Recently acquired by gaming maven Corsair, Elgato rolled out a new USB-C-based capture card on Wednesday called the HD60 X. It’s an upgrade to the HD60 S+ capture card, popular with gamers and content creators. The new one’s biggest addition is the ability to smoothly capture and record video footage with variable refresh rates.
And it works with M1 Macs, Windows machines and popular streaming tools and gaming consoles.
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New Elgato HD60 X video capture card handles variable refresh rates
When you use an HDMI video source that can sync its frame rate with your display, a capture card like the Elgato HD60 X can capture and record the smooth gameplay footage, with little or no visible stuttering or lag, even with variable refresh rates.
That’s similar to what G-Sync and FreeSync graphics processing technology does. Xbox Series X / S support variable refresh rate displays, and PlayStation 5 plans to do so with an upcoming update, so Elgato’s release is timely.
Elgato’s new capture card can handle recording at up to 4K resolution at 30 frames per second. And its passthrough HDMI can output the same video at 4K/60. It supports 10-bit HDR capture for passthrough at 4K, but limits recording to 1080p/60.
Photo: Elgato
The little gadget works with Elgato recording software, and is compatible with popular streaming tools. the HD60 X is a little more streamlined than the HD60 S+ and has its two HDMI ports and single USB-C port on the back side.
The HD60 X also captures video with less latency than its predecessor and features improved HDR to SDR tone mapping when you convert a signal to SDR to stream on Twitch, YouTube or other services.
Here are the Mac system requirements to use the HD60 X: macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later; Apple M1 or Intel i5-4xxx quad-core chip; Apple M1, AMD or Nvidia graphics processing; 4GB RAM; and, of course, an internet connection.
Price: $199.99
Where to buy: Elgato
