How to record Video Game footage with a lower end pc

I recently came across a piece of (FREE) software that I feel is going to be amazing. It's currently in beta but it already works better than most other things out there, it's called MSI Afterburner. Some of you may be saying, "That's not a new program" and you'd be right.

MSI Afterburner is a program that has been around for a long time. It's main function is to monitor and tune graphics cards. This new beta version of the program has all the same features for monitoring and overclocking your gpu, but it also takes screenshots and records game footage. Not only does it record, but it does it better than most other applications out there, and for a couple simple reasons.

The first reason I find this far superior to something like FRAPS or DXtory is that it doesn't produce the massive fps (frames per second) drop when you press record. The biggest reason I was never able to record game play before was that my pc couldn't handle the fps drop. With Afterburner, I don't have to worry about it. The largest drop that I've noticed while recording was about 5 frames. That's amazing when you consider I was getting almost a 20 frame drop with FRAPS.

The second reason I'm loving this program is the video options. With YouTube videos, the majority of people watch in 480p or 720p, I know I do. To keep file sizes down, a lot of people who use FRAPS record in half size. This gives them a video of 540p resolution and they just use software to scale the video up to 720p. This is great for keeping file size down and making it easier for your pc to record, but it's not very good for your quality. Afterburner gives you other options. You're able to choose if you want to record full size, half size, or you can just choose the resolution. I have mine set to record in 720p even though I game at 1080p. This keeps my file sizes down while still giving me the best quality possible. The game and the video are both unaffected by the difference in resolutions.

The only down side I've run into with Afterburner is that in the current beta (2.2.0 beta 15) it can only record audio from one source at a time. This means you can only use it to capture game audio or your mic audio, not both. You have to use another program like Audacity if you want to record live commentaries. This is something that is being worked on by MSI for a later release.

If you're looking to get into creating video game montages and you don't have a top end machine, MSI Afterburner is the program for you. Even if you have a high end machine, this is still a great piece of software for you to check out. It's free so you have nothing to lose. Once the audio side of the software is taken care of, this will be one of the best programs out there for gamers who want to share their gaming experiences.