Dota 2 + FRAPs

I've noticed that whatever FPS I have FRAPs set to in-game matches. Typically I have it set on 30fps but that's far too choppy to play with. I have 'lock framerate while recording' and VSync in-game turned off but nothing seems to change. I'm also recording to an external USB 3 drive and I can smoothly record while play StarCraft 2 and other games, so not sure what's going on :/

Recording to an External USB HDD?! You shouldn't be doing that, regardless of whether the port is USB3 or not. Use internal drives to record Fraps video to.

I said it's turned off in the first post.

Explain the technical differences that matter of USB 3 vs SATA please?

USB is just slower by default. External Drives also have a lower write speed, because they aren't intended to be written to on-the-fly. Internal Drives have a higher write speed because they have a direct connection to the Motherboard so can be written to faster. You'll see around this forum that recording to external drives is a very bad idea.

USB 3.0 should be OK-- if everything is working well. What's your CrystalDiskMark score?

@Shukaku you sort of don't know what you're talking about.

I can't get it to recognize the USB drive.

Whaaa..? I've used CDM for USB 3, 2, and even thumb drives. You don't see your external in the list of available drives? Do any other programs have this trouble? (Not to get off topic - maybe this means nothing)

So your issue is 30 fps in game, "fraps-on", correct? What is your fps "fraps-off" in the same part of the game?

Fraps works OK with StarCraft 2 and other games you say? What is the best resolution / frame rate you have gotten successfully? We can deduce your HDD performance from that.

Have you read my Best Fraps performance tips AFAIK ? Because that's most everything I know about performance (and it's still a work in progress - I reserve the right to be wrong).

The issue is 30 fps in-game with fraps running yea; without it's at about 100. If I set fraps to 60, it goes up to 60. If I set it to 90 in-game goes up to 90 (obviously it's like a 1.8gb file for 25 seconds). In SC2 I always had fraps set at 30 and resolution 1920x1080, fps stayed around 80ish but they never matched eachother like this. I also have a SSD for my main drive and a second 7200 SATA internal, and both of those have this exact same issue.

And I was using CDI not CDM... oops. The benchmark (Samsung HD233GJ) is below.

Actually, I do know what I'm talking about. If you want to continue this with me, please PM me as I'm not going to clog up this thread with replies.

So (just to be clear) even though you can record "Dota 2" at 90 fps (which sounds amazing) your on-screen framerate is locked to 30 when recording at 30, even though "lock framerate" is off? I've been following this board for months now and I don't think I've seen that before.

Are you dropping frames at 60 and 90 fps? Here's how to check.

Is vertical sync disabled both for the GPU and in the game?

It might be just be One of Those Things.

Vsync/Triple buffering is off in GPU options and in-game.

Using VirtualDub @ 60 fps: 623::450 @ 90 fps: 750::372.

Yeah, so you're dropping frames like crazy. Agreed it would be better to record at 30 and have unlocked framerate.
Sorry, I don't know why it's not working for you

Only Dota 2 has done this so far. I'll try some other source engine games I guess.