A rolling local buffer
Flashback continuously records short hardware-encoded segments to a managed temporary buffer on your PC.
Why Flashback
Full clipping toolkit.
None of the bloat.
Flashback brings instant replay, screenshots, voice controls, editing, compression, overlays, and game-aware organization into one local Windows app—without requiring an account or turning recording into another social platform.
THE PRODUCT PRINCIPLE
“Pack the features in. Keep background work out.”
No account required. No automatic uploads. No engagement loop.
What it does
A replay system,
not a recording project.
There is no need to start a recording before every match or scrub through hours of footage later. Flashback is built around the few seconds you actually want to keep.
Your global shortcut
Choose a single key or a Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or Win combination that works from a game, the desktop, or while Flashback is hidden.
A safe background export
Completed segments are assembled into a normal MP4 while the recorder immediately continues capturing.
Automatic organization
The foreground game on the recorded display decides the folder and filename in windowed, borderless, or fullscreen mode. Otherwise, the clip is filed under Desktop.
Flashback interface shown with locally captured VALORANT gameplay. Every image opens at full resolution. No account, browser, personal desktop content, or automation cursor is included.
Your setup
Visible when useful.
Quiet when it is not.
Flashback gives the recorder practical controls without turning them into another always-open dashboard.
Ghost Mode
Keep the replay buffer active with no Flashback window, app sounds, notifications, or Flashback-managed Discord presence. A quiet tray icon stays available so you can reopen it.
Per-game profiles
Give the game you are playing its own quality preset and replay length. Flashback applies the exact executable match automatically and falls back safely to your global settings.
Replay lengths
Choose a preset, enter an exact custom duration from 15 seconds through 24 hours, or enable a double-press gesture for a second length without adding another global shortcut.
Separate audio tracks
Optionally add editable desktop-sound and microphone tracks while keeping a normal mixed track, and leave out Discord, Spotify, or an active browser family from one compact menu.
Input overlays
Keep the master clip clean while Flashback stores a private, bounded input timeline. Arrange the keyboard and mouse freely, tune their style and scale, then add or remove the overlay during export.
Exact clip trims
Open any saved clip in the local editor, drag the start and end handles against a generated storyboard, preview the result, and save beside the original or anywhere you choose.
Screenshot shortcut
Choose a separate global shortcut to save the current screen as a PNG with the same game-aware folders and filename rules as video clips.
Capture intelligence
Open a clip's three-dot menu for an on-demand timing and audio-sync health check, or review largest, old, and exact duplicate files from Storage settings. Nothing is removed automatically.
Visible when you want it
Add a bright or custom-color outline around the Flashback window when it blends into another app. It stays off by default and has no effect on saved clips.
A fair comparison
Fast local clipping.
Measured honestly.
Flashback, Medal, and NVIDIA ShadowPlay were tested on the same PC in the same repeatable Cyberpunk 2077 workload. The charts show every result—even when another recorder wins a metric.
Measured July 23, 2026 · controlled 1080p test
PresentMon + game resultsOne PC. One game. No borrowed numbers.
Flashback, Medal, and NVIDIA ShadowPlay were measured on the same Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 5070 using Cyberpunk 2077’s repeatable built-in benchmark.
Flashback retained 140.92 FPS while Medal averaged 109.23 FPS in the same 1080p benchmark.
The same Flashback pass finished 33.74 FPS ahead of NVIDIA ShadowPlay.
About 82% less resident memory than Medal and 52% less than the listed ShadowPlay processes.
1080p
Cyberpunk 2077 · native raster
1920×1080 · H.264 · 60 FPS · 60-second replay · 20 Mbps
Recorder-off baseline149.69 FPS
| Recorder | Avg FPS | vs baseline | 1% low | 0.1% low | P99 ms | Process CPU | RAM | Private | Encode | GPU power |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flashback0.6.22 | 140.92 | −5.86% | 103.45 | 91.05 | 9.27 | 0.59% | 238.9 MiB | 336.4 MiB | 7.56% | 194.1 W |
| Medal2630.351.1 | 109.23 | −27.03% | 80.66 | 75.49 | 12.07 | 0.52% | 1,313.7 MiB | 1,537.7 MiB | 9.58% | 182.1 W |
| ShadowPlay11.0.8.299 | 107.18 | −28.40% | 78.86 | 73.21 | 12.31 | 0.01%* | 500.2 MiB | 667.4 MiB | —* | 205.8 W |
Flashback and Medal were verified at 20 Mbps. ShadowPlay used the same visible 1080p, 60 FPS, 20 Mbps settings. Its CPU and encode work is distributed across NVIDIA’s overlay, driver, and injected components, so the listed-process CPU and encode fields are not a complete total.
Read the result, not a made-up score
What this benchmark does—and does not—say.
Every run used Cyberpunk’s High raster preset at native 1920×1080. Ray tracing, upscaling, frame generation, VSync, and frame caps were disabled. System audio was enabled, microphones were disabled, and each recorder kept a 60-second H.264 replay buffer.
The recorder-off baseline, Medal, and ShadowPlay figures are three-run means. Flashback is the final measured 0.6.22 optimization pass; earlier Flashback development runs were excluded because the capture engine changed between them. Hardware, drivers, game updates, and capture settings can change results, so these numbers describe this PC and workload rather than every system.
- Game
- Cyberpunk 2077 2.31
- CPU
- Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- GPU
- GeForce RTX 5070
- Driver
- NVIDIA 610.74
- OS
- Windows 11 build 26200
- Capture
- PresentMon 2.5.1
Under the hood
Lightweight is architecture,
not a label.
Flashback keeps the always-on path focused on hardware-encoded capture. The interface, editor, thumbnail work, health analysis, exports, and optional cloud tools activate only when needed instead of competing with your game all session.
- Hardware H.264 / HEVC capture and hardware AV1 exports
- Interface and editor resources release when closed
- In-memory thumbnails keep capture folders clean
- Analysis, export, and cloud work activate on demand
01Your displayDDA preferred · WGC fallback
→02Replay bufferManaged local segments
→03Your clipOrganized MP4
Clear boundaries
Know exactly what you’re getting.
The current release targets 64-bit Windows 11 and a Media Foundation-compatible hardware encoder.
Cloud sharing is coming soon, and the public release keeps sign-in and uploads disabled. Local capture, screenshots, editing, app-audio exclusion, and organization need no account; HDR output is not in this release.
Releases use a pinned publisher and signed update metadata. Windows may still warn while the transition certificate builds public trust, so the exact SHA-256 is published too.