As someone who's been using external capture cards for just shy of a decade, the AverMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1 had me intrigued from the get-go. I've always kept to the Elgato side of the market, and even if that brand's previous options have been a cornerstone of my content creation setup, I've been waiting to be truly won over by a competitor.
AverMedia has been one of the only true, long-standing rivals to Elgato in the best capture card race, but its products have never done enough to make me switch camps. Its latest external option, the Live Gamer Ultra 2.1, is particularly enticing because it allows 4K60 passthrough and recording, but more importantly, variable passthrough refresh rates of up to 144Hz. As consoles continue to achieve slicker frame rates, the ability to reliably record footage while not compromising on in-game performance is a bigger and bigger draw.
