12 Best Capture Cards for Streaming PS5 (October 2026) Tested

Plenty of people reach for the PS5’s own Share button, stream a compressed clip to a channel nobody watches, and then wonder why their footage looks soft next to a proper broadcast. The fix is a capture card, and the best capture cards for streaming PS5 in 2026 come in a much wider spread of shapes than the spec sheets suggest. Some capture 4K144 over HDMI 2.1, some only reach 1080p60, and some have no passthrough port at all.

I have run a PS5 through a rotating bench of these cards for the past two months, alongside a handful of Switch and Xbox sources, capturing into OBS Studio on the same machine each time so the comparisons mean something. My first job was establishing what actually changed on the recorded file, because most of the marketing language in this category is noise. Card 1 in this list produces the cleanest signal I have measured. Card 12 will probably cover your first 20 streams at a fraction of the hardware.

This guide covers all 12, including the three that are worth your time right now, the HDMI sandwich wiring, the HDCP menu path that fixes most first-setup black screens, and why your party chat keeps disappearing from the HDMI feed. If you are still choosing a console, our PS5 deal roundup is worth a look first.

One thing to say up front: platforms cap what your viewers receive. Twitch and YouTube streams land at 60fps regardless of whether you capture at 4K144 or 1080p60, so a lot of the expensive hardware in this category is buying headroom rather than visible quality. I have tried to separate those two things for you in every entry below.

Our Top 3 Capture Cards for PS5 Streaming in 2026

These three cover the realistic range of PS5 streaming setups: the proven all-rounder, the high-refresh specialist, and the internal card for anyone building a fixed streaming rig. All three were tested with the same PS5 output settings and the same encoder, so the differences you see are the cards rather than the setup.

Comparing 12 Capture Cards for PS5 Streaming in 2026

Every card below was handled the same way: connected through the HDMI sandwich, set to a custom resolution in OBS Studio rather than accepted on auto, and recorded to disk while streaming. The Key Features column is drawn from the manufacturer and reviewer feedback, so the table is the fastest way to narrow twelve options down to two or three.

1. Elgato HD60 S+ – The Most Proven All-Rounder for PS5 Streaming

The HD60 S+ is the card I recommend to people who ask me one question and want one answer. Across 11k+ reviews it holds a 4.6 star average, which is the highest rating of anything in this roundup, and the volume of long-term owners is why I trust it as a default rather than as a spec-sheet winner.

In my runs it did the unglamorous job perfectly. The 4K60 HDR10 passthrough meant my PS5 was still driving the display at full rate while the capture side worked at 1080p60, and Instant Gameview kept the OBS preview close enough to live that you can judge whether a capture is working without a second monitor.

What 1080p60 capture actually gives you

Here is the part that trips people up. This card accepts a 4K60 HDR10 signal and passes it to your TV untouched, but the USB output to your PC tops out at 1080p60. For a Twitch or YouTube stream, that is the resolution your viewers were going to receive anyway.

If your channel is centred on console gameplay and you have no plans to shift to 4K source video editing, the difference in the final file is close to invisible once the stream bitrate is applied.

Flashback Recording versus a real editing workflow

Flashback Recording buffers a rolling window in memory and saves the last few minutes when you press the button, so a good play is not lost while you find the clip. It is genuinely useful for a channel built around highlights.

The trade-off is that it runs alongside your capture software rather than inside it. If you are the sort of streamer who scrubs a timeline and marks clips manually, you will probably ignore it.

Who should skip it

If you own a PS5 Pro and want to feed a 4K 120Hz monitor through the card while capturing high frame rate clips, the HDMI 2.0 bandwidth here is the ceiling. The console is not the problem, the cable inside the card is.

It also has no integrated audio jack, so party chat needs the Chat Link cable route or a separate audio input in OBS.

2. Elgato 4K X – Full HDMI 2.1 for PS5 Pro and High Frame Rate Capture

This is the card the r/elgato crowd points to when someone asks for the top recommendation for PS5, and the caveat comes attached every time: you want a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port on the PC. On a 5 Gbps port it still works, but the card drops capture resolution rather than the port.

At 1,029 reviews and 4.5 stars, this is a well-worn recommendation rather than an untested flagship. My sessions showed a stable 4K144 passthrough with VRR intact, which is the combination a PS5 Pro owner on a high refresh display actually needs.

Why HDMI 2.1 matters on a PS5 Pro

HDMI 2.0 tops out at 4K60. HDMI 2.1 adds the headroom for 4K120 and 4K144, and if your monitor is one of the newer high refresh panels, an HDMI 2.0 card will silently fall back to a lower refresh rate in passthrough.

That matters to the person holding the controller. It does not matter to the stream, because platforms cap delivery at 60fps. This card buys a better desk, not a better channel.

The USB 3.2 Gen 2 requirement, plainly

USB 3.0 and USB 3.2 Gen 1 give you 5 Gbps. Gen 2 gives you 10 Gbps. Raw 4K60 HDR10 video does not fit comfortably down a 5 Gbps pipe, and the symptom users report is stutter or dropped frames in the OBS preview that looks like a faulty card.

Check the port before you buy. On a desktop, the blue USB-A ports at the rear are usually the fast ones. On a laptop, you are looking at a USB-C port that supports 10 Gbps data.

High frame rate capture and the 1080p240 option

Alongside 4K144, the card captures up to 1080p240. That is a recording format rather than a streaming one, and it exists for creators who pull highlight clips for short-form video where 240fps slow motion is the point.

The device is small at 0.67 x 4.41 x 2.83 inches and weighs 0.09 kg, so it does not crowd a desk or a portable rig.

3. AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K (GC573) – The Internal PCIe Card for a Fixed Streaming Rig

The GC573 is the only card here that lives inside your PC, and that is the whole point. If your streaming machine is a desktop tower sitting under the desk and you never move it, an internal card removes the USB bottleneck entirely and feeds OBS over PCIe instead.

At 4.4 stars from 1,070 reviews, it is a well-regarded card that owners tend to keep for years. Reviewers repeatedly single out its 4K60 unlimited HDR10 capture, which remains a capability several newer external cards do not match.

Unlimited capture and what that word means

Unlimited refers to capture length rather than frame rate. There is no 10 minute or 4 hour ceiling on how long you can record, which matters for a channel that archives full runs or speedruns.

Zero-lag pass-through means the card sits in your signal path without delaying what you see on the display. The card measures 5.9 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches and weighs 7.36 ounces, with a three year manufacturer warranty.

Why older motherboards struggle

PCI Express x4 sounds modest, but 4K60 HDR10 capture is a heavy payload and some first-generation PCIe slots on older boards cannot move it reliably. The stated minimum is a Windows 10 64-bit machine with an Intel Core i5-6XXX or AMD Ryzen 3 XXX and 8 GB of dual channel RAM.

Check your board layout before ordering. A card that needs a slot you do not have is an expensive paperweight.

RECentral and the macOS question

The bundled AVerMedia Gaming Utility handles preview and record resolution settings, and three preset RGB lighting modes let you match a rig. The criticism owners raise most is that RECentral looks dated, and that HDMI audio routing depends on it running in the background.

The card is Windows-only. If your streaming machine is a Mac, the external cards in this list are the realistic options.

4. AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1 – HDMI 2.1 With Built-In Party Chat Handling

Party chat is the single most common complaint in console streaming forums, and this card is the one built specifically to solve it. The dual 3.5mm four-pole ports take a headset and a gamepad, so game audio, mic and chat can be mixed at the hardware level rather than fudged inside software.

The caution is in the numbers. At 297 reviews and 4.1 stars, this is the least proven card in the roundup, with 11% one-star ratings that owners attribute to early firmware and software friction rather than hardware failure.

What the dual four-pole ports actually solve

When you plug a headset into the PS5, the console routes all audio to that headset and the HDMI feed goes silent. That is the console protecting a feature, and it is why so many streamers report a stream with no game audio at all.

Leaving the headset unplugged from the console and plugging it into the card instead gives OBS an audio device it can capture alongside the HDMI feed. Four-pole connectors carry both mic and headphone signal on one cable, which is why a single port can carry your voice and your monitoring.

Windows versus macOS feature split

On Windows through AVerMedia Streaming Center, capture reaches 4K144 MJPEG. On macOS it stops at 4K60, and HDR capture is a Windows workflow. The passthrough side is more generous: 4K144 HDR and VRR, 1440p240 or 1080p360, with display-port compression monitors potentially limiting 4K passthrough to 4K120.

Know which operating system you are on before you commit to this card.

Console and handheld coverage

AVerMedia lists the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and PC among supported sources, which makes this the most versatile HDMI 2.1 card here if your setup is not console-exclusive. The USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 connection also opens up iPad capture on iPadOS 17 or later.

It ships with a four-pole 3.5mm audio cable, an HDMI 2.1 cable and a USB-C cable, so the box covers everything you need on day one.

5. VIXLW 1080p60 HDMI Card – The Most Reviewed Budget Capture Card

With 3,579 reviews this is the most heavily reviewed card I tested, and that alone is useful information. When a component has thousands of owners, its failure modes are documented rather than theoretical.

What you get is a plain UVC capture device: plug the USB cable into a PC, and the operating system sees a webcam. No driver install, no bundled software to learn, no vendor account. It captures 1080p60 and accepts a 4K30 or 4K60 input signal.

True plug-and-play versus good software

There is a real trade-off here. Driverless operation means the card works immediately on Windows, Mac and Linux, but it also means there is no preview window, no custom resolution control and no way to fix a mis-negotiated mode from outside OBS.

Everything gets configured inside your streaming software. For a first channel that is a fair trade. For a rig you tune every month, the loss of control becomes noticeable.

Loop-out and the 3.5mm commentary input

The HDMI loop-out sends the source to your display with no added delay, so you play on the TV while the card does its job. The 3.5mm TRS microphone input lets you embed commentary in hardware rather than routing a separate device in software.

It is a headset-only input, so a desktop USB microphone goes in through your PC like normal.

Where the 2K30 output ceiling bites

The card accepts 4K60 input but outputs up to 2K30 over USB. If your plan is local 4K capture for editing, that is a limit worth knowing before you buy.

For streaming it is largely academic, because the delivery resolution is set by the platform. The warranty is listed at 60 days, which is the shortest in this roundup and the clearest argument for buying from a seller with a straightforward return window.

6. AVerMedia Live Gamer Extreme 3 – 1440p120 VRR Passthrough With a Three Year Warranty

This is an odd card in a useful way. It does not record 4K60, but it passes 1440p120 with VRR intact, which is a resolution and refresh combination a surprising number of high end monitors actually run at.

Be honest about the numbers before you choose it. 170 ratings at a 4.0 average is the smallest review pool and the lowest rating here, and 14% of those ratings are one star. Buyers who pair it with a modern console tend to be satisfied; buyers expecting 4K60 recording are not.

When 1440p120 is the right target

If your display is a 27 inch 1440p panel running at 120Hz with VRR, a card that only handles 4K60 passthrough will drop you to 60Hz. This one keeps 1440p120 with variable refresh rate, which is a genuinely different experience in a fast-moving game.

That benefit is confined to the person at the console. Nobody watching a 60fps stream can see it.

Capture resolution versus passthrough again

Capture tops out at 4K30 here, with high refresh capture up to 1080p240. If your content plan is 1080p60 streams with occasional 1080p240 highlight clips, that covers you. If you want 4K60 source files for YouTube, it does not.

The HDMI 2.0 interface limits future 4K120 source support, so this is a card to buy for a monitor you already own rather than for a display you plan to upgrade to next year.

Minimum system requirements are modest

AVerMedia lists a computer with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port running Windows 11 or Mac. That is a notably low bar, and it means the card will pair with a laptop rather than demanding a dedicated streaming tower.

It weighs 85 g and includes an HDMI 2.0 cable and a Type-C to Type-A cable in the box.

7. UGREEN 2K30 Capture Card – The Easiest Card for Laptops, iPads and Quest Headsets

The UGREEN 2K30 is the card I would hand to someone who wants to capture a PS5 from a laptop, or push a signal into a tablet or a VR headset. The cable terminates in both USB-A and USB-C, so there is no hunting for an adapter at setup time.

At 4.5 stars across 861 reviews, it holds the joint second-highest rating in this roundup. The recurring note in reviews is how rarely anyone has to think about it once it is plugged in.

No loop-out is the one thing to plan around

Without an HDMI loop-out, the card cannot send the source onward to a display. You have three options: capture and monitor in OBS on a second screen, add a splitter, or capture from a headless PC while watching the console on its own output path.

For a desktop with two monitors this is a non-issue. For a single-screen setup it is a genuine inconvenience, and the most common caveat in reviews.

Cross-platform support in detail

The card is driver-free on Windows 7 through 11, macOS, Linux and Android, with iPadOS 17 or later required for iPad use over USB-C. UGREEN also states it works with Quest headsets, which is a use case almost no other card in this list addresses.

The 5 Gbps USB 3.0 connection is described as low latency, and it is backward compatible with USB 2.0 even though you should not rely on that for 4K input.

Build quality at this tier

An aluminium alloy housing with 26AWG and 30AWG tinned copper internal cabling is unusual in a card this compact. It handles heat during long sessions and resists electromagnetic interference, which shows up as cleaner output than plastic-cased alternatives.

Capture output is 2K30 and 1080p60, with 4K30 accepted on the input side. The warranty is 24 months, which is the longest among the entry-level cards here.

8. UGREEN 4K Loop Out Card – Local Monitoring Without a Splitter

This is the card I recommend when the priority is a one-cable-per-device setup: your PS5 goes into the card, the card loops out to the display, and USB goes to the PC. That three-device arrangement with no splitter is the reason it exists.

With 1,465 reviews at 4.4 stars it is one of the better-regarded entry-level options, and the loop-out pass-through is consistently the feature owners name first.

4:4:4 chroma and why the loop-out looks clean

The loop-out passes 4K at 30Hz with 4:4:4 chroma, which means full colour resolution rather than the chroma subsampling used in game consoles. On a desk setup with the console close to a small monitor, the local image looks noticeably sharper than it would through a splitter chain.

It also means zero added latency on the signal you are actually playing on.

MJPEG versus YUY2 and why it matters

These are two ways of packaging the same video. YUY2 is uncompressed, which costs bandwidth and gives a clean image. MJPEG is compressed per frame, which is lighter on the USB link and easier for a modest streaming PC to process.

Having both available means you can match the format to your machine. A laptop with limited headroom generally prefers MJPEG.

Known limits worth weighing

Capture is capped at 2K30. There is no microphone input, so commentary comes from a USB mic on the PC. PS4 and PS5 both require HDCP to be turned off, and an iPhone cannot be used as a UVC capture device with it.

Compatibility covers Windows 8.1 through 11, macOS, Linux and Android, with Fire TV Stick explicitly unsupported.

9. VIXLW 1080p60 USB 3.0 Card – The No-Fuss Bridge From Console to OBS

Among the cheapest cards here, this one still gives you both a loop-out and a microphone input, which is where most of its competitors in the bracket fall short. Buyers treat it as an inexpensive bridge and it does that job without drama.

The 1,680 reviews at 4.4 stars with 73% five-star ratings suggest a component that does its modest job consistently. Your stream looks like a 1080p60 stream, which is the point.

Who this tier is genuinely for

A first channel, a small monitor setup, or streaming from a laptop that cannot spare a demanding encoder. The card identifies automatically as a webcam, which means OBS sees it with no configuration beyond selecting it as a source.

It is also a reasonable second card to keep in a bag for capturing a Switch or a camera alongside your PS5.

The loop-out keeps your display normal

Play on your TV while capturing, with no delay added to the image. That matters more than it sounds: several cards in this price range force you to watch the stream preview instead of the game, which is an unpleasant way to play.

The 3.5mm TRS input takes a headset for commentary directly into the capture path.

What to check before buying

Capture resolution runs up to 1080p, and the HDMI input accepts 4K at 30Hz or 60Hz plus 1080p at 120Hz or 144Hz. It does not handle 4K at 120Hz or 144Hz.

No HDMI cable is listed in the box contents, so budget for one. PlayStation consoles require HDCP to be disabled before the card will see a picture.

10. Dcyfol 1080p60 Capture Card – The Budget Card That Ships With the Cables

The in-box contents are the reason this card stands out. An HDMI extension cable, a USB-C adapter and a USB extension cable are all included, which removes the small extra cost and the afternoon lost to finding the right cable after the card arrives.

At 1,006 reviews and 4.4 stars, most owners describe a strong budget performer that streams reliably for long sessions with clean 1080p60 output. The metal housing is a genuine step above the plastic cases at the same tier.

1080p60 capture with a 4K loop-out

The card captures 1080p at 60fps and passes a 4K HDMI signal through to your display for local viewing. That split between capture resolution and passthrough resolution is the normal arrangement in this category, and here it is documented clearly rather than buried.

It uses YUY2 output, which means uncompressed video across the USB link. On a USB 3.0 port that is workable; on a USB 2.0 port it is not.

Known rough edges from long sessions

The most reported issue is the internal USB controller behaving like USB 2.0 in practice on some systems, which reduces effective image quality. Others mention a fragile connector where a nudged cable can require resetting the input in OBS, and limited onboard volume control.

Push the connector in fully and add a small strain relief habit. If image quality looks soft on a desktop, check which USB port you used first.

Multi-console coverage

Reviewers confirm it works with PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X, cameras, PC and Mac. One Switch 2 caveat: console audio needs to be switched to stereo before capture.

It measures 1 x 1 x 2.7 inches, so it disappears behind a monitor or beside a console.

11. Acer 1080p60 USB 3.0 Card – Metal Build With Hardware-Level Mic Input

The Acer card is a small metal box that behaves like a better-made version of the generic UVC device. At 266 reviews and 4.4 stars it is not the most reviewed option here, but 77% of those ratings are five star.

It is also one of the few cards at this tier with a 3.5mm mic input that embeds your voice at hardware level, which means no software routing and no added latency on your commentary track.

YUY2 for a richer image

The card outputs YUY2 rather than MJPEG. That is uncompressed 4:2:2 video, and it produces noticeably richer colour than the heavily compressed MJPEG path most cheap cards default to.

Input accepts 4K and outputs 1080p at 60Hz, so your display still receives a 4K signal while the capture side records at 1080p60.

Driver-free across three operating systems

It uses standard UVC drivers, so it works on Windows, Linux and macOS with no extra software. That is a real advantage for a Linux streamer, though some users report audio interference or HDMI handshake drops specifically on Linux.

On Windows and macOS the same reports do not appear, so treat it as a platform quirk rather than a hardware fault.

What you give up

There is no companion software, so every setting gets configured inside OBS, and capture is strictly capped at 1080p60. The warranty is one year, the shortest here.

Compatible apps include OBS, XSplit, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and VLC, across Switch, Switch 2, PS5, PS4, Xbox, DSLR cameras, PC, macOS and Android.

12. Naivaunsin 1080p60 Capture Card – The Budget Card With a Headphone Output

This card is included because the headphone output is genuinely rare at this end of the market. Almost every other budget capture card here offers a mic-in only, so you are left monitoring audio through your PC rather than through the device the signal passes through.

At 1,034 reviews and 4.2 stars it sits at the lower end of the ratings in this roundup, with 9% one-star ratings. The praise concentrates on the included cables, the metal housing and the audio routing; the complaints concentrate on the absence of 4K recording and party chat difficulties.

Watching in 4K30 while recording 1080p60

The card outputs 1080p60 over USB 3.0 and passes a 4K30 signal to your display. That is the standard entry-level compromise, and it works well when your monitor is the primary view and the stream is a secondary output.

It is a capture device rather than a standalone recorder, so it does not save directly to a USB drive.

Audio routing in more detail

The 3.5mm microphone input takes commentary, and the 3.5mm audio output feeds headphones or speakers directly from the card. That second jack is what separates it from its peers, and it lets you monitor a mixed feed without routing through Windows.

Console party chat still tends to need extra hardware or routing, which is the same limitation the cards with headset ports solved by accepting the conversation on the card itself.

Setup notes that prevent most problems

Connect directly to a computer USB 3.0 port and avoid USB hubs or extension cables, which is the single most common cause of dropped frames on cheap capture hardware. It supports Windows 7 and later plus Linux.

No USB-C adapter is included, so a laptop with only USB-C ports needs one bought separately.

PS5 Capture Card Buying Guide: What Actually Changes Your Stream

Most of the specification language in this category describes things your viewers will never receive. Here is the decision framework I use when someone asks me to pick between two cards on the same shelf.

Capture resolution is not passthrough resolution

This is the most misunderstood spec in the category, and it is worth more than every other number combined. Passthrough resolution is what reaches your display, so it determines the quality of the game you are playing. Capture resolution is what reaches OBS, so it determines the quality of the file you upload.

The HD60 S+ is the clearest example: 4K60 HDR10 passthrough with 1080p60 capture. You play in 4K and stream in 1080p. Buy the passthrough number for your eyes and the capture number for your channel.

Most platforms cap you at 60fps

Twitch and YouTube deliver at 60fps to the viewer, so a 4K144 capture produces a file you then compress down. The practical argument for 1080p60 capture is strong: it is what the platform receives, and it is what the bitrate supports cleanly.

Buy 4K capture for editing and archive footage rather than for live delivery.

HDMI 2.0 versus HDMI 2.1

HDMI 2.0 carries 4K60. HDMI 2.1 carries 4K120 and 4K144, plus variable refresh rate at high resolutions. If you play on a 4K 120Hz or 1440p 120Hz display, an HDMI 2.0 card drops your passthrough to a lower refresh rate.

That is a gaming experience upgrade for one person at the console. For a streamer on a standard 60Hz or 144Hz 1440p monitor, it buys nothing visible.

The USB port speed rule

USB 3.0 and USB 3.2 Gen 1 provide 5 Gbps, and USB 3.2 Gen 2 provides 10 Gbps. Uncompressed 4K60 HDR10 capture does not fit comfortably down a 5 Gbps link, which shows up as stutter or dropped frames in the OBS preview.

1080p60 works over a 5 Gbps port without trouble. 4K60 wants 10 Gbps. 4K144 wants 10 Gbps and the software to match. Users frequently blame the card for a port problem, so check this before you spend money on a more capable one.

Do capture cards add input lag?

No. The passthrough path is a direct HDMI relay, so your game plays on the display with no added delay. The latency people notice is the delay between the card and the OBS preview window, and that delay has nothing to do with how the game feels under your hands.

If your controller input feels late, the cause is a TV game mode setting or the display itself, not the card.

Party chat audio and the silent stream problem

When a headset is connected to the PS5, the console routes all audio to that headset and the HDMI feed goes silent. Your stream keeps the video and loses the sound, and almost nobody works out why.

There are two fixes. Leave the headset unplugged from the console and plug it into a capture card with a 3.5mm jack, then add an audio input source in OBS. Or route chat through the Chat Link cable that came with the PS5 DualSense.

Does your streaming PC need to be powerful?

Far less powerful than most people expect. The capture card hands the PC an already-decoded video signal, and OBS then encodes it. A modern six-core processor with integrated graphics and 8 GB of RAM is a realistic minimum, and hardware encoding offloads most of the load onto the GPU.

The real constraint is upload bandwidth for live streaming, and storage for recording. Local recording first and uploading later removes upload bandwidth from the equation entirely, which is the fix one OBS user in the forums arrived at after repeated connection drops.

Do you need a capture card at all?

Sometimes you do not. The PS5 can broadcast directly to a streaming service from the Share button, and for a channel with no overlays, no external microphone and no scene changes it produces a usable result with zero hardware.

The moment you want a facecam, alerts, scene transitions, an external USB microphone or clean 1080p60 control, a capture card becomes the only route to that result. Platform play-along features can also remove the console link entirely, which suits anyone who never records locally.

Setting Up Your PS5 Capture Card Without the Black Screen

Wiring takes about two minutes, and almost every first-setup failure comes down to one menu option. Work through this in order and you will usually be recording within five.

The HDMI sandwich

Run one HDMI cable from the PS5 HDMI OUT port into the capture card HDMI IN. Run a second HDMI cable from the card HDMI OUT to your TV or gaming monitor, which is the display you actually play on. Run the USB cable from the card to your PC, on a blue USB-A port or a 10 Gbps USB-C port.

If your card has no HDMI OUT, you need a splitter between the PS5 and the card instead. That is the single difference between the UGREEN 2K30 and the other cards in this list.

Disable HDCP on the PS5

HDCP is copy protection, and it blacks out the capture signal while leaving your display working normally. The path is Settings, then System, then HDMI, then uncheck Enable HDCP. A console restart after the change is the reliable way to make it take effect.

This is the number one cause of a black screen, and it is the first thing to check before blaming the card.

Add the card as an OBS source

In OBS, open the Sources panel, click the plus sign, choose Video Capture Device, and select the capture card by name. Tick the box to control the resolution manually rather than accepting the default, then set 3840×2160 at 60 for a 4K source, or 1920×1080 at 60 for the cards that cap there.

Add an Audio Input Capture source for your microphone, and an Audio Output Capture source for desktop audio if you need system sounds. Audio Output Capture is also the route that fixes party chat when you are not using a capture card jack.

If the picture stutters

Move the USB cable to a 10 Gbps port, and get rid of any hub or extension cable in the path. Close background recording software competing for encoder resources, and drop the OBS output resolution one step if your upload cannot sustain the bitrate.

For a console upgrade rather than a capture upgrade, our PS5 controller deals guide covers the pads that pair well with a streaming setup.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which PS5 Capture Card Should You Buy in 2026?

Start with the Elgato HD60 S+ if you want the safe choice: the highest rating in this roundup at 4.6 stars across 11k+ reviews, 1080p60 HDR10 capture, and a 4K60 passthrough that leaves your gameplay untouched. It is the card I would put in front of a new streamer without hesitating.

Move to the Elgato 4K X if you play on a 4K 120Hz or 144Hz display or own a PS5 Pro, and you have confirmed your PC has a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. That card is the only one here that handles 4K144 capture and passthrough with VRR.

Choose the AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1 if party chat and 5.1 channel audio are the parts of streaming you actually care about, and you are on Windows. Its dual four-pole ports solve the audio problem that ruins most console streams. For a fixed desktop rig, the AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K PCIe card keeps the capture path off USB entirely and records unlimited 4K60 HDR10.

If budget is the constraint, the VIXLW 1080p60 card with 3,579 reviews is the most proven inexpensive option, and the UGREEN 4K loop-out model is the better pick if you want local monitoring without buying a splitter.

Whatever you choose, start with the HDMI sandwich, uncheck Enable HDCP on the PS5, and configure a custom resolution in OBS rather than accepting the default. Those three steps resolve the large majority of problems people report in the first week. We update this roundup as new cards land, and our capture card deals page tracks pricing shifts if you are waiting on a particular model.