The 4K S offers great quality recording and passthrough at a decent price and in a good form factor, but we've been spoiled for choice, and it can't beat out the cheaper AverMedia offering.
Though slightly pricier than the AverMedia
Doesn't support audio 5.1
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The times have changed since begging my mum to buy me an AverMedia capture card because it was the only one that would work without a dedicated PC. PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PCs (assuming you have Windows) all have built-in DVRs, and they're all rather good. This has meant that, for a casual creator or just someone who wants to show off clips, they're almost entirely unnecessary.
To keep up with this changing market, there are now tons of unique capture card options. Just being able to record was fine a decade ago, but now the likes of Elgato and AverMedia are offering a value proposition to potential buyers: one that can beat your built-in DVR.
In the likes of the Live Gamer Duo , this means the ability to stream multiple inputs at once. For the AverMedia Elite Go GC313Pro , its selling point is the fact that it can be used to record handheld gaming PCs (and can also charge them while doing so). Even those without a central gimmick will give you stronger console capture, or simply ease some of the burden that a built-in capture software may pose to your gaming rig's performance.
But none of this means you need one. The Xbox Game Bar function can record easily and quickly at 1080p, and can even be used retroactively to record a clip you hit twenty seconds ago. Then, if you want 4K, your GPU drivers, or free software, such as OBS Studio, can do that. It can be taxing on your system to record, then stream in 4K, so some streamers opt for a secondary PC for streaming.
In that case, there's a great justification for a capture card on PC. However, if you aren't quite that dedicated and have a decently strong rig, built-in software will do just fine.
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