How to Record Gameplay on PC Without Losing FPS

Recording your gameplay shouldn't cost you the smooth framerate you paid good hardware for. Whether you want to save highlights or make YouTube videos, the key is capturing with your GPU's hardware encoder instead of your CPU. Here are the four best ways to record on PC and the settings that keep recordings clean and your games fast.

Why recording costs performance (and how much)

Recording video means compressing the frames your GPU already rendered into a file — while the game keeps running. That compression step, called encoding, is where the performance cost lives, and it depends entirely on which part of your PC does it. Before you start, it helps to know how to monitor your framerate — see our guide on how to show FPS in any PC game.

• Software (CPU) encoding: can cost 10–25% of your FPS, sometimes more in CPU-heavy games like strategy titles or battle royales.
• Hardware (GPU) encoding: uses a dedicated encoder chip — NVENC on NVIDIA GPUs or AMF on AMD GPUs — for a typical cost of just 1–5% of your FPS.

That difference is why every method in this guide defaults to GPU encoding — the chip does nothing else, so the cost is typically just 1–5% of your FPS, often unnoticeable.

Method 1: Xbox Game Bar — the zero-setup recorder

Xbox Game Bar is built into Windows 10 and 11, so there's nothing to download. It's the fastest way to start recording and a good choice if you only capture clips occasionally.

1. Open the Game Bar with Win + G. If it doesn't appear, enable it under Settings → Gaming → Xbox Game Bar.
2. Press Win + Alt + R to start or stop recording instantly.
3. Clips are saved to Videos → Captures by default.
4. For better quality, open the overlay (Win + G), click the Settings cog → Capturing, and raise the video quality to High (60 FPS recording is on by default).

Game Bar also supports background recording: a rolling buffer of your last 30 seconds to 10 minutes that you save after the moment with Win + Alt + G. The buffer uses extra GPU and VRAM, so turn it off if you notice stutters.

Downside: Game Bar only records games — not the desktop — and its quality ceiling is lower than dedicated tools.

Method 2: NVIDIA App (ShadowPlay) — GPU encoding

If you have a GeForce GTX 10-series or newer GPU, the NVIDIA App — the successor to GeForce Experience, retired in late 2024 — is the easiest way to record with the NVENC encoder. The old "ShadowPlay" brand is now the NVIDIA Overlay, with up to 120 FPS capture and AV1 encoding on RTX 30-series and newer cards.

1. Download the NVIDIA App from nvidia.com and install it. Then enable the overlay: Settings → Features → Overlay.
2. Open the overlay anytime with Alt + Z.
3. Press Alt + F9 to start or stop recording. Turn on Instant Replay in the overlay to keep a rolling buffer of your last few minutes — press Alt + F10 to save the moment.
4. Adjust quality under the Settings cog → Video Capture: 1080p or 1440p at 60 FPS on the High preset.

Because everything runs on the NVENC chip, recordings cost almost nothing — the sweet spot for most NVIDIA owners.

Method 3: AMD Adrenalin ReLive

AMD owners get an equivalent built-in tool. ReLive lives inside AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition (the Radeon driver suite) and records with the GPU's AMF hardware encoder.

1. Install the latest AMD Adrenalin driver from amd.com, then open it and go to the Record & Stream tab (or the Media section in newer versions).
2. Enable Record Desktop if you want to capture outside games.
3. The default hotkey Ctrl + Shift + E starts and stops recording; Ctrl + Shift + S saves an Instant Replay-style clip (enable Instant Replay first to keep a rolling buffer).
4. In recording settings, choose HEVC (H.265) encoding for smaller files at the same quality, or AVC (H.264) for maximum compatibility with editors.

Like NVENC, the AMF encoder barely touches your framerate. ReLive can also record GIFs, take screenshots with hotkeys, and stream directly to Twitch or YouTube from the same panel.

Method 4: OBS Studio for maximum control

OBS Studio is free, open-source, and the tool most YouTubers and streamers actually use. It takes a few minutes to configure, but in return you get full control over scenes, audio tracks, overlays, and encoder settings.

1. Download OBS Studio from obsproject.com and run the Auto-Configuration Wizard — pick Recording rather than streaming.
2. In Settings → Output, set Output Mode to Advanced. Under the Recording tab, choose your GPU encoder: NVIDIA NVENC (NVIDIA) or AMD HW (AMD).
3. Add a Game Capture source (better performance than Display Capture), pick your game, and press Start Recording.
4. Record to MKV format instead of MP4 — if your PC crashes mid-recording, an MKV file is still recoverable, while an MP4 is usually lost. (You can remux to MP4 inside OBS: File → Remux Recordings.)

OBS's power comes with a learning curve, but for regular creators it's worth it: separate audio tracks for game, mic, and Discord alone make editing dramatically easier.

The best encoder settings for quality without lag

Whatever tool you use, these settings give you sharp 1080p60 footage with minimal performance cost. Recording pushes your GPU harder, so watch your temperatures with our guide on checking CPU and GPU temperatures while gaming.

Whatever tool you use, these settings give sharp 1080p60 footage with minimal performance cost. Record to an SSD (a slow HDD can cause stuttering in the recording), and if FPS still dips, drop the recording resolution to 1080p before touching in-game settings.

Fixes for common recording problems

• Recording is choppy but the game is smooth: your disk can't keep up. Move the recording folder to an SSD, or lower the bitrate.
• FPS drops the moment you hit record: you're probably on a software (x264) encoder. Switch to NVENC or AMD HW.
• Black screen in the recording: use Game Capture instead of Display Capture. DRM-protected apps (streaming services, secure browsers) block capture entirely and always record black.
• Audio missing or out of sync: in OBS, check Settings → Audio for the correct desktop device, and set all sources to the same sample rate (48 kHz).
• Game Bar hotkeys do nothing: another app may have stolen the shortcut, or Game Bar is disabled under Settings → Gaming → Xbox Game Bar.
• NVIDIA Overlay won't open: make sure the overlay is enabled in the NVIDIA App (Settings → Features → Overlay) and you're on a recent Game Ready driver.

Start with the method that matches your hardware — Game Bar for quick clips, the NVIDIA App or ReLive for painless GPU recording, OBS for full control — and keep the encoder on your GPU. Do that, and recording costs almost nothing.