Does Medal.tv Affect Game Performance and What Video Quality Can It Record?
Medal is designed to run in the background while you play, with a minimal performance impact of roughly 100–400MB of RAM, and it can record at up to 4K resolution and 144fps. Whether that impact is noticeable depends on your PC and your recording settings, both of which are adjustable. The rest of this article breaks down what the official documentation says about performance, quality, and how to tune each one.
Performance impact: what to expect
Medal runs in the background and is "always ready" to save whatever just happened, so it is capturing continuously rather than only when you press a button. That is the tradeoff for instant replays.
According to Medal's own FAQ, the tool is "optimized to be lightweight and adjustable," with a stated impact of 100–400MB of RAM. That figure is for multitasking or low-spec systems, so it is a reasonable floor to plan around rather than a worst case.
Two things determine whether you actually feel that impact:
- Your available RAM. On a machine with plenty of headroom, 100–400MB is negligible. On a low-spec system, it is a meaningful slice of what you have left after the game.
- Your recording settings. Medal offers variable recording settings and cloud storage, which the FAQ frames as the reason "even a potato PC is okay." Lowering resolution, frame rate, or clip length reduces the load.
Medal is compatible with all PCs running Windows 10 or later. It does not support console recording directly — you can import console system captures to edit and share, but the live capture happens on PC or mobile.
How to reduce the impact
If you notice frame drops or stutter while recording:
- Lower the recording resolution (for example, from 4K to 1080p). Encoding cost scales with pixel count.
- Lower the frame rate cap. 144fps recording is heavier than 60fps; if your game already runs near your monitor's refresh rate, capping the capture lower frees headroom.
- Shorten the replay buffer. Medal can replay the last 15 seconds, 60 seconds, 10 minutes, or the whole session. A shorter buffer means less continuous encoding and less memory held.
- Check your encoder choice if the option is exposed. Medal uses H.264, H.265, HEVC, and AV1 — newer codecs like HEVC and AV1 are more efficient but may lean harder on your GPU's encoder.
The expected result of each change is the same: less work for the encoder and less RAM held, at the cost of either quality or how far back you can clip.
Video quality: resolution, frame rate, and codecs
Medal states you can record at up to 4K resolution at 144fps, or lower if you prefer. Those are ceilings, not defaults — you choose where to sit on the scale, and the same settings that reduce performance impact also reduce quality.
| Setting | Range stated by Medal | Effect of going higher |
|---|---|---|
| Resolution | Up to 4K | Sharper clips, more encoding load and file size |
| Frame rate | Up to 144fps | Smoother motion, more encoding load |
| Clip length | 15s / 60s / 10min / whole session | Longer buffer, more continuous encoding and memory |
| Codec | H.264, H.265, HEVC, AV1 | Newer codecs are more efficient but depend on hardware support |
Medal also supports multi-track audio, letting you balance or mute your game, microphone, and Discord as separate tracks. That is a quality feature rather than a performance one, but it matters if you plan to edit clips afterward — separate tracks mean you can fix a loud mic or a quiet game without re-recording.
Choosing settings for your machine
There is no single correct configuration, because the right answer depends on your hardware and what you are clipping for.
- High-end PC, highlight reels: 4K at high frame rate is viable, and the 100–400MB RAM footprint is unlikely to matter.
- Mid-range PC, occasional clips: 1080p at 60fps with a 60-second buffer is a common balance — enough quality to share, light enough to leave running.
- Low-spec or "potato" PC: Drop resolution and frame rate first, then shorten the buffer. Medal explicitly supports this path through variable settings and cloud storage.
- Editing-focused workflow: Keep multi-track audio on and consider a longer buffer, since you can trim later but cannot recover footage you never captured.
If you are unsure, start at 1080p/60fps with a 60-second buffer, play a session, and check both your in-game frame rate and Medal's memory use. Raise quality only if performance stays comfortable.
Common questions
Will Medal lag my game? Medal says it is optimized to be lightweight and adjustable, with minimal impact. In practice, whether you see lag depends on your settings and your system's headroom — the adjustable settings exist precisely so you can trade quality for performance.
Can I record at 4K and 144fps at the same time? Medal supports up to 4K and up to 144fps, but running both at maximum simultaneously is the heaviest configuration and depends on your hardware's encoder. If you hit problems, reduce one before the other.
Does Medal work on consoles? No. Medal supports PC and mobile. Console captures can be imported for editing and sharing, but not recorded live.
Is Medal free? Yes — Medal is free on PC and mobile, with optional premium paid features. The performance and quality figures above apply to the free tool; premium features are separate.