Closer Examination and Build Quality

In terms of aesthetics, the AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1 is somewhat of a departure from AVerMedia's external capture cards, but there's nothing too extravagant about it. It's entirely made of plastic and palm-sized. The company's logo is etched on the top, and there's a front-facing visor-like RGB LED strip, reminding you about the gamer pedigree of the product.


The colors and effects of the RGB "visor" can of course be adjusted. This is done in the RGB Control section of the AVerMedia Gaming Utility, where you can select individual colors and/or effects, or leave it to supported third-party RGB lighting ecosystems: ASRock Polychrome Sync and MSI Mystic Light.


The device measures 120 x 70 x 27.6 millimeters and as such requires very little space on the table. It's light enough even to hang from the cables connected to it, should you want to remove it from sight entirely. The underside has two thin rubber feet, which are mostly successful in preventing the device from moving around the table, although very rigid cables could cause issues. You can easily solve them with a bit of double-sided tape or something similar.


By far my favorite external feature of the AVerMedia Live Gamer Ultra 2.1 is that all ports are placed on the back, instead of the more common front and back input and output split. This helps with cable clutter tremendously, as you can simply position the card at the rear edge of your table and have the connected cables completely out of sight. From left to right, you'll find a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, an HDMI 2.1 output and input, a 3.5 mm audio combo port, and a 3.5 mm audio passthrough port. If your PC doesn't have a 10 Gbps USB-C port, you can connect the card to any USB port you have, using your own USB-C to USB Type-A cable. The card will work, although you'll have limited video capture and passthrough options, adjusted for the reduced bandwidth of the USB port you're using.