Capturing one’s personal gameplay has all the time been one of many greatest boundaries in terms of streaming and making content material. It used to take a good sum of money, gear, and know-how to actually have a pretty low high quality recording set-up, and which seemingly solely labored for one among your gaming units. I bear in mind paying a whole lot of {dollars} for an answer that I nonetheless needed to battle with to get working each time I turned it on.
It is good to see how far we have come exemplified with Avermedia’s transportable little seize card, the Stay Gamer Mini (GC311).
So far as seize playing cards go, the Stay Gamer Mini is considerably decrease spec than others available on the market, but it surely has a profile and value level to match. It isn’t the cardboard you purchase if you’d like the very best decision potential for sport recording or passthrough, because it’s restricted to a max 1080p at 60 fps for each. However when you think about these are nonetheless the settings utilized by the overwhelming majority of streamers and content material creators, it is a card that is nonetheless seemingly value a lookin’ for a lot of functions.
Solely having 1080p 60 fps passthrough does imply it’s important to suck it up and play utilizing visuals which may not be as much as your traditional normal. Whereas I did not detect any latency, I have been residing the 4K, HDR, 120 fps life for some time now, so it did really feel like a big step down for some video games. Within the case of a twitchy first individual shooter it might actually have an effect on your skill.
Stay Gamer Mini specs
Interface: USB 2.0 (USB Micro)
Video Enter: HDMI
Audio Enter: HDMI
Max Passthrough Decision: 1080p 60
Max report decision: 1080p 60
Document format: MPEG 4 (H.264+AAC) / helps {hardware} encoding
Dimensions: 100 x 57 x 18.8 mm (3.93 x 2.24 x 0.74-inches)
Weight: 74.5 g (2.63oz)
Worth: $80 | £70 | $116 AUD
Avermedia’s Stay Gamer Mini is not designed for that. As an alternative it is a extremely transportable and versatile machine, a Jack of all versus a grasp of 1.
The field is just barely bigger than a bank card, and weighs solely 75 grams—about the identical because the lighter gaming mice accessible for the time being. It is also solely a few finger deep, which outlines the pretty easy system with solely three ports required to be used: HDMI in, for no matter machine is internet hosting what you need to seize; HDMI out, so you’ll be able to have your passthrough on a display screen; and Micro USB, heading to the pc to deal with the seize and potential streaming. Someway this factor can work simply advantageous on USB 2.0, although the supplied USB cable is a pleasant lengthy braided Micro to A, which provides you lots of area to to work with.
This arrange permits it to work with every kind of contemporary units pretty seamlessly. I’ve tried it with Change, PS5, Xbox One X, and PC outputting for seize to a number of completely different PCs of various ranges of beef, and it nearly feels bizarre to say it has labored nicely with each single one. Generally there was the odd setting to configure, like turning HDCP off on my PlayStation, or discovering the competing pre-installed program that is making an attempt to steal my supply, however that will be normal regardless of the seize machine.
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With the thought of a conveyable seize card in thoughts, I made positive to check it in several conditions. On my laptop computer I made positive to solely have OBS put in with none of Avermedia’s personal software program—how I would use it if I introduced this card to a streamer buddy’s home and deliberate on utilizing their {hardware}—and it immediately recognised the enter from the machine plugged into the cardboard on the primary strive. I am unsure if I simply have an excessive amount of tech trauma round seize playing cards in my previous however this truly made me tear up slightly.
This card additionally has the choice of utilizing Avermedia’s Stream Engine to basically power the cardboard to course of video recording and preserve your CPU free. It isn’t tough to put in and use, but it surely’s additionally not simple and apparent. As soon as you’ve got bought it working, you need to use it in packages like OBS by selecting the Stream Engine supply. I attempted it when my laptop computer was throttling as a consequence of being unplugged and I went from recording uneven video to one thing a lot smoother with no perceivable change to my CPU utilization.
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Do purchase if…
✅ You need a moderately priced and transportable seize card that may work with all the things HDMI: This little beastie is ideal for throwing in your pocket and bringing together with you so you’ll be able to stream at buddy’s homes or on the go out of your laptop computer. It is also very easy to easily transfer round a home for various setups so long as what you are connecting to gives HDMI.
Do not buy if…
❌ In order for you 4K or excessive refresh price passthrough: That is capped at 1080p at 60 fps for each passthrough and seize. For those who want 120 fps to drag off the gaming content material you need to report, otherwise you’re making an attempt to indicate off UHD HDR visuals, you are recent out of luck right here.
❌ You need to be future proof: Having solely a USB 2.0 connection and decrease specced HDMI ports does not actually matter for streaming for the time being, however tech strikes quick and these previous protocols are going to be out of date sooner slightly than later.
As a result of the passthrough and the seize are each on the similar visible constancy it made it pretty simple to select up on delay on the recording facet of issues, which was fascinating to match. With my Change plugged in for instance, it was pretty negligible. I might play Hades moderately nicely simply trying on the OBS window whereas I used it to stream to Twitch, which is pretty spectacular. Nonetheless, once I tried to play SpiderHeck on my PC the delay was way more seen. There is no approach I might deal with the 2D quick paced fight with out utilizing the passthrough monitor, and fortunately I’ve had no points there utilizing each PC displays and TVs as exams.
The toughest half about recommending this card is that the NZXT Sign HD60 exists, and is our present choose for one of the best funds seize card. It gives a lot better passthrough, with assist for 4K. On the flipside you aren’t getting that Stream Engine for video recording, or the remainder of the Avermedia Software program.
The benefit of use and flexibility of the Stay Gamer Mini is genuinely spectacular, particularly contemplating its dimension and value. I would not suggest this card to somebody who needed it for his or her most important PC to seize hours of excessive stage Valorant play however that is simply not who this card is for. As an alternative, it is a nice selection for a range streamer on the lookout for a really transportable card that ought to work with most fashionable units at a modest value. Or maybe a brand new content material creator who needs to have the ability to strive a bunch of concepts with out breaking the financial institution.
