes absolutely no toll on your cpu but at the cost of your gpu, but even less so than bandicam and fraps on your cpu.

-LiveBacteria
 


The effect it has on your GPU shouldn't be noticeable unless you have a lower-end card. For my GTX770SC it only decreased at most 5 frames average.
 
DxTory is by FAR the best on that list. A good convenience alternative if you don't want to do trial and error recording is ShadowPlay's 20 min replay mode, if you're on a late model Nvidia GPU.

Someone mentioned Afterburner, it doesn't even belong on that list. There's a reason it's free.

Someone said Fraps rarely decreases frame rates, that's hilarious. It's known for capping your FPS at your record rate and laaaaaag.

The ones that mistakenly think DxTory causes lag haven't even tried it in RawCap mode. Some don't even know how. DxTory offers WAY more than Fraps and it only costs $5 more.
 


It would be noticeable as I was inferring using GVR or Shadowplay. I have a R9 290, and experience almost no drops in fps when using GVR but it's there.
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/LiveBacteria/saved/NM26Mp

-LiveBacteria