Using a capture card instead of a fuser
Feed the game PC's HDMI output into a capture device on the second PC and draw the overlay over it. It is cheap, but it has real limits, and you end up watching a delayed copy of your own screen.
Short answer
A capture card feeds the game PC's HDMI output into the second PC, which draws the radar or ESP over that feed. It is the cheapest way to see game and overlay together, but you watch a delayed, usually downscaled copy of your screen.
On this page10
- How does the capture card path work?
- What you need for a capture setup
- How to wire it and run a first test
- How much delay does a capture card add?
- What are the trade-offs of a capture card?
- Why is the captured image behind the game?
- Why choose a capture card anyway?
- Does the capture path affect detection?
- Common questions about capture cards
- Sources
How does the capture card path work?
The game PC outputs video, and a USB capture device on the second PC accepts that video as an input, the same way it would accept a console. Capture software shows the feed in a window on the second PC, and the cheat software draws its overlay on top of it. That gives you game and overlay in one frame without a fuser, for the price of a capture device. Most devices also have a loop-out, a straight pass-through port that lets a monitor keep running from the game PC's signal in real time.
What you need for a capture setup
Read the first row carefully, because the capture figure and the loop-out figure are different numbers.
- Capture device
- A USB 3 HDMI capture device. Check its CAPTURE resolution and frame rate, which is often far below its loop-out figure
- A free output on the game PC
- A second GPU output, so your main monitor keeps a direct cable. Otherwise the monitor moves to the device's loop-out
- A rear USB 3 port on the second PC
- Not a hub, not a front header. The capture stream and the DMA card's data bridge both want real bandwidth
- Capture software
- Anything that shows a video capture device: OBS, a vendor utility, or whatever your cheat software expects behind its overlay
- A cable rated for the mode
- The game PC's leg carries the full signal. A marginal HDMI cable here drops the feed under load
How to wire it and run a first test
- Shut down both PCs
- Run an HDMI cable from a free output on the game PC to the capture device's INPUT
- If the device has a loop-out and you want the monitor on it, run the monitor from that loop-out; otherwise, leave the monitor's own direct cable in place
- Plug the capture device into a rear USB 3 port on the second PC
- Boot the game PC and confirm it shows the expected resolution and refresh rate on its own monitor
- Boot the second PC, open your capture software, and select the device as a video source
- Confirm you can see the game PC's desktop in the capture window before involving the cheat software at all
- Start the reader and the overlay, and position the overlay over the captured feed
How much delay does a capture card add?
A capture device buffers and converts frames and hands them over USB to software, which composites and presents them. Community measurement puts most consumer capture devices in the tens of milliseconds, end to end. The quickest sit in the low double digits, and slower ones run past a hundred. The capture format matters: an uncompressed path such as YUY2 costs bandwidth but adds little latency, while an MJPEG path costs CPU to decode and adds delay. The software matters too, and some vendor capture utilities measure several times slower than a lean preview. None of this affects the loop-out leg, which is a straight electrical pass-through.
What are the trade-offs of a capture card?
These are the six real trade-offs, each with what to do about it rather than simply tolerating it.
| What | The reality | What to do about it |
|---|---|---|
| Delay | Tens of milliseconds on the captured copy. Your monitor, via loop-out or its own cable, stays real-time | Play from the real screen. Treat the captured window as a map, not as the game |
| Resolution | Cheap devices capture 1080p even when the loop-out passes 4K60 | Read the capture specification, not the headline number, and match the mode you want to watch |
| Refresh rate | 1080p60 capture is the common ceiling. High-refresh capture costs real money | Accept that the copy is 60 Hz, or budget for a device that captures your mode |
| Mode locking | With no loop-out in use, the capture device is the sink and its EDID decides what mode the game PC may pick | Use the loop-out, or keep the monitor on its own direct cable and capture from a second GPU output |
| USB contention | Capture and the DMA card's data bridge share the second PC's USB controllers | Separate controllers where possible, use rear ports, and strip everything else off the path |
| CPU load | Decoding and compositing is real work for a small mini PC | Prefer an uncompressed capture format and a lean preview window over a full streaming suite |
Warning
Why is the captured image behind the game?
On this path you are watching a delayed copy of your own screen, and that is why people who can afford a fuser buy one. The captured image and the overlay drawn on it are aligned with each other, so the radar is not offset from the picture. But both run behind the real game by as long as the capture chain takes. For a radar you glance at, that is usually tolerable, but for anything you would act on frame by frame, it is not. Reacting to a delayed copy while the real game has already moved is its own category of mistake.
Why choose a capture card anyway?
A capture device costs a fraction of a fuser and needs no mains power. With a second GPU output it adds nothing to the game PC's video chain, and your main monitor keeps its own direct cable. If you are not yet sure whether an on-screen overlay is how you want to play, this is the cheap way to find out before spending fuser money.
Warning
Does the capture path affect detection?
Like every display choice, this one is close to detection-neutral. The overlay is composited on the second PC, so the game PC's frame buffer contains only the game, but that is a fact about where pixels are mixed, not protection. It changes nothing about the PCIe device, the input device or your behaviour. Watch for the reverse case, where you mirror or extend the overlay onto a display that the GAME PC drives. The game PC is then compositing the overlay, and its own capture path can see it. Nothing here is undetectable, and nobody should tell you otherwise.
Common questions about capture cards
Capture card or fuser?
Choose a fuser if you want a live composited image on your main monitor and will pay for it. Choose a capture card if you want the cheapest way to see game and overlay together and can accept a delayed copy.
Does the capture path slow my game down?
It does not slow the game itself, because the GPU renders as before and a loop-out or a separate monitor cable shows it in real time. Only the copy on the second PC is delayed.
Do I need a 4K capture device?
Only if you want the copy at 4K. Many people deliberately capture at 1080p60 to keep the load on the second PC low, while still playing at the monitor's native mode through the loop-out.
Will it work on a small mini PC?
Usually, but watch the CPU and USB load. An uncompressed capture format with a lean preview window is far kinder to a low-power machine than a full streaming application.
Why does my capture feed look like the wrong resolution?
Either the device is capturing at its own maximum rather than the input mode, or the device's EDID limited what the game PC chose to output. Check both, starting with the mode the game PC thinks it is running.
Sources
The latency figures come from community measurement and our own testing, because no document in our source list covers these capture devices.
- 01EDID overview, Wikipedia
that the sink's edid is what decides which mode the game pc may output
en.wikipedia.org
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