AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra Review: The best external 4K capture card

AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra

Capturing game footage at either loftier frame rates or loftier resolution is something still pretty new, thanks in no small-scale function to the Xbox Ane X. You tin play games at 4K resolution so why wouldn't you lot want to share that with the globe?

Hardware to achieve such a affair is withal in its infancy but in that location are a few consumer-grade products that won't break the bank. Mostly you'll exist looking at internal capture cards, but AVerMedia has the Live Gamer Ultra, an external capture card for 4K video and HDR. And information technology's very good.

Portable 4K capture

AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra

$246

Bottom line: If yous desire an external 4K capture card, you want one of these.

Pros:

4K capture at xxx FPS.
Supports HDR pass through.
Laissez passer through 4K video at 60FPS or 240FPS video at 1080p.
Excellent quality captures.

Cons:

Requires a high-spec PC to utilize.
Companion app is sluggish and dated looking.

What you'll like about the AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra

AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra

Much of the Live Gamer Ultra is on par with AVerMedia's flagship internal capture menu, the Live Gamer 4K. Bated from some slight performance differences, the ii capture cards are almost the same. The physical design and construction of the box is very similar, also, with a vented plastic pattern that has some very slight red accents and a unmarried LED lite for information purposes.

Category	Spec
Interface	USB 3.i Type-C
Input/Output	HDMI 2.0
Passthrough resolution	Up to 4K at 60 FPS
Recording format	MPEG4 (h.264 or h.265)

That means you can capture super crispy 4K footage from your Xbox Ane X, though limited to 30 FPS at this resolution due to the limitations of using a USB capture card right now. Passthrough is supported upward to 60 FPS at 4K, though, as well, you can pass through up to 240 FPS at 1080p while recording at 120 FPS at the same resolution.

HDR is besides supported only just for pass through, not capture, so you'll at least still exist able to enjoy your glorious looking games while you play. And that's one of the biggest things to highlight. You tin can savour your Xbox One X games as they're intended, while simply marginally sacrificing on the capture.

The best external capture carte for Xbox One X owners.

Quality is excellent and whether capturing or streaming there are no compatibility problems with any of the major apps such as XSplit, OBS or Streamlabs OBS.

Everything you demand to get going is included in the box, as well. AVerMedia bundles a USB 3.one Blazon C cable and a HDMI 2.0 cable, every bit well as a code for Cyberlink PowerDirector to assist you on your way with editing your hot gameplay action.

You also get access to AVerMedia RECentral which is very beginner friendly and allows you to set up recording and streaming profiles for multiple capture cards if you need, while also being very efficient. Using CPU rendering (on an viii-core Ryzen 7), I was only seeing a total system CPU usage of around 30 to 35 percent, with the RECentral app drawing about twenty pct of that while recording 1440p video.

What you'll dislike about the AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra

AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra

In that location's zero particularly wrong with the Live Gamer Ultra, but there are limitations which may mean information technology'southward non the correct pick for you lot.

The first is that you need a pretty bulky PC to run it if you're wanting to capture either 4K or high frame rates. AVerMedia recommends a 6th Generation Intel Core i5 or higher along with a GTX 1060 GPU as the baseline for both of these if you're hooking it upward to a desktop rig. Non out of reach for many, merely still fairly high requirements.

For laptop use you're going to need a pretty well-equipped notebook. GPU requirements drop to a GTX 1050 Ti, this time partnering a 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ or college. 1 of the big appeals of the Live Gamer Ultra is that yous tin use information technology with a laptop, but a lot of people might well be out of luck right now.

Likewise, you need a USB 3.i port on your PC or laptop for the connection. Not a negative indicate, again, but 4K video requires power and bandwidth and if you don't have enough you'll be wasting your money.

Should you buy the AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra?

AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra

Assuming your PC meets the requirements, absolutely. As with the Alive Gamer 4K, the quality of the product and its results is exceptionally expert. It's limited but by the fact information technology's a USB capture card, but currently, the Live Gamer Ultra is the all-time external capture card for Xbox Ane Ten owners.

Being express to 30 FPS at 4K isn't a massive handicap, since the list of games supporting 4K60 on the Xbox Ane X right now isn't exactly enormous. The fact you lot can capture 4K content with an affordable external device like this is remarkable enough. AVerMedia is edging ahead of the rest in the capture bill of fare stakes right at present.

4K HDR capture

AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra

The best external capture card for the Xbox One 10.

With 4K capture, HDR passthrough and a minor, portable form gene, the Live Gamer Ultra is the external capture card to trounce.

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