AVerMedia’s new capture card lets you stream 4K HDR gameplay from your laptop

AVerMedia today announced a couple of new capture cards that it claims are the first to enable 4K HDR game streaming, though that's not the only standout feature. One of the cards is an external capture box that is said to play nice with laptops.

That would be the Live Gamer Ultra, which features full 4K HDR passthrough and onboard video processing. It doesn't require any special drivers—just plug it in, install the software, and capture your HDR gameplay. It supports recording 4K HDR streams at 30 frames per second, and 60 frames per second at 1440p and 1080p. If you disable HDR, it can record 1080p gameplay at 120 fps.

AVerMedia also claims users will not have to contend with lag.

"Don’t give up 4K HDR content just to be able to record your gameplay. With 100 percent lag-free, 4Kp60 HDR video pass-through, the LGU allows you to enjoy the mesmerizing 4K HDR gameplay and record at 4Kp30," AVerMedia says.

The Live Gamer Ultra connects to laptops and desktops via USB 3.1 Type-C, and to monitors via HDMI 2.0. It also has an HDMI 2.0 input for connecting PCs and consoles in place of USB 3.1.

AVerMedia also announced the Live Gamer 4K, a PCIe-based capture card with slightly more robust capabilities. It's the company's flagship game streaming card and ups the ante by recording 4K HDR gameplay at up to 60 fps, and regular 1080p at 240 fps. And of course it has RGB lighting, because nearly everything does these days (except the Live Gamer Ultra).

These are both reasonably priced capture cards, considering their capabilities—the external Live Gamer Ultra's MSRP is set at $249.99, and the internal Live Gamer 4K's MSRP is $299.99.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).