How to record and share clips from games

January 08, 2023

Nothing’s better than capturing your awesome aces and epic fails to clip and share with friends. Thinking about changing your process? Use our step by step on recording, clipping, and sharing video to get the best quality gameplay clips out there.

You have a couple of options for how to record - you can use game recording software, use your graphics card or another in-built option on your gaming PC, or leverage features from gaming platforms like Steam.

NVIDIA Shadowplay

If you have an Nvidia graphics card, one of the easiest ways to capture gameplay video is to use ShadowPlay in the “GeForce Experience” application. It lets you record full gameplay, take screenshots, and use hot-keys to catch the last 30 seconds of gameplay anytime you do something awesome.

Pros:

  • Easy to setup and use
  • High-quality recordings at 4K HD and 60 fps
  • Low impact to system performance

Cons:

  • You need to have an NVIDIA graphics card that supports Shadowplay.
  • High quality recordings can be big files

OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software)

For a powerful, open source software to record and stream video, OBS Studio gives you a sophisticated tool to capture gameplay. While it’s more complex than other recording tools, you can make complex recordings including your webcam feed on OBS.

Pros:

  • Powerful tool to use on your desktop
  • It’s open-source software and free to use
  • Works on PC, Mac, and Linux

Cons:

  • It isn’t as easy to use as other tools
  • If you need help, you'll have to rely on community support

Radeon ReLive

If you have an AMD graphics card, like NVIDIA Shadowplay, you can use Radeon ReLive to record gameplay, setup hot-keys to instantly create gifs, clips, etc.

Pros:

  • Easy to setup and use if you have an AMD graphics card
  • Has an overlay feature to monitor performance
  • High quality 4K, 60fps recording

Cons:

  • You need to have an AMD graphics card that supports Radeon reLive
  • High quality recordings can be big files

Bandicam

Bandicam is a lightweight screen recorder software for Windows that can capture anything on your PC screen as a high-quality video. The app lets you record a certain area on a PC screen or capture a game that uses the DirectX, OpenGL, or Vulkan graphics.

Pros:

  • Has video format and compression features that support smaller files sizes
  • Has built-in editing features
  • Super high quality recording at 4K, 480fps

Cons:

  • Only works on Windows PCs
  • Free version puts a watermark on all videos

Xbox Game Bar

If you're on a Windows 10/11 PC, you can use Microsoft's in-built recorder, the Game Bar, with the Windows logo key + 'G' and using the Capture tools in the Widget Menu. You can record long videos or create last-30-second clips with a hotkey without needing to download any new software.

Pros:

  • It's free and on your PC if you have Windows 11
  • Supports 1080p at 60fps
  • Doesn't require a specific graphics card

Cons:

  • It doesn't have as many features or customizations as 3P tools
  • Only works on Windows PCs
  • Limited editing tools

Once you've captured clips, you can share your videos with friends directly, on social media, on youtube, or in chats like on Discord.