Medal clips lag because your system doesn't have enough resources to record, process, and play back video at the same time

Medal is a video capture tool that runs in the background while you game, constantly recording to a buffer so you can save the last few minutes of gameplay on demand. Lag happens when your CPU, GPU, or storage can't keep up with that workload alongside your game itself. The app competes for the same processor cores and memory your game is using, and if your system is already near its limit, Medal pushes it over the edge.

Lag can show up in two ways: your game itself stutters and drops frames, or Medal's interface becomes slow and unresponsive when you try to save or edit a clip. Both point to the same root cause — Medal is consuming resources that your game needs. The fix depends on which part of your system is the bottleneck.

Key Takeaways

  • Medal runs a constant background recording process that uses CPU, GPU, and storage bandwidth, which can slow down your game if your system is already under load.
  • Lowering Medal's recording resolution, frame rate, or buffer length reduces the workload without losing the ability to capture clips.
  • Closing other background programs — especially browsers, Discord, and streaming software — frees up CPU and RAM that Medal and your game are fighting over.
  • If your storage drive is nearly full or very slow, Medal's buffer can't write fast enough, causing stuttering that feels like the app is the problem.
  • Disabling Medal's overlay and post-processing effects removes visual elements that consume GPU resources during gameplay.

Check your CPU and GPU load while Medal is running

Open Task Manager (press Ctrl+Shift+Esc on Windows) or Activity Monitor on Mac, then start your game with Medal recording. Look at the CPU and GPU columns while you play. If either one is consistently above 85 percent, your system is maxed out and Medal is contributing to the problem.

Medal typically uses 5 to 15 percent of your CPU depending on your recording settings, but that percentage matters more on a system that's already at 70 percent usage from the game alone. If you see CPU or GPU at 95 percent or higher, Medal's recording is pushing your system past what it can handle smoothly. This is the clearest sign that you need to reduce Medal's workload rather than just close other programs.

Lower Medal's recording resolution and frame rate

Open Medal's settings and find the recording quality options. By default, Medal records at your monitor's native resolution and refresh rate — if you play at 1440p 144Hz, Medal is trying to capture all of that. Reducing the recording resolution to 1080p or the frame rate to 60fps cuts the data Medal has to process and write to disk by roughly half.

You won't notice the difference when you watch a clip on your phone or share it online, but your system will feel the relief immediately. Start by dropping resolution one step — from 1440p to 1080p, or from 4K to 1440p — and test your game's frame rate. If stuttering stops, you've found your answer. If it persists, drop the frame rate next.

Some Medal users also enable hardware encoding in the settings, which offloads some of the video processing to your GPU's dedicated encoding chip instead of using general CPU cores. This only works if your graphics card supports it (most modern NVIDIA and AMD cards do), but it can free up CPU resources for your game.

Close background programs that compete for resources

Before you change Medal's settings, close everything else that's running. Discord, Chrome or Firefox with multiple tabs, Spotify, OBS, streaming software, and antivirus scans all consume CPU and RAM. Each one makes less resources available for Medal and your game to share.

Discord is a common culprit because it runs in the background even when minimized, and it uses a surprising amount of CPU when voice chat is active. If you're gaming with friends, close Discord's overlay (press Shift+` in most games) or switch to push-to-talk mode so the app isn't constantly monitoring your microphone. Close your browser entirely rather than just minimizing it — a browser with 10 tabs open can use 2 to 4GB of RAM that Medal and your game could use instead.

Check Task Manager's Startup tab and disable any programs you don't need running at boot time. Windows Update, antivirus scans, and cloud sync services often run in the background without you realizing it. Disable them before you game, then turn them back on afterward.

Check your storage drive's speed and available space

Medal writes video data to your hard drive or SSD constantly. If your drive is nearly full, fragmented, or simply slow, it can't write data fast enough to keep up with Medal's buffer. This causes stuttering that feels like CPU lag but is actually a storage bottleneck.

Open File Explorer, right-click your main drive, and select Properties. If you have less than 10 percent of your drive's total capacity free, you're running too close to full. Medal needs breathing room to write its buffer smoothly. Delete old files, uninstall games you're not playing, or move files to an external drive to free up at least 50GB.

If your drive is an older mechanical hard drive (HDD) rather than an SSD, that's likely your bottleneck. Mechanical drives write data much more slowly than solid-state drives, and Medal's constant buffer writing can overwhelm them. If you have an SSD available, move Medal's buffer location to that drive in the settings. If you only have an HDD, reduce Medal's buffer length from the default (usually 15 or 20 minutes) down to 5 or 10 minutes so there's less data to write at once.

Disable Medal's overlay and post-processing features

Medal's in-game overlay — the small menu that appears when you press a hotkey — consumes GPU resources to render on top of your game. If you're not using it during gameplay, disable it in the settings. You can still save clips using a keyboard shortcut without the overlay visible.

Post-processing effects like automatic highlight detection and AI-powered clip suggestions run in the background and use CPU cycles. Turn these off if you don't use them. You can always manually save clips and edit them later without Medal doing the work in real time. Every feature you disable frees up resources for your game.

Reduce Medal's buffer length if you don't need long clips

Medal keeps a rolling buffer of your last 15 or 20 minutes of gameplay so you can save a clip from any moment. That buffer is stored in RAM and written to disk constantly. If you only ever save the last 30 seconds or 2 minutes of gameplay, reduce the buffer length to match. A 5-minute buffer uses roughly one-third the resources of a 15-minute buffer.

Open Medal's settings, find the buffer or recording length option, and set it to the shortest duration you'd actually use. You can always increase it later if you find yourself wishing you'd captured something from earlier in the session.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Medal lag more on older computers?

Yes. Older CPUs and GPUs have less processing power, so Medal's background recording takes up a larger percentage of available resources. On a system from 2015 or earlier, even lowering Medal's settings might not be enough — you may need to close Medal entirely while gaming and only run it for specific sessions where you know you want to capture clips.

Will switching to a different capture app fix the lag?

Maybe. OBS, Shadowplay (NVIDIA), and AMD's ReLive all have different resource demands. Shadowplay and ReLive use your graphics card's built-in encoding and often use less CPU than Medal. Try one of those if Medal's settings don't solve the problem, but start with Medal's adjustments first since you already have it installed.

Can I record to an external USB drive instead of my main drive?

Technically yes, but external USB drives are usually slower than internal SSDs, which will make lag worse, not better. If you must use external storage, use a USB 3.1 drive and connect it directly to a USB 3.1 port (not a USB 2.0 port or a hub). Even then, an internal SSD is faster.

Why does Medal lag only in certain games?

Some games are more demanding than others and leave less CPU and GPU headroom for Medal. A game that uses 70 percent of your GPU leaves only 30 percent for Medal and other tasks. A less demanding game might use only 40 percent, giving Medal more room to work. If Medal lags in one game but not another, that game is simply pushing your system closer to its limit.

Does Medal use more resources than OBS?

Medal typically uses less CPU than OBS because Medal is optimized for background recording and doesn't have to render a complex interface. However, Medal uses more resources than Shadowplay or ReLive because those tools use your graphics card's dedicated encoding hardware. If CPU usage is your bottleneck, Shadowplay or ReLive will perform better.