Nowadays, capture cards come in all shapes and sizes. Best of all, they no longer require you to pry open your PC and hope you have an extra card slot next to your GPU to install it. External capture cards are much more portable, so much easier to use, and in some cases, cheaper than their internal counterparts since they connect to your PC via USB 3.0 or USB Type C. OBS and other third-party capture and streaming software are great, but there are limitations, let's say you want to stream gameplay from a game console or use an HDMI camera instead of a webcam; the easiest way to get them to work your PC without an external or internal capture card. HDMI capture cards, or HDMI capture devices, are extremely valuable tools with a wide variety of uses. As the description implies, these devices allow virtually any HDMI feed to be routed through them to be captured by a computer. The HDMI inputs on capture devices can be used with game consoles, video cameras, or even another computer -- just about any HDMI video source. This signal can then be encoded on the fly for a livestream, recorded for preservation, or both simultaneously. Most capture cards also allow for an HDMI output which passes a signal through the device, directly to a display with minimal latency. The market is fairly saturated with models capable of taking in 1080p60 footage and spitting 1080p60 footage out, but some devices are able to cater to more specific needs and offer higher quality output options. The EVGA XR1 Capture Device is one such solution which may appeal to gamers with 4K or otherwise high refresh rate or high resolution displays, who also wish to stream or record at 1080p.

The Elgato Game Capture 4K60 S+ is for content creators who want to upgrade their channels in a big way. For starters, it can capture 4K HDR gameplay directly to your PC or SD card. Yep, this is Elgato's first capture card to use stand-alone recording via an SD card, which is a massive plus for console games and a long-awaited feature from veteran Elgato users. While the 4K60 Prodoes something similar in terms of what it can capture, the S+'s extra portability is what you should care about.

Compatibility of the EVGA XR1 Pro Capture Card, 1440p/4K HDR Capture/Pass Through, Certified for OBS, USB 3.1, ARGB, Audio Mixer (144-U1-CB21-LR)

I probably wouldn’t even have come across the issue if I wasn’t using the RECentral 4 software as a screen to play games on rather than using passthrough. This is actually a testament to the latency because it was good enough that I didn’t really notice.

Turn your console on and boot up your streaming software, and you should see your capture card as a video source. Add it, plus a webcam or any other elements you want on your stream, and you’re all set. Is it worth it to buy a capture card for the Nintendo Switch? Whether you're gaming on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or the last-gen consoles, the XR1 is perfectly capable of being a good quality stream tool. It can't match the true titans of the space, like the AVerMedia Live Gamer Bolt, but for streamers especially, it's very good. It can pass through video at 60 FPS at up to 4K resolution, while simultaneously capturing at 1080p60, which is what you want for streaming to services like Twitch. It's also worth pointing out that using a low-quality cable will also result in on-screen interference. This isn't exclusive to the XR1, the Razer Ripsaw suffers the same way when not using the cable that came with it (ironically the cable I eventually grabbed for the XR1). Bandwidth is key, so make sure you have a good one, maybe even grab something for USB 3.1 or 3.2 as a little extra insurance.That means you can record gameplay without putting any load on your CPU. The included StreamEngine software (only available on Windows) allows you to record a copy of your gameplay directly to storage while using streaming software like XSplit or OBS. You can record your stream without any CPU overhead, or you can record gameplay on an older laptop without worrying about CPU load. Outside of StreamEngine, the Live Gamer Mini also comes with RECentral, allowing you to easily stream to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and more. I don't know if it was marketing, the engineers, or another department in EVGA that came up with this term, but it's wildly misleading. On the one hand, yes, it does allow pass-through at 120Hz up to 1440p resolution. But you can't actually use the capture card while it does it. It effectively disables the capture feature when used.