Video Recording For Desktop/gaming

I'm looking for a decent program to do desktop and/or game play recording. I've checked some of the options out, and the best (or easiest) looks like ShadowPlay, however, my graphics card is not the greatest, -
NVIDIA GeForce GT 730. I was sure the requirements said 600 series or later, but apparently mine doesn't fall under that requirement.

I've looked at some of the alternatives, like Open Broadcast Software, XSplit, Bandicam, etc. I'm curious on any opinions the community here may have, or experience with any of these programs that can be shared. I've read some bad reviews for the OBS program, but then I've read good comments as well. It makes it a bit difficult with all the conflicting points of view.

Ultimately, I'm looking to possibly upload videos to YouTube, but the format isn't a major deciding factor, as we all know the video files can be converted. So, does anyone here have a good suggestion, advice, or opinion on what I might use?

 

I neglected to mention that I would rather not pay a subscription fee. A one time fee might be do-able depending on the retail price, but at the moment, I'm looking for something free. I realize there are trial versions for some great software, but a lot of them will put a water mark on the recording, which is not acceptable if I'm going to actually upload these videos.

 

Worth reading this to be on the safe, knowledgable side. User comments span from the date of the article, right up to this month, long after NCH said they had solved problems.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/whats-problem-nch-software-remove/

 

No software program (free or subscription) causes big problems for every single user. But it's helpful to see the very specific issues users have faced with one or more parts of either the free or paid-for elements of NCH - it covers both - in order to be aware in advance. A kind of 'freedom of information'.

 

Ok, so I've played around with the Open Broadcast Software program since it's entirely free and open source. So far I'm not able to get a successful video recording out of it. The best I've been able to accomplish (which took some changing of settings) was I'm able to see the mouse cursor moving. The audio was always present in every test video I made, but there is no video at all. The software allows you to choose specific windows to capture, for instance, I opened File Explorer and, as a result, it would then appear in OBS as an option for capture.

To test the software out, I'm using a simple game, nothing major: Asphalt 8: Airborne. It's as if the issue is that it's a windowed game not run on a platform; like it isn't being captured as the focus window or something. I don't really think that's what the problem is, but it seems to behave that way.

I honestly think my video card is the main problem. It's too outdated to use ShadowPlay, and if you hit the Windows Logo+G keys to bring up the built in recording software, the operating system actually reports back that my hardware does not meet the requirements to record clips.

I refuse to believe I can't record a video of my own desktop with some type of software, I just need to find one that works. I'll take a look at this NCH and read a little bit about it. I will probably end up trying some of the other options I've read about but haven't tried yet. The one's I have tried (xsplit and movavi) are trial versions, have water marks on the video, and want money. I'm certainly not opposed to paying for a good program eventually, but for the time being, I'm too strapped for something I'm just dipping my toes into at the moment. Side note: movavi actually worked, but killed the frame rate during game play.

Again, thanks for the suggestions. Any others are certainly welcome. Just in case it may be pertinent, here's some system info:

Manufacturer: iBuyPower
Processor: AMD FX 4300 Quad-Core 3.80Ghz
RAM: 8GB DDR3
System type: 64-bit Windows 10 Home Edition
Display Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 (driver updated 8/11/2016 version 372.54)​

 

There are numerous screen recording softwares available but, recording a game is far more demanding.
Have a look at this article.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3040...-software-5-top-recording-tools-compared.html

The first two are way ahead of the others. As you have an Nvidia card you should definitely look at ShadowPlay, and Nvidia has an active support forum.
http://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience/shadowplay

Here's another article and don't give up on Open Broadcaster Software.
http://beebom.com/best-game-recording-software/

 

I tinkered around with OBS more and finally figured it out. First of all, I uninstalled OBS and installed OBS Studio. That alone still didn't solve the issue, but when I changed the source from 'Game Capture' to 'Display Capture' it works just fine now. I tried setting up different sources in the older OBS software too, but I still got a black screen for a video capture.

I just assumed that if the 'Game Capture' source listed Asphalt 8 as an option, it would be able to locate it and know what to record. Apparently that isn't the case. I'm now just capturing my display and it works with no problems.