Steam Link Performance with GTX 1080 is Awesome

[Ajax]

So I just upgraded to a GTX 1080 and I've gotta say its completely changed my steam link experience compared to what I was getting with my GTX 780ti

With the 780ti I was experiencing on screen artificating and tones of lag and micro stutters even though when the games where being played on my actual pc and not on the link they where running at a perfect 60fps with no issues.

Now with the 1080 I get no artifacts, no microstutters and nothing noticeable in regards to input lag.

If you have a 1080 you should definatly consider using the steam link now, and if you have a steam link you should definatly consider upgrading to the newer pascal cards. Alternativley wait until somebody has had a chance to test the new polaris ATI cards, I suspect they will offer simmilar improvments in the steam links performance.

Personally I belived the issue where with the link its self, while it was doing its job the tech was perhaps just not ready yet and another addon tech fad to fall into obscurity. However I have been proven wrong as of the time, the tech works extremly well now, perhaps it was just a little ahead of its time :)

System Specs for those who are curious

i76700k @ 4.5ghz
GTX 1080 @ 1864mhz boosts to 2037mhz
32gb Coarsair Vengence @ 3200mhz
Windows 10 Profession 64bit

Steam link is wierd over local network through Virgin Media Hub router

[green monster]

That's great to hear, although personally I haven't had any of those lag or artifacting issues with my GTX770, maybe your card was dying?

[FMofDeath]

I haven't had any lag streaming with my GTX 680 but I recently upgraded to a GTX 1070 and am excited to give it a shot to see if there is any performance increase!

[Ajax]

Im not shure what the issue is myself either as the 780ti worked perfectly for all my games on the pc with zero issues, the issues did not make the games unplayable on my steam link but did not make them very visually appealing either lol.

[Jynx]

Not really surprised by this, seeing almost all overhead is glomped out of the GPU. It's good to know that future (current, I guess technically) generation graphics cards have such increase in gains that the overhead is virtually negated. I'm considering a 1070/60 later this year, my 760oem is starting to show its age. Thanks for sharing! If its not a pain in the butt, would you mind sharing some games, and average display latency you get on them?

[Ajax]

So i went and tested some games for you guys, for the test i set the bandwith limit to automatic, i also ran through with the unlimited setting on too for bandwith.


Ryse: Son of Rome = Automatic 15ms to 20ms / Unlimited 15ms to 20ms

Batman: Arkham Knight = Automatic 15ms to 20ms / = Unlimited 15ms to 20ms

Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt = Automatic 15ms to 20ms / = Unlimited 15ms to 20ms

All the games tended to hover around the 17.5 ms latency mark using both automatic and unlimited.

I ran the games at max settings at 1080p for each one, this includes all the gameworks only settings for Arkham Knight and Hairworks at max in Witcher 3. As for Ryse the only setting i did not use was supersampling. I also have MFAA (multi frame anti aisling) enabled in my nvidia control panel.

I dont know about anybody else but I cannot notice any input lag in the games, they seem fully responsive and playable during intense combat sections.

The only place you are really going to have an issue is any multiplayer online gaming where this kind of latency can cost you kills. However i dont think steam link in its current iteration was ever designed for that kind of gaming.

[Jynx]

Originally posted by Ajax:

So i went and tested some games for you guys, for the test i set the bandwith limit to automatic, i also ran through with the unlimited setting on too for bandwith.


Ryse: Son of Rome = Automatic 15ms to 20ms / Unlimited 15ms to 20ms

Batman: Arkham Knight = Automatic 15ms to 20ms / = Unlimited 15ms to 20ms

Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt = Automatic 15ms to 20ms / = Unlimited 15ms to 20ms

All the games tended to hover around the 17.5 ms latency mark using both automatic and unlimited.

I ran the games at max settings at 1080p for each one, this includes all the gameworks only settings for Arkham Knight and Hairworks at max in Witcher 3. As for Ryse the only setting i did not use was supersampling. I also have MFAA (multi frame anti aisling) enabled in my nvidia control panel.

I dont know about anybody else but I cannot notice any input lag in the games, they seem fully responsive and playable during intense combat sections.

The only place you are really going to have an issue is any multiplayer online gaming where this kind of latency can cost you kills. However i dont think steam link in its current iteration was ever designed for that kind of gaming.

Thank you tons for the details! These numbers are amazing as well! Clearly the 1080 is not a bottleneck in streaming. Hopefully other version of Pascal will perform as such.

[toidi]

Quick info, even if you set the link to "unlimited bandwidth" it still caps out at 25-30mbs, If you have a decent network then I would suggest upping it a bit by unlocking it. I set mine to 35mbs and had a noticeable improvement across the board.

Instructions to remove the cap and set it to whatever you wish:

http://mcd1992.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/removing-steam-link-bandwidth-limit.html