Top 5 ShadowPlay Alternatives for Game Recording & Broadcasting

Part 1. Quick Review of NVIDIA ShadowPlay

If you are using an NVIDIA graphic card, then ShadowPlay could be a good tool to record and broadcast your game. It is developed to record high-quality game videos and amazing game snapshots up to 8K resolution.

Características:

• Instant Replay: ShadowPlay can record the last 30 seconds and save it to your local disk so that you can replay and share the amazing stunts in games.
• INVIDIA Highlights: If Instant Reply can’t meet your needs, you can activate highlight capture to automatically detect and save key moments.
• Broadcast Game: By logging in to your Twitch, YouTube or Facebook account, you can directly broadcast your games to your audience.
• In-game Overlay: Simply Press hotkeys to bring up ShadowPlay and start recording anytime.

Along with the good features, ShadowPlay also has obvious limitations：

• Support only Windows 10/11
• Hardware soportado:
• CPU: Intel Pentium G Series, Core i3, i5, i7 o superior/AMD FX, Ryzen 3, 5, 7, Threadripper o superior.
• GPU: GeForce GTX 750 or higher for desktop/GTX850M, 860M, 950M, 960M series or higher for notebook.
• Not support in-depth settings and preferences such as bitrates, video sources, etc.
• Limited livestreaming platforms

Part 2. Best 5 ShadowPlay Alternatives

Given the fact that NVIDIA ShadowPlay has such high standard hardware requirements, though it is good for game recording, you may still want alternatives. Here are 5 popular screen recorders. Let’s take a look.

Aiseesoft Screen Recorder

• Support OS: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7/Mac OS X 10.12 or above (macOS Sonoma)
• CPU: Intel i3 or better multicore processor, 2GHz or above
• GPU: Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 8 and above. Or AMD HD 3800 and above

If you are looking for a recording software like ShadowPlay, you can’t miss Aiseesoft Screen Recorder. It is listed as one of the most functional and favored screen recording software. You can record anything on your screen and system by choice of screen recorder, window recorder, audio recorder, game recorder, etc. It also allows you to take screenshots like ShadowPlay and, even more, the scrolling screenshot.

Besides, it has a much lower hardware requirement and better OS compatibility. No matter what type of computer you have, you can use Aiseesoft Screen Recorder for recording.

I like using Aiseesoft Screen Recorder because it is very easy to use, and I can record every detail on my screen in 4K quality.

Bandicam

• Support OS: Windows 11/10/8/7 (64-bit)
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+
• GPU: No restriction

Bandicam is another screen recording app like ShadowPlay. It has a fully organized interface with all features and settings, you can find most of the functions and settings on its simple interface. Besides the recording screen, windows and games, it also supports recording connected devices like Xbox, IPTV, etc.

Bandicam stands out with its device-capturing function. However, its interface takes up a large space, and I can’t adjust its size, which sometimes bothers me a little.

PantallaRec

• Support OS: Windows 7 or above (32 & 64-bit supported), macOS 11, 12, 13
• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 processor or later, Macs with Apple Silicon chips

Sometimes you may be tired of the complicated function of grabadores de pantalla, then the simple ScreenRec is better for you. It is a very lightweight screen recorder. It has a very small interface overlay on the desktop, which you don’t even notice. One special point is that you can create an instant link after recording and sharing videos through the link.

I would like to use it for meeting recording because it is convenient. But it is too simple for other uses who have more needs like editing and game recording.

OBS Studio

• Support OS: Windows 10/11, macOS 11.0 or newer, Linux
• CPU: Intel i5 2500K, AMD Ryzen 1300X or higher
• GPU: GeForce GTX 900 Series, Radeon RX 400 Series, Intel HD Graphics 500 or higher

OBS is the most well-known and popular pantalla de grabación and livestreaming software in the market. Its complicated settings and preferences can meet the various needs of professional video creators. For streamers, OBS brings much convenience because it can connect with 80+ livestream platforms all over the world.

As a new user, I need to check the use of each button before using it and it takes too much extra time.

XSplit Broadcaster

• Support OS: Windows 10 64bit or higher
• CPU: 2nd Generation Core i5 CPU or equivalent
• GPU: GeForce or Radeon Class graphics card with DirectX 10.1 or better support

XSplit is a livestreaming and screen recording program like NVIDIA ShadowPlay. It can record screens of different sources and stream to YouTube and other platforms. You can also mix multiple video sources and place them in different shapes you want.

I like the function that it can split screen, but it obviously slows down my computer. Sometimes, it reports bugs with certain buttons. But when I try again, it works fine.

Part 3. FAQs about ShadowPlay Alternative