About this release
Bandicam is a screen recorder built to keep the capture smooth and the file small, which is the balance most recorders get wrong in one direction or the other. It offers three capture modes, a game mode that hooks the rendering of a full screen application, a screen mode that grabs a drawn rectangle or the whole desktop, and a device mode that pulls from a capture card or webcam, and each is tuned for its job.
Hardware acceleration is the reason it stays smooth. The encode is handed to the graphics card where the card supports it, so recording a demanding game does not cost the frame rate the way a software encoder would. The output is a compressed file rather than the enormous uncompressed captures a naive recorder produces, so a long session does not fill the disk.
Around the core recording are the touches that make it usable for tutorials and let's plays, an on screen drawing overlay for annotating live, a webcam overlay for a talking head corner, mouse click effects, a microphone and system audio mix, and scheduled recording for capturing something unattended. This release is the full recorder with the watermark and time limit removed from first launch.
What it does
- Game capture mode that hooks a full screen application's rendering
- Screen capture mode for a drawn region or the whole desktop
- Device mode for a capture card, webcam or external source
- Hardware accelerated encoding to keep recordings smooth
- Compressed output that keeps long session file sizes sensible
- Microphone and system audio mixed or on separate tracks
- Webcam overlay for a talking head corner
- Live drawing overlay and mouse click effects for tutorials
- Scheduled recording for unattended capture
- Adjustable frame rate, bitrate and codec for the output
Changes in this version
- Added encoder support for current generation graphics cards
- Improved audio sync on long recordings
- Reworked output settings with clearer presets
- Better capture stability in borderless windowed games
- Reduced overhead of the on screen overlay
What the package contains
- Bandicam installer
- All interface languages
- Default output presets
- Readme with the install and unlock steps
- Notes on choosing the right capture mode
Installation notes
Follow these in order. Most reports of a failed install come from skipping a step rather than from the package itself.
- Disconnect from the network before you begin.
- Pause real time protection for the duration.
- Extract the archive to a folder you control.
- Run the installer as administrator and finish the wizard.
- Apply the included unlock step before launching for the first time.
- Open the recorder, set your output preset, then reconnect.
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 7 or newer, 32-bit or 64-bit |
| Processor | Dual core 2 GHz or faster |
| Memory | 2 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended for game capture |
| Graphics | GPU with hardware encoding support recommended |
| Storage | 100 MB for the install plus room for recordings |
| Display | 1024 by 768 minimum |
Things worth knowing
- Turn on hardware encoding if your card supports it, software encoding will cost frame rate in a demanding game.
- Point the output folder at a fast drive with plenty of room, long recordings grow steadily.
- Game mode needs to hook the application, so start the recorder before launching a full screen game.
Questions about this title
Which capture mode do I use?
Will recording slow my game down?
Are the recordings watermarked?
Can I record system audio and my microphone separately?
What people are saying
Records my full screen games with hardware encoding and I barely lose a frame. Files stay reasonable too.
Screen mode plus the drawing overlay makes clean how to videos. Webcam corner is a nice touch.
Long sessions do not balloon the disk like my old recorder did. The compression is the difference.
Listing information
This entry is catalogued under Video & Motion and carries the tags below. Language coverage is Multilingual, 26 interface languages, and the supported platform list is Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11. Version 8.3.1.2537 is the current catalogued build, last checked 4 days ago, and the entry has been in the index since it was added 2 years ago.