Fraps: The 5 best alternatives in comparison
The best alternatives to the Fraps screen capture program are worth more than a look. In particular, the free variants in the video capturing area often perform as much as the paid fraps. Regardless of whether you want to record a video of a game occasionally or are looking for a professional solution - in our comparison you are sure to find what you are looking for.
1. CamStudio as an alternative to Fraps
CamStudio is an open source project and is distributed as freeware. The program can create video sequences from everything that is visible on the screen. You can take full screen pictures as well as select image sections. Of course, CamStudio can also record the output sound.
- The recorded videos can be saved in either AVI or Flash format.
- CamStudio also has a picture-in-picture function. For example, the image of a webcam can be inserted directly into the recorded video.
- You can download CamStudio here.
2. PlayClaw: HD recordings with low processor load
PlayClaw can also record videos in very high resolutions without any significant loss of performance. The program is also optimized for use on multi-core processors, which is very contemporary.
- PlayClaw can show different overlays - for example the frame rate or the processor load or temperature.
- In addition to the normal game sound, PlayClaw can also insert conversations into the video, which are conducted with other players, for example, via TeamSpeak.
- PlayClaw is available as a shareware license and offers a differentiated license model as well as a free trial phase in which only a watermark is shown in the videos.
- You can download PayClaw here.
3. MSI Afterburner graphics card tuning and game recordings in one
MSI Afterburner is a popular all-rounder in the field of graphics card tuning. The program is actually designed to overclock with MSI graphics cards. It also works with many graphics cards from other manufacturers that work with either a current AMD or an Nvidia chip. The free program can also create video recordings.
- With MSI Afterburner, various information such as frame rate and temperatures can be displayed.
- If you'd like to try MSI Afterburner, you can download it here for free.
4. Camtasia Studio: professional solution with integrated video editing
Camtasia Studio is a very extensive program in the video capturing segment. The program supports a variety of video formats and also has some other interesting features.
- Camtasia Studio includes an editing function that allows you to cut and set your films straight away.
- The program is also available in a version for the Mac.
- Camtasia can be tested for free for 30 days. However, the license is not that cheap: The full version of Camtasia Studio for Windows costs a whopping 258.00 euros.
- You can download the free demo of Camtasia Studio here.
5. Shadowplay: The perfect solution for GeForce cards
With Shadowplay, Nvidia offers excellent software for video recording on the PC. However, it works exclusively with Nvidia GeForce graphics cards. Shadowplay is part of the GeForce Experience program and is therefore available free of charge.
- When capturing, you can immediately encode in the space-saving H.264 format, whereby the processor load is of no further importance. This creates video files that use an average of just 10% of the storage space that Fraps would use, for example.
- You can download Nvidia GeForce Experience here.
In another practical tip, we will introduce you to some good video editing programs.