Thinking of Buying a Black Magic Capture Card

Hello everyone!

I was thinking of what new piece of hardware I could pick up to help me record and stream Let's Plays for YouTube and stream on X-Split. I currently use FRAPs to record at 1080p (although I know 720p is the norm for internet videos) and use X-Split to stream on Twitch.tv. I have noticed that on some games (Planetside 2 and even a bit in Chivalry) streaming really taxes my system. I am assuming I probably need to fiddle around with X-Split more, but have also been told that a capture card can take most of the load of streaming and recording off my computer.

My question is: Is it worth the purchase to pick up a capture card? Will I be able to stream and record in 1080p? Will the card really help alleviate any performance issues I may have? (Especially during streaming.)

I am currently running:
Windows 7 64-bit
EVGA Z68 SLI mobo
EVGA 580 GTX OC graphics card
Intel 2500k cpu overclocked from 3.3GHz to 4.2GHz with a Corsair H80i water cooler
16 gigs of DDR3 ram
Completely aluminum Lian Li full tower
2 Black Caviar hard drives
1000 watt modular power supply

I am really not interested in capturing console games to be honest, but it would be nice to have the option.

Thank you very much for any feedback,

HJTenchi

You have a pretty powerful PC, so streaming should only come down to your internet bandwidth at that point, if you get the capture card. The Intensity Pro will take the extra load off your CPU and GPU completely because FRAPS is taken out of the equation. This lets you play more demanding games at a better framerate while also streaming them through xsplit or another program. However, using a program like xsplit to stream content will tax your CPU a bit because it requires the data to be encoded and compressed as it streams. I don't think that should be too much of an issue with the strength of your PC though.

If your PC was weaker, I'd suggest getting a (very expensive) Matrox card or box that lets you compress and encode data on the fly in H.264 format. That would eliminate pretty much all of the stress on your system because the capture card hardware is dedicated to encoding/compressing the data, not your CPU. I don't suggest streaming at 1080p because of high bandwidth demands, but if you want to, that's up to you. Using an Intensity Pro capture card with your current PC setup should work perfectly for streaming using xsplit.