Game capture, Window capture, or Display capture, what's the actual difference in performance? (2024)

After browsing various online resources, I have a basic understanding of the different capture methods, but I still have some questions:

1. How good is the performance of Game Capture? Compared to Window Capture (WGC) and Display Capture (DXGI), how much better is it?

2. In fullscreen mode, is there a performance difference between Window Capture (WGC) and Display Capture (DXGI)? How much impact would it have?

3. How do I choose the best capture mode?

4. Will the above conclusions be affected by the latest operating systems such as Windows 11?

Your question boils down to "should I use this or should I use that?"

While I cannot answer whether one of these capture methods have better performance, I can answer why different capture methods exist: it's for compatibility reasons. Windows 10 (WGC) capture is able to capture a larger variety of apps than the other capture methods. It's using a newer Windows API (new as of Windows 10 1903 - everybody using OBS will have this, including all Windows 11 users).
By asking this question, you implicitly say you didn't observe any performance difference on your machine. So performance isn't relevant for a decision.
A visual difference between both is that Windows 10 capture is able to capture window title bar and window margin if used with window capture if you deactivate the "Client Area" option.

So the answer is: Let OBS choose the method by using "Automatic". I guess OBS will try to choose the best method that's working and results in a picture and not in a black screen. "Best method" is probably "best performance that works on that specific computer setup".

Only if you need title bar and margin, and the "Client Area" option isn't offered, change capture method to "Windows 10". Or if "Automatic" results in a black screen while the Windows 10 method doesn't.

koala said:

Your question boils down to "should I use this or should I use that?"

While I cannot answer whether one of these capture methods have better performance, I can answer why different capture methods exist: it's for compatibility reasons. Windows 10 (WGC) capture is able to capture a larger variety of apps than the other capture methods. It's using a newer Windows API (new as of Windows 10 1903 - everybody using OBS will have this, including all Windows 11 users).
By asking this question, you implicitly say you didn't observe any performance difference on your machine. So performance isn't relevant for a decision.
A visual difference between both is that Windows 10 capture is able to capture window title bar and window margin if used with window capture if you deactivate the "Client Area" option.

So the answer is: Let OBS choose the method by using "Automatic". I guess OBS will try to choose the best method that's working and results in a picture and not in a black screen. "Best method" is probably "best performance that works on that specific computer setup".

Only if you need title bar and margin, and the "Client Area" option isn't offered, change capture method to "Windows 10". Or if "Automatic" results in a black screen while the Windows 10 method doesn't.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. We are trying to recommend the best capture method to our streamers. In fact, we have not conducted comprehensive testing, or we do not have the capability to test all devices and games. Therefore, we would like to understand the performance differences among these capture modes for gaming.

koala said:

If you don't talk about a specific hardware configuration but instead about streamers in general, the only answer I can think of is "use Automatic".

Click to expand...

Do you mean that there are different recommended sources for different hardware configurations? We have various types of streamers, but they can be generally divided into two categories. I can provide examples of two common devices.

Device One: Intel Core i9-11900K, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, 160Hz Gaming Monitor
Device Two: Intel Core i3-10100, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, 60Hz Monitor

For me, koala went a bit backwards with the his answers, IMO, because he only talked about window capture while completely missing the remaining questions about game capture and display capture. So I will try to explain it from my own experience instead.

1) If you're capturing a game, Game Capture is generally the best option of course.
Performance wise, from Windows 10 onwards, they seem to be similar, though it likely that Display Capture is "slowest" of them all. Window Capture should have same performance as Game Capture though.
2) There shouldn't be any performance impacts between those two modes in fullscreen. But, then again, it's OBS, so sometimes weird things can happen...
3) It all depends on what you're trying to capture.
If you are trying to have a game in your OBS capture, Game Capture is the way to go, generally speaking. If there are issues, the fallback is Window Capture (though it will capture the game with all overlays like Steam and you cannot hide them like in Game Capture). Display Capture is last resort option for that, if Window Capture also fails.
Window Capture is the main choice if you're capturing something other than a game, like a browser window or any application window. As koala already mentioned, it has some options, but Automatic capture method will probably do the job well enough.
Display Capture should generally be used as a last-resort option, or if you are gaming on a separate monitor and it's somewhat empty - as it always shows everything that is on that screen (saves some "black void" moments, if done correctly).
Preferentially, I would say it goes "Game Capture" >= "Window Capture" > "Display Capture", or "Window Capture" > "Display Capture" if you're capturing something not-gaming-related.
4) If we're specifically talking about Windows 11, there shouldn't be any big difference since it didn't change too much from Windows 10. HOWEVER, at the time I'm answering, it seems that OBS might be suffering from a "0 kbps" stream issue on some Windows 11 machines (with increasing numbers nowadays it seems), while Windows 10 machines seem to be unaffected by that. So, the correct answer is probably "yesn't" (both yes and no).