OBS is a great tool for recording, it is not just for streaming! It has all the options that will enable you to do just as much and more. It is very versatile in the fact that you can use the advanced settings - which allows you to change your birate and quality control settings to tune the output quality just how you would want it. It by far outshines software like fraps and bandicam due to the simple fact that It offers you much more control for your video, it's also free and the quality is miles better anyway. I would highly recommend watching tutorials on how to configure OBS as a little work for great quality is not asking for much. You can set up a lot of templates as well, for example you can have a streaming profile and a recording profile so you do not have to constantly change your settings. You can set up scenes and bind them to keys to change through them live or during your recording (similar to xsplit). The only reason I do not use xsplit even though it is actually a very good piece of software is that a lot of it's features are hidden behind the subscription you have to pay for unlike OBS where you get it all. People even make custom plugins for you to use for OBS. I've used xsplit, dxtory, bandicam, fraps you name it and I have settled for OBS after many years of using the other software. Be careful though OBS can be CPU intensive (as with most recording software) depending on how much bitrate (quality) you want to allow the software to control - i.e higher bitrate = more load on CPU & bigger file sizes. You can use the NVENC settings if you have a decent Nvidia GPU to lighten the load on you CPU. Modern games tend to use less CPU power so you have the option of x264(CPU) or Nvidia NVENC (GPU) settings to meet your needs. Also I'd use OBS multiplatform instead of the standard OBS as it gives you more options for example I have a mixer and a virtual mixer too and It allows me to control the settings In tandem with my mixer to individually set my game audio, discord audio and windows audio to control the audio tracks separately as well as much more but that is by far taking it to the advanced stages. You have great options to set up filters for your microphone like a noise gate or compression to eliminate background noise, this is really scratching the tip of the iceberg. In my opinion what you get from OBS is well worth it.
Shadowplay is also an all round nice software for recording, very easy to use and the quality is really nice. I use this if am casually gaming and I need to record something on the fly very quickly instead of opening up OBS all the time (though you could keep OBS running all times in case of these situations and just bind a key to start recording when the need arises). If your someone who just wants something intuitive and stress free without much work then use shadowplay It's not so in your face with all the different settings and works well out of the box. Only problem is It is only for Nvidia
GPU's as far as am aware.
Just remember YT will compress your video quality down anyway so use the bitrate during post editing that youtube recommends for videos. Type in recommended upload settings for youtube on google to get to that page.
Keep them In mind during post
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Something odd happened to me. I was trying to record Skyward Sword on an emulator, and OBS made the FPS drop like crazy, while if I used Fraps it was buttery smooth lol
Emulators use a lot of CPU power and software like OBS does too so combining the two it is no wonder you are getting frame drops. Fraps gives you less quality output then OBS so It would use much less CPU usage that is why It was smooth. I'd drop the quality control on OBS if you wanted it to work with an emulator am guessing your CPU cannot handle the load.