Record your PC Games for free w_ NVIDIA (ShadowPlay BETA Review)

# Nvidia Shadow Play: A Comprehensive Review

Hey guys, I'm Dimitri with Haru, and today we're going to take a look at **Nvidia Shadow Play**, a software that allows you to record gameplay at 1080p at 60 FPS without affecting your frame rate. Shadow Play is available through the **GeForce Experience** and is only supported on **desktop Kepler-based GPUs**, such as GTX 650 or higher, which feature the h264 encoder. This built-in encoder allows for seamless video streaming, which is also the same reason why The Shield can stream games at 60 FPS thanks to that built-in encoder.

Unfortunately, notebook GPUs are not supported for Shadow Play at this time. Compared to other recording software like **Fraps**, Shadow Play is available for free through the GeForce Experience and allows both local recording and Twitch streaming. While Twitch streaming hasn't been added yet, it's limited to your Nvidia GPU. Fraps, on the other hand, is a very popular and common recording software that doesn’t stream to Twitch but is free, although it requires payment for premium features. However, Fraps will work regardless of your GPU.

When you open Shadow Play through the GeForce Experience, you're presented with a very simple interface that allows you to turn it on and off, open the folder with all your recordings, and set your hot keys for recording. There are three modes available:

1. **Manual mode** for unlimited recording in Windows 8 or up to 3.8 GB in Windows 7.

2. **Shadow Mode**, which is very useful for capturing only some of your best moments of gameplay. You can set your Shadow time, or the amount of minutes, and it will record that last set of minutes of your gameplay. This is awesome for not having to record everything and later cut down on your best moments but allows you to play the game now and record up to **20 minutes** of your last gameplay in Windows 8 and up to **10 minutes** with Windows 7.

I think this is a very unique aspect of Shadow Play that makes it a more superior capture tool. Additionally, you can adjust the quality of the recording from **1.8 MBPS** to **6.25 megabytes per second**, which means that even at high quality, you're not capping your right speed of like your conventional 7200 RPM drive.

The two major disadvantages of other capture tools have been basically addressed by utilizing the built-in encoder to have minimal effect on your frame rate and even a 1080p with high-quality recording. The right speeds are under control, but the audio option is very limiting at this time. You can only record in-game audio or none, but you cannot record yourself. Of course, there are other methods of capturing local audio, but it would have been nice and convenient to do it all within Shadow Play.

Finally, let's jump into a game and capture some awesome footage to see how it handles. We get a recording indicator that helps you know whether you're recording or saving a footage. Now, notice there are no options to change the resolution, and I myself am gaming on a **16:10 monitor** with an effective resolution of **1920 x 1200**. This means that my output image will be squished to 16x9 aspect, which is kind of a big limitation as my footage will look squished and unnatural.

We're also recording at 60 FPS, but I have no control over that. So if your in-game frame rate drops below 60, we do get a bit of a choppy recording. Now, finally, I decided to test to see how much strain Shadow Play had on my performance and used **Fraps** to benchmark my frames to see if there was any difference.

I ran a one-minute benchmark three times both with Shadow Play on and off and looking at the results, it is very impressive to see such a minimal performance strain with all three games. My Delta was around two frames, which really isn't significant. Nvidia claims there's less than 10% performance impact on your frame rate, and throughout my testing, my highest was a **42% performance strain in Metro**, which is still very impressive.

Also, one of the best things about Shadow Play are the small file sizes. Compared to Bandycam or Fraps, these are **1-minute files at 60 frames per second**, and as you can see, you save yourself a significant amount of drive storage.

Let's take a look at a detail comparison between the three levels of quality that Shadow Play offers. If you're really conservative on file sizes, going with low quality will still deliver pretty decent results, although it isn't as sharp and loses detail in motion.

Shadow Play for Kepler-based GPU users who want to record gameplay is an excellent option that allows up to **20 minutes** of last gameplay to be recorded so you never lose your must-see footage. You also have unlimited recording with Windows 8 at 1080p at 60 FPS without putting too much strain on your hard drive, with the maximum 50 megabits per second rights, and most importantly not affecting your in-game frame rate, which is crucial for competitive matches and just a more seamless capture.

Plus, Twitch streaming is soon to be available. While the software is still in beta, we cannot capture user audio, change the resolution, or the frame rate of your recording. These are just a few limitations that will hopefully be addressed in the future. But Shadow Play turns out to be a very well-suited capture tool that is bound to get better.

So, as always, thanks for watching, subscribe for more similar content, and we'll see you in the next one!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys I'm Dimitri with Haru and today we're going to take a look at Nvidia Shadow play a software that allows you to record gameplay at 1080p at 60 FPS without affecting your frame rate the shadow play is available through the GeForce experience and only supported on desktop Kepler based gpus so GTX 650 or higher that feature that h264 encoder that allows that seamless video stream that is also the exact same reason how The Shield is able to stream games at 60 FPS thanks to that built-in encoder unfortunately though notebook gpus are not supported for shadow play now compared to other recording software Shadow play is available for free through the GeForce experience and allows both local recording and Twitch streaming although Twitch streaming has not yet been added but it's also limited to your Nvidia GPU fraps on the other hand is a very popular and a common recording software although it doesn't stream to Twitch it is free but requires payment for the premium feature fees and it will work regardless of your GPU opening up Shadow play through the GeForce experience and we are presented with this very simple interface allowing you to turn it on and off open the folder with all your recordings and of course set your hot keys for recording and we have three modes available usual manual mode for unlimited recording in Windows 8 or up to 3.8 GB in Windows 7 and The Shadow mode that is very useful to capture only some of your best moments of gameplay so you set your Shadow time or the amount of minutes and it will record that last set of minutes of your gameplay this is awesome for not having to record everything and later cut down on your best moments but allows you to play the game now and record up to 20 minutes of your last game playay on Windows 8 and up to 10 minutes with Windows 7 and I think this is a very unique aspect of Shadow play that makes this a more Superior capture tool and we can also adjust the quality of the recording from 1.8 mbes per second to 6.25 megabytes per second which means that even at high quality you're not capping your right speed of like your conventional 7200 RPM drive so the two major disadvantages of other capture tools have been basically addressed by utilizing the built-in encoder to have minimal effect on your frame rate and even a 1080p with high quality recording the right speeds are under control the audio option is very limiting at this time you can only record in-game audio or none but cannot record yourself of course there are other methods of capturing local audio but it would have been nice and convenient to do it all within Shadow play so finally let's jump into a game capture some awesome footage and see how it handles we get a recording indicator that helps to know whether you're recording or saving a footage now notice there are no options to change the resolution and I myself am gaming on a 16 by10 monitor with effective resolution of 1920 x 1200 this means that my output image will be squished to 16x9 aspect and that's kind of a big limitation as my footage will look squished and unnatural now we're also recording at 60 FPS and I have no control over that so if your in-game frame rate drops below 60 we do get a bit of a choppy recording now finally I decided to test to see how much strain Shadow play had on my performance and I used fraps to Benchmark my frames to see if there was any difference and so I ran a one minute Benchmark three times both with Shadow play on and off and looking at the results it is very impressive to see such a minimal performance strain with all three games my Delta was around two frames which really isn't significant and Nvidia claims there's less than 10% performance impact on your frame rate and throughout my testing my highest was a 42% performance strain in Metro which is still very impressive also one of the best things about Shadow play are small file sizes uh compared to Bandy cam or fraps these are 1 minute files at 60 frames a second and as you can see you save yourself a significant amount of drive storage Also let's take a look at detail comparison between the three levels of quality that the shadow play offers so if you really are conservative on file sizes going with low quality will still deliver pretty decent results although it isn't as sharp and loses detail in motion so Shadow play for Kepler based GPU users who want to record gameplay is an excellent option that allows up to 20 minutes of last gameplay to be recorded so you never lose your mustbe seen footage you also have unlimited recording with Windows 8 at 1080p at 60 FPS without putting too much strain on your hard drive with the maximum 50 megabits per second rights and most importantly not affecting your in-game frame rate that is crucial for competitive matches and just a more seamless capture and plus Twitch streaming is soon to be available now while the software is still in beta we cannot capture user audio we cannot change the resolution or the frame rate of your recording so these is just few limitations that will hopefully be addressed in the future but Shadow play turns out to be a very well suited capture tool that is bound to get better and we're giving it the Haru damn good award so as always thanks for watching subscribe for more similar content and we'll see you in the next onehey guys I'm Dimitri with Haru and today we're going to take a look at Nvidia Shadow play a software that allows you to record gameplay at 1080p at 60 FPS without affecting your frame rate the shadow play is available through the GeForce experience and only supported on desktop Kepler based gpus so GTX 650 or higher that feature that h264 encoder that allows that seamless video stream that is also the exact same reason how The Shield is able to stream games at 60 FPS thanks to that built-in encoder unfortunately though notebook gpus are not supported for shadow play now compared to other recording software Shadow play is available for free through the GeForce experience and allows both local recording and Twitch streaming although Twitch streaming has not yet been added but it's also limited to your Nvidia GPU fraps on the other hand is a very popular and a common recording software although it doesn't stream to Twitch it is free but requires payment for the premium feature fees and it will work regardless of your GPU opening up Shadow play through the GeForce experience and we are presented with this very simple interface allowing you to turn it on and off open the folder with all your recordings and of course set your hot keys for recording and we have three modes available usual manual mode for unlimited recording in Windows 8 or up to 3.8 GB in Windows 7 and The Shadow mode that is very useful to capture only some of your best moments of gameplay so you set your Shadow time or the amount of minutes and it will record that last set of minutes of your gameplay this is awesome for not having to record everything and later cut down on your best moments but allows you to play the game now and record up to 20 minutes of your last game playay on Windows 8 and up to 10 minutes with Windows 7 and I think this is a very unique aspect of Shadow play that makes this a more Superior capture tool and we can also adjust the quality of the recording from 1.8 mbes per second to 6.25 megabytes per second which means that even at high quality you're not capping your right speed of like your conventional 7200 RPM drive so the two major disadvantages of other capture tools have been basically addressed by utilizing the built-in encoder to have minimal effect on your frame rate and even a 1080p with high quality recording the right speeds are under control the audio option is very limiting at this time you can only record in-game audio or none but cannot record yourself of course there are other methods of capturing local audio but it would have been nice and convenient to do it all within Shadow play so finally let's jump into a game capture some awesome footage and see how it handles we get a recording indicator that helps to know whether you're recording or saving a footage now notice there are no options to change the resolution and I myself am gaming on a 16 by10 monitor with effective resolution of 1920 x 1200 this means that my output image will be squished to 16x9 aspect and that's kind of a big limitation as my footage will look squished and unnatural now we're also recording at 60 FPS and I have no control over that so if your in-game frame rate drops below 60 we do get a bit of a choppy recording now finally I decided to test to see how much strain Shadow play had on my performance and I used fraps to Benchmark my frames to see if there was any difference and so I ran a one minute Benchmark three times both with Shadow play on and off and looking at the results it is very impressive to see such a minimal performance strain with all three games my Delta was around two frames which really isn't significant and Nvidia claims there's less than 10% performance impact on your frame rate and throughout my testing my highest was a 42% performance strain in Metro which is still very impressive also one of the best things about Shadow play are small file sizes uh compared to Bandy cam or fraps these are 1 minute files at 60 frames a second and as you can see you save yourself a significant amount of drive storage Also let's take a look at detail comparison between the three levels of quality that the shadow play offers so if you really are conservative on file sizes going with low quality will still deliver pretty decent results although it isn't as sharp and loses detail in motion so Shadow play for Kepler based GPU users who want to record gameplay is an excellent option that allows up to 20 minutes of last gameplay to be recorded so you never lose your mustbe seen footage you also have unlimited recording with Windows 8 at 1080p at 60 FPS without putting too much strain on your hard drive with the maximum 50 megabits per second rights and most importantly not affecting your in-game frame rate that is crucial for competitive matches and just a more seamless capture and plus Twitch streaming is soon to be available now while the software is still in beta we cannot capture user audio we cannot change the resolution or the frame rate of your recording so these is just few limitations that will hopefully be addressed in the future but Shadow play turns out to be a very well suited capture tool that is bound to get better and we're giving it the Haru damn good award so as always thanks for watching subscribe for more similar content and we'll see you in the next one\n"