The gaming industry is huge today. A part of that industry is also contents that you can watch and enjoy. That is the game streaming industry that is made popular by people like PewDiePie, and even Markiplier. As the eSports scene sees a huge surge in recent years, the game streaming industry also blew up. This leads to the creation of specialised hardware and accessories just for game streaming.
Webcams, for example, used to be telecommunication devices that you can use for video conferencing. Full HD webcams technically has existed forever, but never meant to be used for game streaming, although that is still possible. Capture cards was also a thing that was used by studios for both live production and regular production usage. With game streaming though, these once premium items were more in demand and more purpose built than ever. That does not mean that they become more accessible in price.
Introducing the Razer Kiyo X and Ripsaw X peripherals made for streaming. These are made specifically for streaming, but they are also made with budget in mind. These products are really designed for newer streamers who just got started in the streaming industry and looking to upgrade their gear without breaking their banks.
Razer Kiyo X
The Razer Kiyo X is really a littler, more budget version of the Razer Kiyo. The ‘X’ moniker really gave it away as the more budget friendly companion in the line-up. It is capable of shooting videos at Full HD at 30fps to boot. If you want your videos to be extra smooth, you can get it to shoot at 60fps with a resolution penalty at 720p.
The USB plug and play webcam can be controlled via Razer’s Synapse software. While it does not come with its own right light, it still has something called The Razer Virtual Right Light software that goes along with it. In that case, the display becomes a light panel for the Razer Kiyo X for both video calls and streams.
Razer Ripsaw X
Another very important item for live streaming is the capture card. A capture card functions either as a platform to record and project your games into the streaming software. From there, the software broadcasts the image that is captured from the capture card. It is commonly used in a two PC configuration, or when you want to use a regular camera as the webcam.
The Razer Ripsaw X is also technically a smaller version of the Ripsaw. It is quite a little bit more powerful than the old Ripsaw though. Where the Ripsaw could only capture streams at Full HD at up to 60fps, the new Ripsaw X can capture videos at 4K resolution at up to 30fps with HDMI 2.0 and a USB 3.0 interface. The Ripsaw X is also supposed to offer near-zero latency, which also means you do not have to be doing a lot of guess and calculation work done for streams.
Price and availability
The Razer Kiyo X and Ripsaw X will be is now available from Razer.com in the United States, Europe, and Singapore. There is no word on its availability in Malaysia, but we are expecting them to hit shelves in Malaysia soon. The Razer Kiyo X will set you back US$ 79.99 (MYR 334*) when it is available. The Ripsaw X will be available oat US$ 139.99 (MYR 585*).
*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = 4.18 on xe.com as of 02/10/2021
