Elgato 4K X Review: 4K HDR Passthrough Flaw on Consoles
In this full Elgato 4K X review, we uncover the hidden 4K HDR passthrough flaw affecting next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles during OBS Studio capture.
The Reality of Next-Gen HDMI 2.1 Capture
You are staring at your OBS Studio preview, trying to figure out why your gameplay looks compromised. Your Sony PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X is pushing a brilliant, high-refresh-rate signal to your monitor, complete with Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and HDR10. Everything looks flawless on your screen. But the captured file sitting on your drive feels like a massive step backward.
Enter the Elgato 4K X.
Priced at $229 and available at Amazon and Best Buy, this external capture card is positioned to bridge the gap between HDMI 2.1 console outputs and your streaming software. It supports an array of unencrypted HDMI sources, including the PlayStation 4/Pro, Xbox One X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC, iPhone/iPad, and Google Pixel.
It is shockingly small.
Measuring just 112 x 72 x 18mm and weighing only 91g, the entirely plastic and black enclosure disappears on a desk. The bottom holds two rubber feet to keep it planted. Up front, you get a small LED power indicator alongside a 3.5mm line-in port. If you plan on routing raw console audio into this jack, you might run into electrical buzzing from your controller or mixer. Adding a Ground Loop Isolator inline typically kills that hum.
The back of the device houses the essential I/O: an HDMI 2.1 Input, an HDMI 2.1 Output, and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port.
The 4K HDR Capture Bottleneck
This is where marketing collides with hardware limits.
Elgato explicitly states the 4K X maintains a “lag-free” passthrough while recording. If you route your console through the HDMI 2.1 ports, your monitor receives the exact signal your hardware outputs. The device handles passthrough up to 2160p144, 2160p60, 1440p240, and 1080p240 with VRR and HDR10 fully intact.
The bottleneck surfaces when you look at what actually makes it through the USB cable to your recording software.
Device capture does not mirror device passthrough. If you want to capture 4K video with 10-bit HDR enabled, the 4K X caps your recording at 2160p30 HDR.
To hit 60 frames per second with HDR on, you have to drop your capture resolution down to 1440p (1440p60 HDR) or 1080p (1080p120 HDR).
If you prioritize frame rate and resolution over High Dynamic Range, the USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) bandwidth opens up significantly for standard SDR capture. The MJPG 8-bit 4:2:0 codec supports 3840x2160 capture at 144, 120, and 60 frames per second. Dropping the resolution to 1920x1080 allows the MJPG codec to capture at a blistering 240Hz.
Different codecs utilize the bandwidth in different ways. The YUY2 8-bit 4:2:2 codec allows 4K at exactly 50 frames per second. Both the i420 and NV12 (8-bit 4:2:0) codecs hit 3840x2160 at 60 frames.
The RGB 8-bit 4:4:4 codec tops out at 2560x1440 at 60 frames, or 1920x1080 at 120/60 frames.
The heavy lifting for HDR relies on the P010 10-bit 4:2:0 codec. This is the codec responsible for the 3840x2160 at 30 frames and 2560x1440 at 60 frames limitations.
The Hard Stop for Mac Users
If you use a Mac for your stream processing, HDR capture is a complete dead end.
macOS does not support the required video codec, making HDR capture unavailable. The 4K X will still pass an HDR signal to your gaming monitor via HDMI, but the hardware physically converts the HDR video to SDR before sending it to your Mac over USB.
You also need to manually force the card to use its full bandwidth. Mac users must hold command and click the sidebar view in the Elgato Capture Utility to enable 10Gbps speeds.
Windows users have a smoother path, provided they have the required GPU architecture. Capturing HDR 10-bit footage in Windows 10 or 11 through the Elgato 4K Capture Utility requires an NVIDIA 10 series or later graphics card. The software captures this HDR footage in the HEVC format.
Check your software settings immediately after installation. By default, the Elgato 4K Capture Utility app is set to “flashback” recording, which continuously caches your gameplay in the background to ensure you never miss a moment.
Beyond Elgato’s proprietary software—which requires version 1.7.11 or later on Windows, the Capture Utility on macOS, or Capture on iPadOS—the hardware is supported natively in OBS Studio 27.2.4 or later on both Windows and macOS platforms.
Firmware Updates and Display Stream Compression
PC gamers utilizing ultrawide monitors received a critical update with Firmware 1.7.13. This patch brought native Ultra Wide Support to the 4K X, specifically enabling 3440x1440 and 2560x1080 resolutions.
There is, however, a strict limitation for high-end monitor users. The 4K X does not support the capture of video signals utilizing Display Stream Compression (DSC). If your primary gaming monitor relies on DSC to achieve its peak refresh rate over HDMI, the capture card cannot process that specific signal.
Out of the box, Elgato provides the Game Capture 4K X unit, an 8K HDMI cable measuring 200 cm (78.7 in), and a USB 3.2 C-to-C cable measuring 150 cm (59 in).
You must use the correct USB port on your motherboard. Plugging the device into older USB standards—specifically USB 3.2 Gen 1, USB 3.1 Gen 1, or USB 3.0—will restrict your connection to speeds up to 5Gbps. This instantly halves the 10Gbps bandwidth required for the card’s maximum framerates and resolutions.
Go back to that OBS Studio preview. If your goal is preserving the exact 4K 144Hz HDR image your PlayStation 5 generates, you have to choose what matters most for the final recording. You get the 4K. You get the 144Hz. You get the 10-bit HDR. You just can’t record them all at the exact same time.
References
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