The answer — one pick, priced
Get the
AVerMedia Ultra 2.1
$71 under your budget
The value HDMI 2.1 external — 4K144 / 4K120 HDR VRR passthrough keeps your display at full speed while it records 4K60, and it undercuts the Elgato 4K X by $32.
Fit ledger — need → measured evidence
■ The catch — co-equal billing, always
It passes 4K144 but only captures 4K60. The headline number is what your monitor sees, not what lands in the file. If you genuinely record at 120 or 144fps for editing, this card physically cannot do it — and it needs an Ultra High Speed HDMI cable that is not in the box.
Dealbreaker? Runner-up №1 — the Elgato 4K X — captures at 4K144 ↓
■ Every product has a catch. Verdicts that hide it are how bad buys happen.
Don't buy this if…
- you need a streaming microphone or webcam, not a capture cardstreaming microphones dossier →
- you want to stream directly from a single PC without capturing external sources (no console, no second PC)
- you need a camera capture device (DSLR/mirrorless as webcam)
Wrong product for you is still a bad buy. These are the cases where we'd send you somewhere else.
Runners-up — if your needs differ
Adjacent verdicts — other needs, same method
Different budget, different household, different job — each of these is already researched, priced and verified. Take the one that matches your need.
Traps — this verdict avoids
Why the AVerMedia Ultra 2.1 is right for you
It avoids every trap below — and for just me, under $250, it is the pick because it delivers:
Passthrough is not capture
The big number on the box is what your own monitor sees, not what lands in your recording. The AVerMedia Ultra 2.1 passes 4K144 but captures 4K60 — and of the 13 cards compared, only the Elgato 4K X captures above 4K60 over USB.
The port and cable tax
A USB 3.0 port silently limits you to 1080p60 — genuine 4K60 capture needs USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps). And 4K120 passthrough needs an Ultra High Speed HDMI cable that none of these cards include (budget $15-25).
HDCP kills the signal
PS5 turns HDCP on by default — disable it in Settings > System > HDMI or the card sees nothing. Netflix, Disney+ and Blu-ray playback enforce HDCP regardless, so no capture card can record them.
Provenance — 12 sources, dated
Winners are picked from the full research dossier at knowledgelib.io. Prices, stock and listings are re-verified monthly.