Capture cards help you to stream and record gameplay from any console or PC — here are the best we’ve reviewed, from external capture cards to internal versions that go inside your desktop.<\/b>
\nIf you want to start streaming your games online or record your gameplay footage to create YouTube videos of your exploits, you’ll probably need a capture card. These nifty little devices take on some of the processing work of streaming and recording gameplay footage, so that your main device — whether that’s a console or gaming PC — is free to devote all its power to running the game as smoothly as possible. While most consoles are able to stream and record footage directly, their capabilities are limited compared to PC, and gameplay performance is likely to suffer. A capture card will help make sure you can get gameplay footage at the highest frame rate and resolution possible, which is pretty much essential for any serious streamer or YouTuber. A capture device is even more important for Switch owners — the console can only record a few seconds of gameplay by itself, and can’t stream at all, so a card is absolutely essential for anyone looking to stream or record lengthy Switch gameplay. Check out our full guide to streaming from a Switch to find out more. There are a few on the market though, and for the uninitiated, capture cards can be very confusing indeed. Luckily for you, we’re here to help — here’s our pick of the best capture cards around right now, with buying advice that explains exactly who each card is for. Now you’ve seen our top picks, let’s briefly run down exactly how a capture card works. Most of them are external devices that need to be connected to a PC or Mac in order to capture or stream footage, while taking footage from the gameplay machine (be it a gaming PC or console) via HDMI. So, for example, if you want to stream from a PS4 you’d run an HDMI console from the console to the capture device, with another going from the card back out to your TV, so you can still see what you’re playing. The card then connects to a PC or Mac via USB, where you use your choice of capture software to record the footage or stream it to sites like Twitch, YouTube Gaming, or even Facebook. If you want to get footage from a gaming PC, the process is much the same, but bear in mind that an external card only really helps if want to play on one PC and record\/stream from another (say, a laptop). If you want to do everything from one PC you either need to buy an internal capture card (which we also cover here) or just skip the capture card entirely and do without, at a hit to your performance.<\/p>\n