Technical Guide: Benchmarking Your Recording Performance guide illustration
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Technical Guide: Benchmarking Your Recording Performance

Table of Contents

Before you commit to a 24/7 capture schedule of 50+ performers, you must find your hardware’s breaking point. Benchmarking allows you to identify whether your CPU, GPU, or Disk I/O is the primary bottleneck.

1) The “Stress Test” Protocol

To find your maximum capacity, follow this ramp-up procedure:

  1. Baseline: Start 5 concurrent 1080p/30fps recordings of high-activity streams.
  2. Ramp: Every 5 minutes, add 5 more concurrent streams.
  3. Monitor: Keep adding until you see the first sign of instability (dropped frames or UI lag).
  4. Buffer: Your “Stable Max” is 80% of the point where the system failed. This 20% overhead accounts for spikes in bitrate during complex scenes.

2) Metrics to Track

Use HWInfo64 or Task Manager to monitor these critical stats during your test:

  • GPU Encoder Utilization: If this hits 95%+, you have reached your NVENC/QuickSync limit.
  • CPU Usage (Total & Per-Core): If any single core stays at 100%, the recorderd process may start dropping packets.
  • Disk Write Latency: If your “Average Response Time” on the recording drive exceeds 20ms, your Storage/NAS cannot keep up with the data stream.

3) Standardized Performance Profiles

Compare your results against these baseline expectations for a mid-range system (e.g., RTX 3060 + Ryzen 5600X):

ProfileTarget CapacityPriority Bottleneck
Standard HD (1080p/30)12 - 18 StreamsGPU Sessions / VRAM
High Motion (1080p/60)6 - 8 StreamsNetwork Bandwidth
Ultra HD/VR (4K)2 - 4 StreamsDisk Write Speed

4) Monitoring Tools

  • HWInfo64: The gold standard for tracking GPU thermal throttling and encoder clock speeds.
  • Task Manager (Performance Tab): Right-click the CPU graph and select “Change graph to -> Logical processors” to see if a single core is bottlenecking the app.
  • CaptureGem Logs: Check the internal logs for “Dropped Frame” warnings during your stress test.

Summary

Don’t guess your capacity—measure it. By running a standardized Stress Test and tracking Disk Write Latency, you ensure that your archive remains corruption-free even during peak recording hours.

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