Do video cards attached to pc by USB lower video capture quality compared to a video card built into PC?

Q: I don't have a video capture card built into my PC so I've had to buy a smart disk video capture card which you plug into your PC's USB at the front of the PC. Will video capture quality be lower than if I had a built in video capture card?

A: Yes and no... USB bandwidth is easily consumed by other devices and USB is CPU intensive. If you get a quality device and your computer is up to snuff, you won't even notice. Typically a PCI/PCIe device will be better, but you can get a good USB device with the same specs/quality. Just remember your CPU overhead will be higher with the USB device.

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