Medal vs NVIDIA ShadowPlay

Medal is a gameplay capture and clip-sharing app for Windows PCs, iOS, and Android. On Windows 10 or later, it offers instant replay and multiple recording modes, with capture up to 4K resolution and 144fps; 60fps is enabled by default. Users can choose clip lengths of 15 seconds, 60 seconds, 10 minutes, or an entire session. Recording supports NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel GPU acceleration, as well as CPU recording. Game, microphone, and Discord audio can be balanced or muted separately, and webcam overlays are supported. Clips receive links for sharing. Medal is free on PC and mobile, with optional Premium features. Premium supports uploads in original quality, including 4K recordings, unlimited cloud storage and clip upload length, auto-generated subtitles, removable watermarks, and an ad-free experience, excluding certain programmatic and platform placements. Premium costs $9.99 per month or $7.99 per month with an annual subscription. Medal states that its recording has a minimal impact of 100–400MB of RAM. The maker is headquartered in Naarden, Netherlands.

NVIDIA ShadowPlay is a free Windows companion app for PC gamers and creators, combining driver updates, game and application optimization, and recording tools in an in-game overlay. Manual recording supports up to 8K HDR at 30 fps or 4K HDR at 120 fps; NVIDIA describes the performance impact as minimal. Automatic Highlights captures key moments, and overlay metrics include FPS, GPU and CPU utilization, FPS 1% Low, and system latency. GeForce RTX 40-series GPU owners can record with AV1 encoding. The app also includes a GPU control center for graphics settings and tuning, Freestyle filters for supported games, and ways to discover and launch selected NVIDIA apps. Requirements include Windows 10 or 11, a GeForce RTX 20, 30, 40, or 50 Series GPU, driver 551.52 or later, 2 GB of system memory, and 600 MB of disk space. Signing in is optional; NVIDIA says login enables users to redeem GPU bundles and rewards.