NVIDIA ShadowPlay vs Vice

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.

Vice is a free Linux game clipper for saving recent gameplay, recording full sessions, editing clips, and sharing them through public links. Instant replay captures recent action, while double-tapping F9 starts a full recording session. Its multi-mode recording uses GPU encoding through NVENC or VAAPI, and the maker says typical CPU use is below one percent. Shared clips can play inline in Discord without an upload step; clip links are also described for Steam, Telegram, and Slack. A built-in multi-track editor handles video and audio tracks, transitions, and text overlays. Vice can identify known games, name clips, sort them into matching playlists, and update Discord Rich Presence for recognized games. It requires no account, says it has no telemetry, and is licensed under GPL-3.0. The Free plan costs nothing and has no Vice file-size limit.