Nowadays there are many programs and tools that give you the ability to record your gameplay screen with ease. But if you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you only need any third-party software or tools - unless you want to record your webcam as well.
This is because the ShadowPlay tool built into the Geforce Experience application will enable you to actually record your games with ease, regardless of the version of your graphics card.
How to record games with NVIDIA ShadowPlay
Geforce Experience packs a ton of advanced features, from the ability to tweak and optimize game video settings, to the ability to automatically update your graphics card drivers, to the ability to record your gaming screen.
Read also on Review Plus: an explanation of how to get Nvidia graphics card definition install and update it.
You can use ShadowPlay on any Nvidia graphics card starting from Geforce GTX 650 and any newer graphics card.
One of the advantages of the application is that it has a simple and intuitive graphical interface, works great, and does not require a large amount of resources, unlike other recording programs.
Most importantly, it gives you more customization options, whether by tweaking quality parameters, assigning specific shortcuts to start and end recording, and more.
But before starting, we must note that the ShadowPlay tool will impose some additional load on the graphics card, but note that it is better than any third-party tools because it depends on a built-in engine responsible for recording the gameplay screen. In short, this tool consumes about 10% of the power of the graphic processor.
Therefore, it is not a large percentage compared to external programs that may require more than 15% or 20% of computer resources.
■ How do you use NVIDIA ShadowPlay to record games?
Before you start using the ShadowPlay tool, just make sure that your graphics card is updated with the latest version of the Geforce Experience application, and it is also better to update your graphics card. Now follow these steps very briefly:
- Open the Geforce Experience app
- Click the gear icon to open Settings.
- Make sure that In-Game Overlay is enabled.
- Run any game on the computer.
- Click the Alt + Z shortcut to open the ShadowPlay tool popup.
- Click Record and then Start.
■ Explanation of NVIDIA ShadowPlay
ShadowPlay is among the default and built-in core features of Geforce Experience. If you have not downloaded and installed the application with the graphics card driver, you can easily download it from the official NVIDIA website.
After that, open the Geforce Experience application on the computer through the Start menu, or click the Alt + Z shortcut.
Inside the Geforce Experience app, click on the settings gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Now make sure to activate the In-Game Overlay option, because without activating this option, you will not be able to launch the application menu while you are in the games.
But by activating it, you will be able to start or stop recording the game easier.
Now run any game on the computer.
While you are in the game, click on the Alt + Z shortcut. Once you click on this shortcut, the NVIDIA Geforce Experience application menu will open for you.
When you are ready to start recording, click the Record box at the top and then click Start to begin the recording process. If you want to stop recording again, you can also click the Alt + Z shortcut to open the Geforce Experience menu, click the Record box, and then click Stop.
Conclusion
Note that the Geforce Experience application not only allows you to record gaming videos, but also helps you to keep screenshots from within the games.
Most importantly, if you find that the way to use it is complicated or requires many steps, you can instead set Hotkeys to start or end recording with just a quick keyboard shortcut.
In the end, you should know that the ShadowPlay tool is only available on computers that have a graphics card from NVIDIA.
Alternatively, if you have an AMD card, you can rely on the AMD Adrenaline Edition app and use the Record & Stream tab to start recording your games in the same way.
