As a professional videographer with over a decade of experience recording and editing video content, I’ve tried many different recording programs over the years. One that has remained a staple in my toolkit is Fraps.
In this blog post, I’ll share my top tips and tricks for using Fraps to its fullest potential, based on my extensive real-world experience with the software. Whether you’re just getting started with video recording or looking to step up your game, read on to learn how to get the best possible results with Fraps.
Optimize Your Computer Hardware
The key to smooth, high-quality video recording lies first and foremost in having capable computer hardware. Fraps records uncompressed video which requires fast disk write speeds to avoid lag and frame drops.
Based on testing various setups over the years, I recommend the following minimum system configuration:
- Quad-core processor (Intel Core i7 or equivalent)
- 16GB RAM
- Dedicated mid-range or better graphics card (NVIDIA GTX 1060 or equivalent)
- 500GB+ SSD storage disk
Upgrading from a traditional hard drive to a fast SSD made a huge difference in removing recording lag and improving video quality for me. Likewise, having a dedicated GPU provides a major performance boost over integrated graphics. Faster components lead to better Fraps performance.
Adjust Your Fraps Settings
The next step is customizing Fraps to best fit your specific recording needs. Fraps provide granular control over variables like frame rates, video resolution, and audio quality.
For recording gameplay, I recommend:
- Resolution: 1280×720 (720p)
- Frame Rate: 60 FPS
- Sound: 44.1 kHz stereo
This provides a good balance of high visual quality while allowing most systems to maintain smooth performance. If you have a very high-end PC, you can bump it up to 1080p resolution.
For recording desktop sessions and software tutorials, you can get away with lower frame rates:
- Resolution: 1920×1080
- Frame Rate: 30 FPS
- Sound: 44.1 kHz stereo
Customize settings based on your content, system capabilities, and personal preferences. I suggest running some test recordings to see what works best.
Record in Smaller Chunks
Fraps records continuously for as long as it’s running, which generates very large files. A 5-minute 1080p video can easily be over 10 GB! This quickly eats up disk space and also increases the likelihood of video corruption and recording failures.
To avoid issues, I suggest recording gameplay and other content in shorter segments of just 1-3 minutes in length. Then stitch these together in your video editor later as needed. This requires more editing work but leads to better stability and resource usage.
Disable Unnecessary Background Processes
To squeeze out every last bit of performance for smoother Fraps recording, be sure to disable or exit all unnecessary background processes before recording. This includes bandwidth-hogging apps like torrent clients or video streaming software. I also recommend temporarily closing web browsers, productivity suites like Microsoft Office, and even background utilities like anti-virus scanners.
Every little bit of CPU and RAM you can free up leads to better performance with Fraps. Just be sure to restart these processes afterward!
Use a High-Performance Power Plan
Switch your Windows power plan to “High Performance” just before recording with Fraps. This prevents your CPU and GPU from throttling down to lower speeds/voltages to save power. The tradeoff is higher energy usage and fan noise, but this keeps components running at peak speeds for the best recording performance. Don’t forget to switch the power plan back afterward.
Allow Fraps Through Your Firewall
Some anti-virus suites and firewall programs try to block Fraps from accessing the internet due to the way they hook into games and applications for recording purposes. Be sure Fraps is on the allowed programs list or you may face recording issues or crashes. I wasted almost an hour troubleshooting before realizing Avast was blocking Fraps!
Record a Test Clip First
Once you have Fraps installed and configured, record a quick test clip of just 30 seconds before your main recording session. Watch this back carefully, checking for any visual glitches, choppy playback, unsynced audio, etc. If you notice issues, adjust your Fraps settings further and run another short test recording until everything looks perfect. This prevents you from having to scrap a long recording due to unnoticed problems.
Have a Dedicated Recording Drive
As mentioned earlier, Fraps produces extremely large video files. For heavy recording, I strongly recommend having a dedicated secondary hard drive used just for storing your Fraps recordings and nothing else. This prevents your primary system disk from filling up and crashing during a recording session. A 2TB external USB hard drive works perfectly for this.
Monitor System Resources
While recording with Fraps, keep an eye on your system resource usage with Task Manager or a hardware monitoring tool like MSI Afterburner. If your disk, CPU, or RAM usage is maxing out during recording, dial back your Fraps settings until this stops occurring. This could involve lowering resolution, frame rates, or recording in shorter bursts. Pinned system resources lead to choppy or failed recordings.
Do Some Post Production
The raw files produced by Fraps retain pristine quality, but can also have that “raw” look. I always take my recordings through post-production in video editing software afterward to polish them up. This includes color correction, audio balancing, adding visual effects, smoothing cuts between segments, and encoding into a more manageable file format for uploading and sharing.
Some of my recommended video editors for post-production work include Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve (which has a great free version). The extra editing steps are worthwhile to go from raw footage to professional, shareable content.
I hope these Fraps tips and tricks based on my real-world recording experiences prove helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions. Happy recording!
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