By: Aaron Lai
February 23, 2024
In the past, my parents have generally looked at changing their cars once every ten years. My car is coming up on nine years, and I recently have had thoughts about replacing it. While the Chevrolet Cruze is neither a thrill to drive nor the best looking, it has been a reliable car for me. I have not had to do much in terms of maintenance, and the car has kept running despite a couple of issues like needing a new battery and a couple of leaks underneath. Looking at the car market, I have even more apprehension to find a replacement vehicle. First of all, I am not sure if I want to spend so much to replace my car when it functions fine. Next, there is the annoyance of dealing with dealerships and some of their frustrating business practices. I also am debating if an electric vehicle is viable in Calgary. However, my real issue is figuring out what car I really like. As a North American citizen, cars are almost a staple, as it is hard to get around without one. As such, I want to make sure I really like the one I drive, especially if I plan to keep it for a long time. In a similar vein, during the lockdown years, I bought a capture card so I could share my Nintendo Switch experience with my friends. I have not really thought about replacing it as my old card has done the job, especially for my use case. However, AVerMedia has recently come up with a couple of new options. Today, we have their new budget offer in the form of the Live Streamer Ultra HD GC571. Is this card a worthy upgrade, or will I unearth some areas of uneasiness? Let us read on to find out!
Today's review unit of the AVerMedia Live Streamer Ultra HD GC571 arrived from AVerMedia's American offices in San Jose, California. Traveling with UPS and their Standard ground service, this box arrived in relatively good condition. As you can see, they sent it to us in an AVerMedia marked box. It arrived with no real dents or bruises to be worried about, so I think everything inside should be safe. In addition to the Live Streamer Ultra HD GC571, AVerMedia also sent us a late Christmas care package, including the Live Gamer 4K 2.1 GC575, which I will be reviewing in a couple weeks, and a branded cape to wear while you are gaming. Otherwise, there is not much else to speak on, so let us take a closer look at the products inside.
The two AVerMedia capture cards come in similar retail containers. The company logo can be found on the top left corner, with the product ID on the right corner. Underneath, we have the full name. As for the Live Streamer Ultra HD GC571, a tagline of "High-Performance Capturing Made Easy" can be found underneath. Finally, in the middle, we have a scaled down image of the streaming card itself. Along with this, we have a few highlighted specs to point out, including the fact it supports up to 4K pass-through with HDR and variable refresh rate support of up to 60 frames per second, and 4K capture at 30 frames per second. It also shows one more logo to reinforce the support for variable refresh rate. On the back, we have a few other specifications. This front area is all printed on a sleeve, which can be slid off to get to the box inside.
Before we continue, I have grabbed the specifications from the manufacturer's website for your perusal:
Specifications
- Interface: PCIe Gen 3x1
- Input & Output (Pass-through): HDMI 2.0
- Max Pass-Through Resolution: 2160p60 HDR/VRR, 1440p60 HDR/VRR, 1080p240 HDR/VRR
- Max Capture Resolution: 2160p30
- Supported Resolution: 2160p, 1440p, 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i, 480p, 480i
- Video Format: YUY2/NV12/RGB24/P010 (HDR)
- Dimensions (W x D x H): 121 x 113.5 x 21.5 mm (4.76 x 4.47 x 0.85 in.)
- Weight: 62 g (2.19 oz.)
System Requirements
- Windows® 10 x64 / 11 x64 or later
- Desktop: Intel® Core® i5-6XXX / AMD Ryzen™ 3 XXX or above, NVIDIA® GTX 1060 / AMD RX 5700 or above
- 8 GB RAM recommended
What’s in the Box
- Live Streamer ULTRA HD (GC571)
- Quick Start Guide
As you can see from above, everything is packaged inside an inner white cardboard box. We first meet the AVerMedia Live Streamer Ultra HD GC571, which is sealed in an anti-static bag. Underneath, we have another compartment containing an HDMI 2.0 cable as well as some paper material to help you quickly get started with the streaming card. There is not much else, so let us take a closer look at the card itself.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. Performance Tests
4. Conclusion
