[SOLVED] What is the best way to record gameplay without losing fps

[JigN111]

Hey I want to record pc games without losing any FPS so I can play competitive. What is the best option.

 

[WildCard999]

Use a second computer to record/broadcast your gaming.

 

[Darkbreeze]

There is only ONE way to record gaming without losing any FPS, and that is to use a secondary machine for the recording. Even then, you are still likely to lose SOME performance, because there HAS to be some overhead in providing the data to the other machine.

Two computer solution for recording gameplay.

I am looking to start recording gameplay to produce youtube videos, but need to upgrade from my current laptop for the project. The single computer solutions I have been finding are right out of my price range. I am hoping that using two computers; one for the gameplay and one for the recording...

forums.tomshardware.com

The BEST method, and least expensive, is probably to simply have more capable hardware (CPU, GPU and memory) than what you actually need to achieve the level of gameplay you are shooting for, so that any overhead does not subtract enough to affect things at a level that is evident.

But if you already have one full system, you can likely build a second, less capable but capable enough for the recording process, for less than doing a major upgrade to your current system ALTHOUGH building a more powerful system and using what you already have for the recording system is probably an even better option if you really want great results.

 

[JigN111]

There is only ONE way to record gaming without losing any FPS, and that is to use a secondary machine for the recording. Even then, you are still likely to lose SOME performance, because there HAS to be some overhead in providing the data to the other machine.

Two computer solution for recording gameplay.

I am looking to start recording gameplay to produce youtube videos, but need to upgrade from my current laptop for the project. The single computer solutions I have been finding are right out of my price range. I am hoping that using two computers; one for the gameplay and one for the recording...

forums.tomshardware.com

The BEST method, and least expensive, is probably to simply have more capable hardware (CPU, GPU and memory) than what you actually need to achieve the level of gameplay you are shooting for, so that any overhead does not subtract enough to affect things at a level that is evident.

But if you already have one full system, you can likely build a second, less capable but capable enough for the recording process, for less than doing a major upgrade to your current system ALTHOUGH building a more powerful system and using what you already have for the recording system is probably an even better option if you really want great results.

I’m going to build a pc soon with rtx2080/ti. Ryzen 3rd gen 16gb 3200mhz. So I will be a bit low on cash after. I see many YouTube achieving videos with one pc. Is there any option with one pc. Thanks for your time.

 

[WildCard999]

You don't need a high end system to record your gaming, a older system would work fine.

 

[JigN111]

You don't need a high end system to record your gaming, a older system would work fine.

Could I achieve this with £500. Is there any capture cards I could use. Since many youtuber achieve competitive with one pc setups. Thanks for your time.

 

[WildCard999]

Could I achieve this with £500. Is there any capture cards I could use. Since many youtuber achieve competitive with one pc setups. Thanks for your time.

Easily, only need basic parts.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£81.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£62.96 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£53.44 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£47.58 @ BT Shop)
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£33.82 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£48.48 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £328.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-16 22:15 GMT+0000

 

[JigN111]

Easily, only need basic parts.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£81.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£62.96 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£53.44 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£47.58 @ BT Shop)
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£33.82 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£48.48 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £328.27
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-16 22:15 GMT+0000

Thank you so much, also should I use obs to record and do you think I could stream 1080p 60fps on twitch with this. If not is it worth waiting a bit more for ryzen third gen. many thanks

 

[Darkbreeze]

The question was "without losing any FPS".

Obviously, recording AND gameplay can be done on one machine, and at a high level, but it CANNOT be done without losing SOME amount of performance because both the CPU and graphics card ARE going to be required in order to record gameplay, AS is storage performance also critical. I'd say you really want to at minimum budget in a second SSD for recording TO, or an M.2 PCI drive as the primary, or both. Recording requires significant write capability, so increasing your speed there is helpful.

Having a fair amount of RAM will be helpful as well. So 16GB should be considered the minimum, and the faster the better (To a point. 3200mhz is probably the fastest speed you can easily configure on most Ryzen platforms) especially on Ryzen. 8GB is not enough, IMO, for high end gameplay AND recording.

 

[WildCard999]

Thank you so much, also should I use obs to record and do you think I could stream 1080p 60fps on twitch with this. If not is it worth waiting a bit more for ryzen third gen. many thanks

It should handle it but if your waiting on 3rd gen for your gaming rig you mind as well wait on this rig as well. The 3300G (6C/12T/Navi 15) could be a good choice.

 

[JigN111]

Best software or capture card to record pc gameplay with least FPS drop

 

[TerryLaze]

The question was "without losing any FPS".

Obviously, recording AND gameplay can be done on one machine, and at a high level, but it CANNOT be done without losing SOME amount of performance because both the CPU and graphics card ARE going to be required in order to record gameplay, AS is storage performance also critical. I'd say you really want to at minimum budget in a second SSD for recording TO, or an M.2 PCI drive as the primary, or both. Recording requires significant write capability, so increasing your speed there is helpful.

Having a fair amount of RAM will be helpful as well. So 16GB should be considered the minimum, and the faster the better (To a point. 3200mhz is probably the fastest speed you can easily configure on most Ryzen platforms) especially on Ryzen. 8GB is not enough, IMO, for high end gameplay AND recording.

All of this info was true...several years ago...
You can use your GPU and even the intel iGPUs to record or stream your gameplay and you are not loosing performance since all the heavy lifting is done with the i/GPU.
The little bit of CPU overhead is absorbed by the multithreaded CPUs we have today and even if a game hits 100% usage the CPU overhead when using the i/gpu is just a couple of % .
I'm doing 1080p/60fps 15,000 recordings on my external usb 2 hard drive and 8Gb sysmem without any issues a secondary drive is recommended for recording especially with games that read a lot of data but it surely doesn't need to be an ssd.

 

[JigN111]

All of this info was true...several years ago...
You can use your GPU and even the intel iGPUs to record or stream your gameplay and you are not loosing performance since all the heavy lifting is done with the i/GPU.
The little bit of CPU overhead is absorbed by the multithreaded CPUs we have today and even if a game hits 100% usage the CPU overhead when using the i/gpu is just a couple of % .
I'm doing 1080p/60fps 15,000 recordings on my external usb 2 hard drive and 8Gb sysmem without any issues a secondary drive is recommended for recording especially with games that read a lot of data but it surely doesn't need to be an ssd.

Does this mean I could achieve very little FPS loss using one pc. Are you talking about recording and streaming with NVENC I heard it gives stutters and problems when there are big explosions and you could lose a lot of FPS.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It's still applicable. Games are X amount, for the most part, more demanding than they were several years ago. So whatever additional cores you have, or hyperthreading, or whatever, including higher performance graphics cards, is STILL going to be wanted for the primary process which is the gameplay itself. Whatever, however small the amount is, you take away from THAT, is STILL going to impact the gameplay itself, in however small or large of a dose it may be depending on the quality and other settings relevant to the actual recording.

To say that recording, and streaming, but especially both, won't impact performance is not realistic. Will it be enough to be a deal breaker? Not if the core components are already strong enough that it isn't. But there will always be some, which is why I said there is no way to NOT have it affect FPS. Truthfully, so long as you buy hardware that is more than capable enough for what you expect to do, then it should be fine.

If you try to game at a bazilliony FPS with a Ryzen 3 on an RX570 AND record, you're probably going to notice. If you have higher tiered card and a good high core count CPU, preferably with some hyperthreads as well, then it's likely going to go unnoticed. But it will STILL be THERE, whether you notice or not. So my original response stands.

 

[WildCard999]

Since your going to get both systems around the same time why not just build your gaming system, hold off on the second system and see how well (or not) it performs while recording/streaming. If your going with the 3700(X) or Ryzen 9's it may be enough to do everything you need and could save you some money.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I agree that if you simply buy a good enough system, it should NOT be an issue. If you buy a lower end system with only a middling graphics card and CPU, it MIGHT be. Much depends on the level of your expectations. Any Ryzen 4+4 core or similar Intel CPU plus a good graphics card should be capable enough but if you build a 500 dollar system, that's not going to do what is expected.

 

[JigN111]

It's still applicable. Games are X amount, for the most part, more demanding than they were several years ago. So whatever additional cores you have, or hyperthreading, or whatever, including higher performance graphics cards, is STILL going to be wanted for the primary process which is the gameplay itself. Whatever, however small the amount is, you take away from THAT, is STILL going to impact the gameplay itself, in however small or large of a dose it may be depending on the quality and other settings relevant to the actual recording.

To say that recording, and streaming, but especially both, won't impact performance is not realistic. Will it be enough to be a deal breaker? Not if the core components are already strong enough that it isn't. But there will always be some, which is why I said there is no way to NOT have it affect FPS. Truthfully, so long as you buy hardware that is more than capable enough for what you expect to do, then it should be fine.

If you try to game at a bazilliony FPS with a Ryzen 3 on an RX570 AND record, you're probably going to notice. If you have higher tiered card and a good high core count CPU, preferably with some hyperthreads as well, then it's likely going to go unnoticed. But it will STILL be THERE, whether you notice or not. So my original response stands.

What software do you recommend obs or streamlabs. Any other softwares better than those?

 

[Darkbreeze]

OBS.