Recording software for gaming

Fraps, Razer Game Booster, and Nvidia Experience's Shadowplay are the ones I'm inclined for.

I'd go with Game Booster, it runs in the background when starting any videogame automatically, and since I'm just looking to record some random hapennings that may be fun or something, it comes in handier than most others.

Action! is the best for money :)

fraps is good but if you have Nvidia you can try there program

what are your cpu specs?

this may be the reason you are having issues as things like frap use CPU and it always have a hit on fps but if you have a good multi core then the hit will be low if your hardware is weak it will not have good results and also remember you can not record with programs and keep the game on highest settings an expect good results unless you have top hardware

the only real way to maybe get around it is use a external recorder but i take it you are maybe looking for a free option or low cost?

Both Nvidia and AMD have propietary software that uses special hardware on the GPU to record without FPS loss.
If you use Nvidia, it's called Shadowplay I believe.
If you use AMD, it's within the AMD Gaming Evolved app, which I recommend.

AMD Gaming Evolved if you've newsih AMD card.

OBS and Fraps has no noticeable performance issues for me.
Except Wolfenstein TNO, which drops from 40-60 fps to mere 1 fps :P

OBS is good because it can compress on the fly saving time. (Of course if you don't send high enough bitrate, it gonna look like crap)

Mirillis Action! is awesome, quite low price, doesn't need much ressources and has an awesome quality. You can edit many settings and the file size is quite small. Streaming and direct upload to YouTube is possible too!

If you're more experienced, use Open Broadcaster Software or DXTory.

AMD Gaming Evolved has an option to record gameplay and a BETA version of their own "shadowplay".

Then you have Radeonpro.

Can´t say how good they are as i haven´t tried them yet.

Dxtory + OpenEncode VFW using AMD encoder if you have a Crossfire AMD GPU setup.
AMD Gaming evolved if you have ONE AMD GPU (r9 290x is a 2 GPU so don't use it if you have that)
Shadowplay if Nvidia

Hardware solution:
Elgato recording 1080p @ 30fps (Bad solution if you have a crossfire/SLI setup or 120hz monitor)
Don't bother with avermedia, it's a headache using it plus stutters occasionally on recording

I would recommend you to use Dxtory. I used that when I was a youtuber, and it worked really fine.