Elgato capture cards have widely been held as some of the best in the consumer-streamer market. I used their internal 4k 60 Pro mk.2 for years to capture Xbox Series content for Xbox Era. For the past few months, I’ve upgraded to their 4k X External USB-C capture card, and I am in love.
Specs:
PASSTHROUGH
1080P
60, 120, 144, 240
1440P
60, 120, 144, 240
4K
60, 120, 144
High Dynamic Range (HDR10)
Variable Refresh Rate (VRR)
HDMI 2.1
CAPTURE
1080P
30, 60, 120, 144, 240
1440P
30, 60, 120, 144
4K
30, 60, 120, 144
High Dynamic Range (HDR10)
HDR-to-SDR tone mapping
Setup
The setup is minimal. Being a USB device all you’ll need to do is make sure you have a properly fast USB connector on your motherboard. I have a 10gbps port on the back and after plugging my Xbox Series X into the In and running a cable to my display via the out it was good to go. You can use Elgato’s software for footage capture if you want, and I do have it installed in the background for driver updates but I primarily use OBS to capture footage.
Use
The main selling point of the 4K X is that it allows HDR and VRR (Variable Rate Refresh) via passthrough. This means you can have every setting except for Dolby Vision enabled on an Xbox or PlayStation as you capture footage. Unlike Elgato and AverMedia’s internal variants, I did run into the occasional issue where OBS didn’t let go of the capture until I had opened and closed it twice. This was a rare occurrence but if you run into it a simple turn it off and on again should work.
Footage through the device is clean, though there is slightly more input lag in your capture window compared to AverMedia’s internal card that I reviewed earlier in the year. The convenience of the external USB connector is well worth it for me though, as the 4K X has become my capture card of choice.
Price
The 4K X retails at $229 US, which isn’t cheap. Another ace up its sleeve to make it worth that cost is its ability to capture footage 120 and 144 Hz in 1080 up to 4k, and up to 240hz when capturing 1080p footage. AverMedia’s options all cap out at 60fps for capture, though they can match it up to 144hz in passthrough. While streaming sites only support up to 4k/60 footage if you’re a company like Digital Foundry and want to share the raw files this is one of the only ways to affordably capture higher refresh rates at high quality.
Conclusion
Outside of a few HDMI handshake quirks the Elgato 4K X External Capture Card has been flawless for me. It has a hefty price tag but is well worth it for the clean, uncompromised performance. Having VRR and HDR while pushing 4k/144hz is a godsend for creating all the content you know and love(?) on Xbox Era.
Elgato 4K X
Played on
Windows 11
PROS
- Unrivaled Tech
- Ease of Use
- Plug and Play
CONS
- Occasional HDMI hangups
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