Steam Link suddenly laggy and unplayable

[mattmroc]

I've had my steam link for over two month and have logged many hours of happy gaming. Suddenly, it has become laggy and unplayable. Nothing has changed in positioning of hardware, I've reset my modem, router, computer, and steam link. I've checked and I am running the most up to date version of the software.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

[Vladzilla]

I'm having the exact same issue. Link worked perfectly (via wifi) for a few days, now it's so laggy I can't get passed the title screen on Owlboy... Tried moving things around physically, even connected through a wifi extender to no avail. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

[arr4ws]

same here. Unplayable. Just bought this last friday. Im unimpressed so far :/

[Vladzilla]

moved my wifi extender around to a bunch of different power outlets and found one that got it to work. When the wifi is good, the system works flawlessly,

[arr4ws]

im wired in , updated my graphic cards and it now works. go figure

[HeLLfirE]

same for me...but turning off hardware encode made it flawless for me...

[slouken]

What video card and driver versions do you have that do and don't work?

[Vladzilla]

Originally posted by HeLLfirE:

same for me...but turning off hardware encode made it flawless for me...

Is that a setting on the SteamLink?

[messyjesse80]

Originally posted by Vladzilla:

Originally posted by HeLLfirE:

same for me...but turning off hardware encode made it flawless for me...

Is that a setting on the SteamLink?

On your PC.

Steam > Settings > In Home Streaming > Advanced Host Options

Uncheck the HW encoding boxes. The result is your CPU will do the encoding instead of HW encoding on your GPU.

If disabling the HW encoding helps your performance, please post what graphics card and GPU you are using.

[munkor]

I've recently experienced the same thing. I've had my link for a month and it had been a fantastic experience.

Suddenly, starting yesterday, the whole unit seems completely useless. I experience lag in and out of big picture mode, artifacts, independently moving mouse and in game it's completely unusable.

I tried disabling hardware encoder on both the client and the box and any combination, and absolutely no difference occurred.

The network tests I do (I have it wired from my PC and wireless from the link) show minimal delay, and I have a 980ti and 16gb ram for the record.

[Teslithia]

I have not used my Steam Link in a few months, so when I turned it on again, there were a bunch of updates. Everything was working just fine before hand and I had logged many many hours on a bunch of different games. But when I tried to play something, it was laggy and would skip every few seconds, making everything unplayable. I'm connected via Wi-Fi, so I reset my router and my computer, and did a speed test. Everything was running smoothly with my internet connection, but the link was still laggy and skipping.
Very disappointed. I am only 1 room away with no wall in between my router/computer and the steam link, and I use pretty fast FIOS. It isn't my internet at all. I think that there was something with one of the new updates that did this. I tried switching from beta build to public build, and then back again. None of that worked. I tried the above suggestion of turning off HW encoding, and that didn't work either. My video card is a AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series.
I don't think it is a problem with my computer because again, it used to work just fine. I think it has something to do with an update to the Steam Link itself.

Edit: Noticed this topic is kinda all over the place date wise.

[Tannah]

Originally posted by mattmroc:

I've had my steam link for over two month and have logged many hours of happy gaming. Suddenly, it has become laggy and unplayable. Nothing has changed in positioning of hardware, I've reset my modem, router, computer, and steam link. I've checked and I am running the most up to date version of the software.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

mattmroc how are you connecting your steam link to your router?

[Maritas]

After searching for quite a while and trying all tips, this is what helped me.

1: Open Steam

2: And Open Library and click the All games

3: And now find a game that you want

4: Right Click on it and you will see
Properties

5: You will see the SET LAUNCH OPTION...

6: Click on that and copy this thing
-dxlevel 80 +mat_antialias 0 window

7: After that, play the game and you will see
that your game is not lagging anymore

Disclaimer: Found this fix on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWwGvlVWnNc

[Mr_zomby]

Originally posted by messyjesse80:

Originally posted by Vladzilla:

Is that a setting on the SteamLink?

On your PC.

Steam > Settings > In Home Streaming > Advanced Host Options

Uncheck the HW encoding boxes. The result is your CPU will do the encoding instead of HW encoding on your GPU.

If disabling the HW encoding helps your performance, please post what graphics card and GPU you are using.

Here in 2022 to say this still works, playing over mobile, gtx 1050. Must be something to do with encoding while streaming using the GPU

[_I_]

or use hardware encoding on the igpu if you have one
or any stronger gpu will be able to encode with very little gpu performance difference