Elgato 4K S review

The times have changed since begging my mum to buy me an AverMedia capture card because it was the only one that would work without a dedicated PC. PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PCs (assuming you have Windows) all have built-in DVRs, and they're all rather good. This has meant that, for a casual creator or just someone who wants to show off clips, they're almost entirely unnecessary.

To keep up with this changing market, there are now tons of unique capture card options. Just being able to record was fine a decade ago, but now the likes of Elgato and AverMedia are offering a value proposition to potential buyers: one that can beat your built-in DVR.

In the likes of the Live Gamer Duo, this means the ability to stream multiple inputs at once. For the AverMedia Elite Go GC313Pro, its selling point is the fact that it can be used to record handheld gaming PCs (and can also charge them while doing so). Even those without a central gimmick will give you stronger console capture, or simply ease some of the burden that a built-in capture software may pose to your gaming rig's performance.

But none of this means you need one. The Xbox Game Bar function can record easily and quickly at 1080p, and can even be used retroactively to record a clip you hit twenty seconds ago. Then, if you want 4K, your GPU drivers, or free software, such as OBS Studio, can do that. It can be taxing on your system to record, then stream in 4K, so some streamers opt for a secondary PC for streaming. In that case, there's a great justification for a capture card on PC. However, if you aren't quite that dedicated and have a decently strong rig, built-in software will do just fine.

The biggest sell to the average person who wants to make videos right now is that capture cards are great at handling consoles. The fact that the majority of capture cards interact with PCs means you can stream from a PS5 to a PC, run it through an overlay in software like OBS, and have actual, genuine interactivity and production value in your stream.

So, the Elgato 4K S offers a taste of the likes of the Elgato 4K X, with its 4K capture and intuitive software at a cheaper price bracket, and it does it well. The 4K X comes with a higher fps passthrough and recording, and offers HDMI 2.1 rather than HDMI 2, but it's also almost $100 more.

The Elgato 4K S is very easy to set up. In the box, it comes with a braided USB Type-C and a braided HDMI cable. In terms of I/O, the 4K S has an HDMI output, input, and a USB Type-C to record data to your rig, then a 3.5 mm jack. Simply plug your console or PC into the box, with the other end going into your recording/streaming rig, and you're ready to go. Elgato's own software can display your game or record footage, but you can also send it straight to third-party apps, such as OBS Studio.

The 4K S is a very light device, at just 90 g. It's so light, in fact, that I angled my HDMI cable so the weight of it didn't prop the box up at a funny angle. Other than that, setting it up is an intuitive process, and one that takes no more than a couple of minutes to hook up to a console.

I ran into the limits of console DVR recently, when trying to get footage of Donkey Kong Banananza on Nintendo Switch 2. Recording just 30 seconds at a time means that, should you want a minute or two of gameplay, you need to tactically splice clips together and hope it looks smooth. A perfect case for a capture device, then.

The first time I plugged the Elgato into the Nintendo Switch 2, however, the color looked overshot and saturated. In a rather classic move, unplugging it and plugging it back in again fixed my issue, and I haven't had it again since. The Elgato 4K S not only solved my problem with the Switch 2's built-in capture functionality but made it look better too.

Comparing textures, the Elgato records at a higher max resolution (4K vs 1080p), and it certainly shows in the captured footage. The difference isn't quite as large as I was expecting, though, and this is partly down to the fact that the Nintendo Switch 2 has very good (if fairly limited) recording functionality.

If you would like to stream from your Nintendo Switch 2, a capture card is absolutely necessary, as the Switch 2 doesn't have that functionality. The same can not be said of the other two major consoles.

Grab a headset and a controller, and have a strong enough internet connection, and you're ready to stream on a PS5 or Xbox Series X. You can simulcast to Twitch and YouTube at the same time without restreaming from a different platform, but it's certainly good enough should you be tied to one platform.

You technically can record 4K on PlayStation, but the console doesn't play too nicely with it. It forces clips to be recorded in WebM, and you have to manually record and change it to 4K in settings, which means you can't retroactively record in 4K.

To view those 4K clips on PS5, you have to close any apps or games that are open. Things are a bit simpler with the Elgato, and comparing both sets of footage with Nvidia's ICAT (Image Comparison Analysis Tool), they look nearly identical to me. The Elgato comes off a bit brighter, and PS5 feels a tad deeper, but to most, these will look essentially the same.

So, you can record 4K on PS5 without a capture card with some effort. If, however, you want to stream, add a webcam, and transition from scene to scene, you will still want a capture card for that. No matter which device I have it plugged into, the Elgato 4K S performs very well in passthrough mode. Though the max capture is 4K resolution at 60 fps, 1080p can get all the way up to 240 fps in passthrough mode (down to 120 in capture). Placing my PC monitor right next to my TV and comparing the two, both perform with nearly no latency, and I still manage to be as okay as I usually am at Fortnite.

The passthrough is so good I've found myself opening up the Elgato app and playing some console games on my PC, just because I don't fancy turning on the big 50-inch TV I use for console gaming. I've played hours worth of Killing Floor 3, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with no problems at all, and I see myself continuing to do so in those moments when my partner wants to use the main TV for something else.

Elgato's software is intuitive and easy to use, if a little barebones. You plug in your device, open up the app, and now you have the ability to record and take screenshots of whatever you are playing. You can adjust resolution on the fly, which is pretty handy should you have storage concerns (same), and this links out easily to the Elgato forums if you run into any problems.

Coming in at $160, this is a competitive price for a 4K capture card, and at MSRP, I would almost never go for the Elgato Game Capture Neo for $40 less. That extra cost is worth it to me for 4K over 1080p capture, and a higher fps passthrough (with the latter limited to 60 fps).

In and of itself, this little capture card rocks. It's small, easy to set up, relatively pain-free and offers good quality recording. It also offers near-instantaneous passthrough. However, it's more expensive than the AverMedia Live Gamer Ultra S GC553Pro, while not offering 5.1 audio. Given the passthrough is so great on this, the more immersive offerings of 5.1 sound would certainly be welcome, especially when you get it from the GC553Pro for cheaper.

At MSRP, the only reason I could think to put the Elgato over the GC553Pro is for its software or the position of its outputs. I prefer having the USB-C and HDMI ports all on one side, like the Elgato, but I don't think I could possibly argue that's worth $10 more.

With both capture cards seeing discounts in the sales, I think it will be a toss-up for best capture card, but as things stand, it sits just inches behind its rival. This is arguably the best Elgato mid-range capture card you can buy right now, but that's still not enough to put it in first place against the stiff competition.