How to unlock 240 Hz and 144 Hz on your capture card

Why doesn’t Windows show 240 Hz or 144 Hz for my capture card?

Windows offers only the modes your capture card lists in its EDID, and the card’s default EDID setting can leave 240 Hz and 144 Hz out.

An EDID is a small block of data a display sends the PC: its name, and the resolutions and refresh rates it accepts. Your gaming PC sees the capture card as one more monitor, so Windows lists only the modes in its EDID, however fast the card is.

Most cards also have an HDMI OUT, the passthrough, which sends the signal on to a monitor. The card’s EDID mode decides what it makes of that monitor:

• Merged, the default on Elgato and AVerMedia cards, combines the monitor’s EDID with the card’s own abilities.
• Display, called Copy by AVerMedia, copies the monitor’s EDID.
• Internal uses the card’s own EDID and ignores the HDMI OUT.

When the card is a display of its own and your monitor plugs into the graphics card, nothing is on its HDMI OUT. Merged then has no monitor to work from, no maker documents what the card offers instead, and Elgato has fixed firmware bugs in exactly this case. So Elgato recommends Internal for a dual-PC setup “where only the HDMI input of the capture card is used and the HDMI output is unused”.

How do I unlock 240 Hz on an Elgato capture card?

In Elgato Studio or 4K Capture Utility, set the card’s EDID Mode to Internal (Elgato recommends it for dual-PC setups), then reconnect the HDMI cable.

1. On the streaming PC, where the card is plugged in, open Elgato Studio, or 4K Capture Utility on Windows 10. Close OBS first on a USB card: it works with one app at a time.
2. Set EDID Mode to Internal, which uses one of Elgato’s presets, like 1080p or 1440p, or a custom EDID file.
3. Unplug the HDMI cable from the card and plug it back in.
4. On the gaming PC, check the card’s refresh rates in Windows’ display settings. Elgato doesn’t publish which rates each preset includes.

These steps are for the Elgato 4K X, Elgato 4K Pro and Elgato HD60 X. On the Elgato 4K60 Pro, Elgato HD60 S+ and Elgato 4K60 S+, which can’t capture 120 Hz or faster, it gains nothing.

The Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 is different. Its 1080p240 and 1440p144 timings aren’t industry standard, so Windows may not list them. In Elgato Studio or 4K Capture Utility, set EDID Mode to Internal or load a custom EDID that has them, then reconnect the HDMI cable.

A custom EDID for the Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2

If Internal doesn’t bring its fast modes, Elgato says “a custom or edited EDID may be needed”: a 256-byte .bin file, which Elgato Support won’t help build. Keep the card’s own HDMI data blocks in it (see CRU below).

How do I unlock 240 Hz on an AVerMedia or Magewell card?

On an AVerMedia card, set EDID Mode to Internal in Assist Central Pro and put the mode you want first under Preferred Resolution; on a Magewell card, turn SmartEDID off in USB Capture Utility.

AVerMedia

1. On the streaming PC, open Assist Central Pro 4.0.73 (July 2025) or later, which has EDID Mode.
2. Set EDID Mode to Internal.
3. Under Preferred Resolution, move the mode you want to the top. In AVerMedia’s words, “You must first set that resolution as the top priority”.
4. Check the HDMI mode: with nothing on the HDMI OUT, you set it yourself. HDMI 2.0 is enough for 1080p240 and 1440p144.
5. Replug the USB cable, or shut the PC down fully for a PCIe card, so the card reloads its EDID.

These steps are for the AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K 2.1 (GC575), AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1 (GC553G2) and AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra S (GC553Pro). On the AVerMedia Live Gamer Extreme 3 (GC551G2), which can’t capture 120 Hz or faster, it gains nothing.

The AVerMedia Streamer Ultra 2.1 (GC535) is different. In Assist Central Pro, check the HDMI mode (the default HDMI 2.0 mode already carries 1080p240 and 1440p144), then replug the card.

The AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K (GC573) is different. In Assist Central Pro, set EDID Mode to Internal and put the mode you want first under Preferred Resolution (the older Gaming Utility calls it Change Resolution), then shut the PC down fully so the card reloads its EDID.

Magewell

In USB Capture Utility, turn SmartEDID off or import an EDID that lists the mode you want. SmartEDID, on by default, lets the card choose which EDID to send; with it off, the card sends its own.

On the Magewell USB Capture HDMI 4K Plus, which can’t capture 120 Hz or faster, it gains nothing.

What if my capture card has a fixed EDID?

If your card has a fixed EDID, there’s nothing to change: no software setting alters the modes it tells Windows it accepts. That’s true of the Elgato 4K S, Elgato Game Capture Neo, AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra (GC553), ASUS TUF Gaming Capture Box CU4K30, ASUS TUF Gaming Capture Box 4K Pro, NZXT Signal 4K30, Razer Ripsaw HD / X, Genki ShadowCast, Blackmagic Intensity Pro 4K and MS2130 / MS2131 USB capture dongle.

What Windows lists for these cards is what you get. Firmware can change it: Elgato’s January 2026 firmware added 2560×1080 to the Elgato 4K S. Otherwise only a custom EDID override on the gaming PC can, the last resort, and it can’t make a card capture faster.

What else stops 240 Hz or 144 Hz, even with the right EDID?

Duplicate mode, a 5 Gbps USB port, a narrow PCIe link, 10-bit colour over HDMI 2.0, a slow HDMI cable or HDR can each stop 240 Hz or 144 Hz.

Duplicate mode

Your monitor and the card share one mode, so Windows offers only what both can take. Set Windows to Extend, and the card gets its own list.

A 5 Gbps USB port

Uncompressed 1080p240 is about 6 Gbit/s even in NV12, the most compact format, and 1440p144 about 6.4. A 5 Gbps port carries about 3 to 3.5 Gbit/s of video in practice, a 10 Gbps port about 6.5 to 8. On the Elgato 4K X and AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1 (GC553G2), the fastest modes need 10 Gbps.

A narrow PCIe link

PCIe cards like the Elgato 4K Pro and Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 use a PCIe 2.0 x4 link, about 13 Gbit/s, and a slot wired for x1 gives them a quarter of that. Elgato lists green or duplicated video at Gen 2 x1 as a known issue on the Elgato 4K Pro.

10-bit colour over HDMI 2.0

At 8-bit RGB, 1080p240 and 1440p144 need a 583 and 587 MHz pixel clock, just under HDMI 2.0’s 600 MHz. At 10-bit they need 17.5 Gbit/s, more than HDMI 2.0’s 14.4. That limits the Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 and AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K (GC573), and any card on an HDMI 2.0 graphics card port, so send the card 8-bit RGB.

A slow HDMI cable

These modes need about 14 Gbit/s at 8-bit, which a certified Premium High Speed HDMI cable (18 Gbps) carries. Between two HDMI 2.1 devices, the link may run faster and need a certified Ultra High Speed cable (48 Gbps).

HDR

The Elgato 4K X, AVerMedia Live Gamer 4K 2.1 (GC575) and AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1 (GC553G2) capture HDR only at 1080p120, 1440p60 and 2160p30. Turn HDR off for the capture card in Windows; your monitor can stay in HDR.

Why does Windows list 240 Hz but OBS doesn’t get it?

Windows can list a mode OBS never gets, because many capture cards accept modes they don’t capture uncompressed: the extra frames go only to the HDMI OUT, or reach OBS only as MJPEG.

• Passthrough only: the card shows the mode on its HDMI OUT but captures fewer frames.
• MJPEG only: every frame is compressed, then decoded on the streaming PC’s CPU, with less colour detail and compression artefacts.

Check what OBS really gets

In OBS, open the Video Capture Device’s properties and set Resolution/FPS Type to Custom. FPS then lists only the rates the card offers OBS, and Video Format only the formats at that rate: if only MJPEG is left, the mode isn’t uncompressed. A rate the card doesn’t list exactly gets the closest one it does. OBS 29 and later list 240, 144 and 120.

Can I force 240 Hz with a custom EDID in CRU?

Yes, but only as a last resort: CRU (Custom Resolution Utility) writes an EDID override into the gaming PC’s registry, and a mode the card rejects can leave a black screen.

Try the maker’s setting first. An override replaces the parts of the EDID it covers: in Microsoft’s words, it “always takes precedence” over the display’s own.

• It needs admin rights and a driver restart. CRU writes to HKLM, then restart64.exe restarts the graphics driver.
• It can black-screen. If the card rejects the timing, there’s no picture, and the driver can crash during the restart.
• It’s tied to the port. Move the cable to another graphics card output and the override is gone.
• Keep the card’s own HDMI data blocks. Modes above 340 MHz, like 1080p240 at 583 MHz, need an “HDMI support” and an “HDMI 2.0 support” data block, or the graphics card treats the output as older HDMI. HDMI 2.1 flags the card lacks give no signal.
• It can’t make the card capture more. It changes what Windows offers, not what the card captures.

Know the way back first. When restart64.exe runs, pressing F8 within 15 seconds starts recovery mode, which unloads the overrides; CRU’s reset-all.exe and a restart remove them for good, from Safe Mode too.

Can Anti Tear unlock these modes for me?

No. Anti Tear doesn’t change your card’s EDID, but once Windows offers the fast modes, it runs the card at the fastest one it really captures that suits your stream.

• It knows what each of 24 cards captures uncompressed, and never picks a passthrough-only or MJPEG-only mode.
• The capture cards page says what to change on each card. After you change the EDID, choose Run setup in Anti Tear’s Settings › Advanced to pick the fastest mode again.
• Every display change is a 15-second trial: keep it if OBS shows a picture, or it goes back on its own.
• For a 60 fps stream, it runs a card that captures 1440p144 at 120 Hz, because 144 doesn’t divide evenly into 60. Which refresh rate to use