Closer Examination

The AVerMedia Live Streamer Ultra HD GC571 is as simple as a PCI Express capture card gets. Its electronics don't get warm enough to require heatsinks even when doing 4K capture and pass-through, so we get a bare, fully exposed PCB.


The card communicates to the system via a PCI Express Gen 3 x1 interface. The front panel has a HDMI 2.0 input and HDMI 2.0 output, which offer enough bandwidth for all supported resolutions and refresh rates. The HDMI 2.0 input is where you'll connect your source, such as your gaming PC or a console, and the output will go to your monitor. If you're using the same system for gaming and streaming, you can simply connect your graphics card's HDMI output to the capture card's input. Your system will think you connected a secondary monitor.


This is what the card looks like when installed in the system. It requires no extra power other than the one drawing from the PCIe slot, so there's no extra cable clutter caused by power cables.

Internals

To examine the integrated electronics in high resolution, click on the following photos. I wasn't able to verify the SoC used for decoding and processing even after peeling the AVerMedia sticker and cleaning the residue; the print on it was impossible to distinguish on my sample of the card. AVerMedia doesn't officially disclose that information either. What we can see is that the card is equipped with the ASMedia ASM3042 USB 3.2 Gen 1 host controller, which would imply that it's using a USB-based SoC, and the ASMedia chip is serving as a PCI Express bridge for the SoC.