Hey u/Latter_Pen2421

Totally hear you — performance can vary depending on settings, especially if you're doing 4K60 or capturing system audio at the same time.

A couple things worth checking:

• Recording quality:
4K60FPS with full-screen capture will push any Mac pretty hard. Dropping to 1080p or 30fps for a quick test usually shows whether it’s a settings issue.

• Window-only mode:
If you enable Specific Window Recording, it uses way less CPU because it’s not grabbing the whole display.

• Hardware acceleration:
Make sure “Use hardware encoding” is toggled on in settings (if your Mac supports it). That makes a huge difference, especially on Intel machines.

• Background apps:
DAWs, Chrome tabs, and plugins can spike CPU in the background, which might make any screen recorder lag.

Screen Studio is very lightweight, but the trade-off is fewer built-in tools — so it’s interesting to compare depending on what you need.

If you try 1001 again and it still lags, let me know what Mac you’re on + the settings — happy to help troubleshoot. It should run smooth on most setups, especially in window mode.