# OBS vs ShadowPlay vs Xbox Game Bar 2026: 2–15% CPU [Tested]

> Five game recording tools compete for your desktop in 2026: OBS Studio (free, open-source), NVIDIA ShadowPlay via the NVIDIA App (free, GPU-dependent), Xbox Game Bar (built into Windows), Medal.

- **Source:** [Tech-insider](https://tech-insider.org/obs-vs-shadowplay-vs-xbox-game-bar-2026/?utm_source=gearopen.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=feed&utm_content=6a3864bde8976fcb37ce0291)
- **Published:** 2026-06-21
- **Category:** Gaming
- **Tags:** #nvidia #rtx #amd #ryzen #intel #xbox #ai #windows
- **Canonical:** http://localhost:4321/a/6a3864bde8976fcb37ce0291

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_GearOpen's distilled summary. The full original article is published at Tech-insider (source link above); GearOpen does not republish the source's full text._