Martin JørgensenBandicam – Record everything on your screen without lag.
Bandicam is one of the most popular tools for screen recording and gameplay videos—and for good reason. Whether you want to capture your gaming sessions, create tutorials, presentations, or webcam screencasts, Bandicam combines high quality, low system load, and flexible features, making it a favorite among both beginners and professionals.
Gameplay and features
Bandicam is especially known for its ability to record games in high quality without noticeable lag or delay. That goes for heavy 3D titles like World of Warcraft, Minecraft and Fortnite, as well as lighter activities like YouTube tutorials and PowerPoint presentations. You can record in up to 4K UHD (3840x2160) at up to 144 fps—perfect for modern gaming and content creation.
The program lets you record your screen and webcam at the same time using a picture-in-picture mode. It’s ideal for tutorials, Let’s Plays, and reaction videos. Bandicam supports both AVI and MP4, and you can choose the codecs and bitrate yourself.
Low overhead and efficient compression
One of the most impressive things about Bandicam is how little it impacts your system performance. Using real-time compression and hardware acceleration (e.g., NVENC, Intel Quick Sync, and AMD VCE), Bandicam delivers crisp recordings with minimal CPU, GPU, and RAM usage.
This makes it perfect if you want to avoid frame drops while recording and keep file sizes small without compromising on quality.
Practical options and flexibility
Bandicam offers a wide range of useful features, including:
- Automatic stop after a set duration or file size
- Continuous recording for over 24 hours
- Real-time drawing tools (great for teaching)
- Keyboard shortcuts for quick start/stop
- Record specific windows, regions, or the entire screen
It’s also ideal for YouTube, where you can easily export your recordings in the right format without additional editing.
Strengths and weaknesses
There are free alternatives such as 1, but many users choose Bandicam for its user-friendly setup, stable performance, and low resource usage. The downside is that the free version adds a watermark and limits recordings to 10 minutes—upgrading to a license removes these restrictions.
Top five tips and tricks for Bandicam
1. Use NVENC or AMD VCE for better performance
If you have a newer NVIDIA or AMD graphics card, enable hardware acceleration in Bandicam’s settings under Video > Settings > Codec. Here you can choose NVENC (NVIDIA) or AMD VCE (Video Coding Engine). This offloads your CPU and delivers much smoother recordings, especially for high-resolution games. The result is less lag, fewer frame drops, and significantly faster export times. It’s one of the most effective ways to improve recordings without upgrading your hardware.
2. Customize keyboard shortcuts to fit your workflow
Bandicam lets you define your own hotkeys so you can start, pause, or stop a recording without leaving your game or app. The default start/stop key is F12, but you can change it to something more convenient, such as Scroll Lock or Ctrl + Shift + R. This is especially handy for live tutorials, full-screen gaming, or reaction content, where you don’t want to break the flow by clicking around with the mouse.
3. Use "Auto Complete Recording" to control file sizes
Under Settings > General > Auto Complete Recording, you can set Bandicam to automatically stop or split the recording when a certain file size or time is reached—for example, 1 GB or 30 minutes. This makes it easier to organize long sessions and avoid errors. It’s also perfect if you upload to YouTube or edit in smaller chunks, since it keeps files manageable and saves disk space.
4. Use Picture-in-Picture (PiP) to combine screen and webcam
If you want to appear on camera while showing something on-screen, PiP is your friend. Enable the webcam under Video > Settings > Camera overlay, where you can adjust size, position, and transparency. PiP is popular for educational videos, reaction content, and gaming—and it gives your recordings a more personal touch without the need for external video editing.
5. Record only what you need with “Rectangle on screen”
If you only want to show a specific window—like a PowerPoint deck or part of your browser—use the “Rectangle on screen” feature. It lets you draw a frame over the area you want to capture. This keeps your videos focused and prevents unnecessary elements like the taskbar, notifications, or other apps from appearing in the recording. You can also save presets if you use the same area frequently.
