GPU Screen Recorder | The Best Linux Screen Recorder?

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Recording Screens in Linux

For a long time, OBS Studio (Open Broadcaster Software) or Simple Screen Recorder were the most recommended options in Linux to record your screen. Both can be very good options, however, both can be more CPU intensive than some would like.

Furthermore, OBS can be a bit complicated for someone just looking to record their screen without the need for scenes, adding a webcam, etc.

GPU Screen Recorder is a newer software that unloads the screen recording entirely to the GPU. The app is intended to be an Nvidia Shadowplay alternate for Linux.

Install

Installing GPU Screen Recorder is easy, it can be installed via the website above (though you may want to install the GTK GUI for it too). However, the easiest method is likely the Flatpak.

Interface

The interface is very simple:

• Record area - allows a monitor, window, focused window, or all monitors to be selected. Depending on the setting selected, additional options may appear, like a select window or area size setting.
• Audio Input - Allows multiple audio inputs to be selected.
• Video Quality - Options include High, Very High, and Ultra. High is recommended for streaming while Very High is recommended for recording.
• Frame Rate - Allows a frame rate to be entered.
• Stream - Allows video to be streamed directly to Twitch, Youtube, or a custom setting.
• Record - Allows video to be recorded with the specified settings.
• Replay - Allows for a rolling window to be recorded. The  number of seconds that should be included is set on that page. Ex. It can record the last 30 seconds.

Performance (on my machine)

My Youtube machine has a 3060 NVIDIA GPU. I was able to successfully run Final Fantasy 7 Remake at 4k generally staying around 60 fps. However, it seems like asking it to record in 4k was too much. I ended up needing to drop my resolution to 2560x1440. Recording at that resolution seemed to work fairly well.

Current Issues

It seems users of KDE Plasma may have an issue with the default recording shortcut. The shortcuts to record, save a replay, etc. All revolve around combinations with Alt + F1. In Plasma Alt + F1 represents the Meta/super key which by default opens the application menu.

As far as I can tell, these shortcuts are not configurable at this time.

This makes it very difficult to use the "Focused Window" option as clicking start recording means that the app itself is the focused window. I also believe it would be difficult to get the replay setup cooperating as easily.

Future updates?

The site mentioned above mentions future updates hope to add support for AMD and Intel GPUs as well as dynamically adjusting bitrate.

One other option I'd like to see is the ability to scale down output. Ex. have your system running in 4k, but record in 1440p.

Conclusion

So far, GPU Screen Recorder seems to be a very nice, fairly simple option to record screens, particularly when gaming. It's a very nice complement to Nobara!

For more on my thoughts about Nobara, consider checking out: