External Hard Drive

[julien05]

Hey guys,

Back again with another question! I've recently installed BF3 on my computer and it runs well. However, I began playing with friends and the funny moments were all too funny, so much so that I decided I had to record them. As a result, my friend and I purchased Dxtory, a recording software however on both of our systems, the video and gameplay is laggy (drops down near 25/30 FPS when it is normally around 55-60).

After doing some research, I found that recording to an external hard drive can drastically improve the situation. I have a USB 3.0 port, which should allow for fast data writing/transfer (right?). I also read that it should spin at about 7200 RPM for optimal recordings. The purchase is no problem - one of my buddies works at a computer store.

So, this brings us to my question - would recording to an external Hard Disk benefit me since my OS, game, etc. will not use it and it will just have to write the files? Or is it senseless and my computer is simply unable to record and play simultaneously?

Almost forgot, my secs:
8gb Ram
Core i7-3632QM 2.20GHz (but it boosts to about 3.10 Ghz in game)
AMD Radeon HD 7730M 2gb

Cheers,
Julien

 

[Elixer]

It really depends on what the bottleneck was in the first place.
7730 isn't exactly a screamer, so what res you playing at ?
I would get a SSD for the laptop instead.

 

[Rikard]

I have not done much recording, but yes, if you write to another HDD it will most likely reduce the stuttering you experience. In my case it is still not as good as without any recording going on at all, but it is a definite improvement. The HDD does not have to be external of course. You would probably get even better performance with an SSD, but I did not try that.

 

[julien05]

Thanks guys again.

I don't think Ill be changing my hard drive for an SSD any time soon. I might try it after all - if it helps great, if not, well no recording haha.

Cheers
Julien

 

[Childs]

A lot of the lag associated with recording is dependent on the capture resolution, frame rate, and the speed your disk can write at. Capturing at 1080p60 using something kinda lossless like the UT codec requires around 4GB per minute. First thing to do is simply lower the resolution and frame rate. Try recording at 720p30. I think thats around 1GB/min, or 70MB/s. Most modern hard drives can do that without much issue. Also, try to record to a separate physical disk if possible, and use either UT codec or Lagarith. The default DXTory/Fraps codecs use up too much resources for little benefit when simply making videos for Youtube.