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How to Record and Capture Game Highlights

Tap a step to see it in order.

  1. Turn on Instant Replay in the NVIDIA app

    If you have a GeForce RTX graphics card, turning on Instant Replay in the NVIDIA app overlay keeps the last several minutes of gameplay continuously buffered in the background, so you can save only the moment you actually want.

  2. Use the Instant Replay hotkey

    Open the overlay with Alt+Z, then press the assigned hotkey to instantly save a highlight that already happened as a video file.

  3. Record clips with Xbox Game Bar

    Windows built-in Xbox Game Bar, opened with Win+G, lets you start and stop recording with Win+Alt+R without installing any extra software.

  4. Where Xbox Game Bar saves your clips

    Clips recorded with Xbox Game Bar are saved automatically to the Videos > Captures folder by default.

  5. Record directly with OBS

    OBS Studio supports local recording as well as streaming, making it a good fit if you want fine control over encoding settings and video quality.

  6. How the three methods compare

    The NVIDIA app uses hardware acceleration for a light performance hit, Game Bar needs no extra install and is the most convenient, and OBS offers the most control over settings β€” each has its own trade-off.

The right tool depends on what you are trying to capture

Whether you just want to save an amazing moment that already happened, record an entire session from start to finish, or fine-tune picture quality down to the last setting all point toward a different capture tool. Knowing a few different methods means you can pick whichever one fits the moment.

Instant Replay is a rolling buffer, not a running recording

With NVIDIA Instant Replay turned on, the app is not saving a growing video file the whole time you play β€” it continuously keeps only the last few minutes in a temporary buffer, and only writes an actual video file to disk once you press the hotkey. That is what makes it possible to capture a highlight after it already happened, without having had the foresight to hit "record" beforehand.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Instant Replay always recording in the background?

While the feature is on, it continuously keeps a temporary buffer of the last several minutes, and only saves that segment as an actual video file once you press the hotkey.

Does recording with Xbox Game Bar affect game performance?

It uses hardware encoding, so the performance cost is relatively small, but lower-end PCs may notice a slight frame rate dip, so it is worth checking the impact on especially demanding games.