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NVIDIA ShadowPlay vs OBS Studio: catalog facts
NVIDIA ShadowPlay	OBS Studio
Free Free with a supported NVIDIA GPU.	Free Free and open source, funded by sponsors and contributors; no paid tier or watermark.
Windows	Windows, macOS, Linux
Hardware-accelerated recording built into the NVIDIA App Instant replay captures recent gameplay after the fact	Unlimited scenes built from window, display, camera, browser, image and text sources, with custom transitions Audio mixer with per-source noise gate, noise suppression and gain, plus VST plugin support
Requires a supported NVIDIA GPU Windows only	There is a real learning curve before the first good recording Screen capture on Linux depends on the desktop: Wayland needs the PipeWire capture source
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License: GPL-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 20, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.