Medal clips lag because your computer is struggling to process video while you play, or the Medal app itself is competing for system resources

When you record a clip in Medal, the app is doing three things at once: running the game, capturing video, and encoding it into a file. If your computer does not have enough spare processing power, one of those tasks slows down. You see this as stuttering during gameplay, dropped frames in the recording, or both. The lag is real — it is not a display glitch.

The most common cause is that Medal's encoder is set too high for your hardware. Medal defaults to recording at your monitor's resolution and refresh rate, which can demand more from your CPU or GPU than your system has available while gaming. The second common cause is that your hard drive or SSD is too slow to write video data as fast as Medal is creating it, which forces the app to pause and wait.

Less often, Medal is straightforward competing with other background programs for the same resources. If you have Discord streaming, OBS running, or a browser with twenty tabs open, Medal has less headroom.

Key Takeaways

  • Medal lags most often because the recording resolution or frame rate is set higher than your hardware can handle while gaming at the same time.
  • Lowering the recording resolution to 1080p or 720p, or dropping the frame rate to 60 fps, usually stops the stuttering when ready.
  • If lowering resolution does not help, your hard drive may be too slow; moving Medal's save folder to a faster SSD can fix it.
  • Closing other apps that use your CPU or GPU — Discord, OBS, browsers, background downloads — frees up resources Medal needs.
  • If lag only happens in one specific game, that game may be poorly optimized or Medal may not support it well; trying a different encoder in Medal settings can help.

Lower your recording resolution first

Open Medal and go to Settings (the gear icon). Under Recording, find the Resolution dropdown. Change it from your monitor's native resolution to 1080p if you are recording at 1440p or 4K, or to 720p if you are on a tight budget for processing power.

The difference in file size between 1080p and 4K is enormous, but the difference in what you see on YouTube or Discord is small unless you are watching on a large monitor. Recording at 1080p cuts the work your GPU has to do roughly in half. Start here before changing anything else.

Launch a game you know causes lag, play for two minutes, and check whether the stuttering is gone. If it is, you have found your answer. If it is not, move to the next step.

Drop the frame rate to 60 fps

In the same Recording settings, find Frame Rate and change it from 120 or 144 fps down to 60 fps. Recording at 120 fps means Medal is encoding twice as much video data per second as 60 fps requires. Most people cannot see the difference between 60 and 120 fps in a clip anyway, especially on a phone or laptop screen.

If your game is already running at 60 fps, recording at 60 fps means Medal is not trying to capture more frames than the game is producing — it removes a source of lag. Test again in the same game for two minutes.

If you have already lowered resolution and frame rate and the lag persists, the problem is likely not your GPU. Move to checking your storage.

Check whether your hard drive is the bottleneck

Medal saves clips to a folder on your computer. If that folder is on a slow hard drive (HDD) instead of a solid-state drive (SSD), the drive cannot write video data fast enough, and Medal has to pause recording to catch up. This shows as stuttering or dropped frames.

Open Medal Settings and go to Storage. Look at the path listed under Recording Location. If the path starts with a drive letter like D: or E:, that is likely an external or secondary drive. If it starts with C:, it is your main drive — check whether your C: drive is an SSD or HDD by opening File Explorer, right-clicking your C: drive, and selecting Properties. The type will be listed near the top.

If Medal is saving to an HDD, change the recording location to your SSD. In Medal Settings under Storage, click Change Location and select a folder on your SSD (usually your C: drive). This alone often stops the lag.

Close other programs that use your GPU or CPU

Discord, OBS, Twitch Studio, web browsers with many tabs, and background downloads all compete with Medal for your processor and graphics card. Close anything you do not need while gaming and recording.

If you must keep Discord open, mute the video preview in your settings. If you are downloading files, pause the read. If you have a browser open, close it entirely rather than minimizing it — minimized windows still use resources.

After closing other programs, test the same game again. If the lag stops, you have confirmed that resource contention was the problem. You can then decide whether to keep those programs closed while gaming, or accept the lag as the cost of running them.

Try a different encoder if the problem is game-specific

If lag only happens in one game, Medal may be using an encoder that does not work well with that game's graphics engine. Open Medal Settings and go to Recording. Look for Encoder and try switching from NVIDIA to AMD, or from GPU encoding to Software encoding.

Software encoding uses your CPU instead of your GPU. This sounds like it would be slower, but sometimes it is more stable with certain games. Test the laggy game for two minutes with the new encoder.

If switching encoders stops the lag in that one game but causes lag in others, you have found a compatibility issue specific to that title. You may need to use different encoder settings for different games, or accept that Medal does not record that particular game smoothly.

Disable hardware acceleration if you are on a laptop

Laptops often have both integrated graphics (built into the CPU) and dedicated graphics (a separate GPU). Medal may be trying to use the dedicated GPU while your game uses the integrated one, or vice versa, which creates a mismatch. Go to Medal Settings, find Advanced, and toggle Hardware Acceleration off. Test the game again.

If turning off hardware acceleration stops the lag, your laptop's graphics setup was the problem. You can leave it off, though recording will use more CPU power and your laptop may run hotter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Medal lag in one game but not others?

Some games are harder to record than others because of how they use your GPU. A game with poor optimization or one that already maxes out your graphics card will leave Medal with almost no spare processing power. Try lowering your game's graphics settings slightly, or use a different encoder in Medal to see if that helps.

Does recording at 720p look bad when I upload it?

No. Most people watch clips on phones or small monitors where 720p looks sharp. YouTube and Discord both compress video anyway, so the difference between 720p and 1080p is smaller than you think. If you are uploading to YouTube, 1080p is worth it; for Discord or TikTok, 720p is fine.

Will moving Medal to my SSD fill it up?

Clips take up space quickly — a five-minute 1080p clip at 60 fps is roughly 1 to 2 GB. If your SSD is nearly full, Medal will lag because the drive has no room to write. Keep at least 10 to 20 GB free on your SSD. Delete old clips regularly or move them to an external drive.

Can I record at high resolution without lag?

Only if your hardware is powerful enough. A high-end GPU like an RTX 4080 can record at 4K 120 fps while gaming, but most mid-range systems cannot. If you have a newer, expensive graphics card, try 1440p 60 fps before dropping to 1080p.

Why does Medal lag even when nothing else is running?

Windows itself uses resources in the background. Windows Update, antivirus scans, and indexing can all steal CPU power. Restart your computer, wait a minute for Windows to settle, then test Medal. If lag is gone, a background process was the culprit. If lag returns later, check Task Manager to see which process is using the most CPU while you game.