.jpg/BROK/thumbnail/1600x900/format/jpg/quality/80/Bridget---Guilty-Gear-Strive-Season-2-(1).jpg)
Elgato HD60 X capture card review
Elgato’s latest capture card, the HD60 X, is designed to make streaming and recording easier for gamers with a modern, semi-decent gaming monitor. With a 4K passthrough option, this device can give gamers more high-pixel count screens. While G-Sync is handy if you’re using FreeSync technology, the new HD60 X also gets support in time.
As with any capture card, the speed and feed can take a lot of chewing.So let’s break it down to the basics $200 (opens in new tab)/£190 (opens in new tab) options. With the HD60 X, you can basically see three key capture resolutions: 4K at 30fps, 1440p at 60fps, and 1080p at 60fps. Then, for your pass-through resolution, you can run 4K at 120fps at 60fps or 1440p, with support for variable refresh rate technologies (VRR) such as G-Sync and FreeSync, as well as HDR (on Windows only).
So in theory you can get the most out of a 4K-capable gaming PC with the HD60 X, with some limitations.
Capture is related to chroma subsampling, a compression method designed to help stay within the available bandwidth. If you’re not already familiar, it’s a method of compressing the color information in a signal, ideally with minimal impact on the overall picture. Depending on the frame, your mileage may vary. Uncompressed data without chroma subsampling is listed as 4:4:4, so if you’re running a full uncompressed signal, you’ll get all the information you’d expect.
To save bandwidth on the HD60 X, it provides 4:2:0 by default. Corsair tells me that 4:2:2 is available with non-default codecs and works at 1080p at 60fps or 1440p at 30fps, but don’t expect it to work out of the box.
Chroma subsampling also looks good. The thing to keep in mind here is that if you’re going to use your content, say, online – most will – then video compression will consume a lot of quality anyway.
However, the passthrough capability of the HD60 X is fully capable of running at 4:4:4, or in other words, uncompressed. So while your recordings may lose some information, you don’t have to suffer from low picture quality while recording. Anyway, here’s the theory: I’m having issues with my monitor, the Gigabyte M28U, and once the HD60 X is installed, it won’t run at 4K and 60fps.
I found my 4K screen running at 1080p at 60fps on the Elgato HD60 X. After a lot of fiddling with the device, the monitor, and switching cables (even the PC), I asked Elgato (or rather its owner Corsair) for help, and it wasn’t long before I found out that it was a firmware issue. Seems like it might have something to do with Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and the 1080p downscaler, which is used when the device doesn’t see that the monitor is ready for 4K. This seems to be an issue closely related to my monitor model, but I wanted to outline the issue in case anyone else with the same device has encountered it. So far I haven’t seen anyone else reporting this issue with other models of monitors.
Corsair suggested temporarily changing the pixel format (in my case, in the Radeon graphics driver) to YCbCr 4:2:2 (ie with some subsampling), which has fixed the issue. However, it also tells me it’s working on a proper fix “as soon as possible”.
Another problem I had was when I was trying to shoot 4K at 30fps. Elgato tells me that its 4K/30fps capture mode is primarily intended for webcam use, which may explain why it’s less suitable for actually extracting high-res recordings from a PC.Fairly in-depth knowledge of input resolution and capture resolution here (opens in new tab), and it’s not as simple as I’d like it to be. It’s definitely not that simple in practice.
The HD60 X is more of a 1080p capture card than a 4K capture card.
As such, the HD60 X is more of a 1080p capture card than a 4K capture card. While at least purely as a 1080p capture card, it’s easy to use. The 1080p captures it produces are consistently crisp, VRR support is a plus, and there’s no lag in passthrough to speak of. You can also use both OBS and Elgato’s 4K Capture Utility and its Stream Link feature to stream and record with a single device. All the things that take the hassle out of game capture while streaming.
However, as a pure 1080p card, it doesn’t feel like a huge improvement from today’s HD60 S+ or similar.
Above: 1080p60 gameplay footage from Destiny 2 captured with the Elgato HD60 X.
As a 4K capture card, there are more powerful options to choose from—those that are more 4K-savvy and expensive. Elgato’s own 4K capture cards, the 4K60 Pro and 4K60 S+, can sometimes be found for less cash, while Avermedia offers some cards with the same high-end features for a lot less.
While only a few of these 4K cards are standalone units, most are PCIe plug-ins, when you get close to the price of the HD60 X. When you ditch the external connection to the capture card, some flexibility goes away: not only do you have to make room inside the PC, but you’re removing the ability to run streaming or record on a nearby laptop. You also lose the option to travel easily with a capture card, but I honestly can’t imagine that being so important to many people.
Ultimately, PCIe add-on capture cards tend to give you value for money at 4K, and provide plenty of benefits in other ways to make up for their lack of portability. So the flexibility in how you want to set up your streaming settings is a trade-off before buying an external device like the HD60 X.
| HD60X | HD60S+ | |
|---|---|---|
| [email protected] | yes | Yes |
| 4K @ 30fps | yes (albeit tedious) | Do not |
| 4K passthrough | Yes | yes |
| VRR support | Yes | Do not |
| connect | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| Offer price | $200/£190 | $200/£190 |
If you’re intrigued by the idea of an external capture card, Elgato will be offering a few extras on top of the HD60 S+ kit for roughly the same MSRP as the HD60 X — actually maybe a little more cash than the HD60 S+ often found today Cheap. However, this means that for owners of the HD60 S+, it may not be an immediate upgrade.
It’s an easier recommendation, at least for first-time gamers buying a capture card or using older equipment. If you’re choosing between the HD60 X or the HD60 S+, and they’re about the same price, go for the former. Still, I’d say a big enough discount on the HD60 S+ is still tempting.
As a user of the original Elgato Game Capture HD and HD60 S, I admit that the HD60X doesn’t feel like an inspiring new product. I haven’t found any external capture cards that would make capturing gameplay as easy as I’d like it to be. That said, right now I’m using the HD60 X. Adroit 1080p recording at 60fps, yes there are some things I can’t live without, but more importantly low latency passthrough, VRR and HDR support. All of this saves me from having to sacrifice my gaming experience to record for others.