Horrible frame pacing/stutter using nVidia Shield Steam link app

[Salamando]

Hi all,

With Samsung removing the native steam link app from their store, I have starting experimenting with the Nvidia ShieldTV Steam link app that is connected to the same TV. The Samsung app (apart from a bug were audio occasionally cuts out) has been perfect, very smooth, low latency and no dropped frames.

The NVidia shield app not so much. The steam performance stats report a latency of <1ms for input and between 15-30ms for display (which is actually a bit better than I was getting on the Samsung app) however I am getting terrible stutter, like the frame pacing is off.

This is very noticeable when doing something like turning the camera in Skyrim. Smooth as on the Samsung App, stuttering mess on Nvidia App.

Game Mode is enabled on the TV for both, I have tried adjusting the resolution, bitrate, quality mode, no difference. I lock the FPS at 60.

Any idea on how I could fix the stutter?

PC is a 5800X3D, 4070Ti, everything is connected with ethernet

EDIT: Open it up today and its working fine. What the hell. There is a small chance that changing my desktop resolution from 3440x1440 (ultrawide) to 2560x1440 before connecting made a difference here, but could just be a coincidence.

EDIT 2: Back to lots of stutter again after the 1.3.9 update...

EDIT 3: Today its back to being fine again? Very strange.

EDIT 4: Think the stutter is something to do with the shield doing some background processing when its restarted, causing the stuttering until its finished that processing. Could be some processing related to running plex on the shield as well. After some amount of time (something less than 24 hours), the stuttering goes away

[Chairman Meow]

I'm currently in the exact same boat as you, horrible stuttering on the steam link app after samsung/steam pulled this dumb stunt, the built in app was so buttery smooth even better than the original dedicated steam link.

[Salamando]

Stutter is back again after I restarted the shield. I'm wondering if restarting the shield makes it run some background tasks for a while that interfere with steam link streaming and then resolve once they are complete?

Log with stuttering:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4zuy9cd1ofd6o5o1lrxch/streaming_log_afterReboot.txt?rlkey=ild56pzn1nd6o7dsnk6dxibff&dl=0

[slouken]

I'm not seeing anything obvious in the logs. Is there a specific amount of time after restarting the Shield where it starts working smoothly?

[Salamando]

Ok, so roughly 20 hours later after the reboot, performance is smooth again. Nothing changed, its working properly. Was even smooth as the host PC was transferring 300Mbps of game updates to my laptop.

Had a thought that maybe it's due to running a Plex server as well on the shield? It's not a massive server in terms of content (840GB on a 2TB USB HDD). Maybe it's doing some work with that in the background after a reboot? No one was actually using it to stream any media during my testing but it could running some background scan?

[wet socks]

Huh funny.. After the discontinue thing of the Samsung steam link app I got a shield TV and I almost lost it today trying to get the steam link app to run smoothly. It just doesn't work. Frames don't drop, but the image still stutters. Same with the moonlight / sunshine app on the shield TV.

I also get snow like artifacts on the steam link sometimes, it's terrible and I spent so much money on this weird device which should run much better in theory. Tried all resolutions, nothing helped.

[Salamando]

which version of the shield do you have? If your host PC and network are full capable of streaming without issue, the only issue that seems to be repeatable on the shield is if AI upscaling is enabled - disable it if you haven't.

My 2017 shield doesn't have AI upscaling, so it wasn't that for me. I reckon it was background processes running after a reboot. I haven't had any issues in the week since the stuttering stopped.

[wet socks]

Originally posted by Salamando:

which version of the shield do you have? If your host PC and network are full capable of streaming without issue, the only issue that seems to be repeatable on the shield is if AI upscaling is enabled - disable it if you haven't.

My 2017 shield doesn't have AI upscaling, so it wasn't that for me. I reckon it was background processes running after a reboot. I haven't had any issues in the week since the stuttering stopped.

2019 pro. I have disabled all AI upscaling and my PC always ran well on the Samsung steam link app and on the OG steam link. Even tested it again yesterday. It is the Nvidia Shield that is having issues. The issue is also happening when using Moonlight, so the issue applies to any remote play solution, not just steam link.

[Salamando]

ah ok. Factory reset? NOt running somehting else like plex?

[wet socks]

Originally posted by Salamando:

ah ok. Factory reset? NOt running somehting else like plex?

Nope.. I've tried everything now lol. Nothing works.

[Salamando]

if its happening with moonlight and sunshine as well maybe its a network or host PC issue?

[wet socks]

Originally posted by Salamando:

if its happening with moonlight and sunshine as well maybe its a network or host PC issue?

I fixed it by adjusting the moonlight resolution. For some reason the default settings lagged so I stopped trying. Now everything runs amazingly well on Moonlight while steam link continues to suck.

But I take that as a solved problem, goodbye Steam link.

[Flaming Grunt]

I have a similar problem where the Steam link app on my Samsung TV performs far better (~15 ms latency) vs the shield pro which gets ~40 ms latency and stuttering. Moonlight even stutters and I don't trust it's performance details that are saying 1 ms latency with no frame loss. Has anybody else had this problem and found a solution?

[wet socks]

Originally posted by Flaming Grunt:

I have a similar problem where the Steam link app on my Samsung TV performs far better (~15 ms latency) vs the shield pro which gets ~40 ms latency and stuttering. Moonlight even stutters and I don't trust it's performance details that are saying 1 ms latency with no frame loss. Has anybody else had this problem and found a solution?

I fixed all my issues by connecting directly via ethernet. Wifi and Powerlink adapters are simply too bad.

[iqbalg1]

Exact same issue here, tried adjusting all my network adapter settings and ran plenty of tests. Should have 100Mb/s no problem but steam link and sunshine run with a lot of dropped frames while the samsung steam link app was smooth as butter. Will post if I solve it somehow.

Update: turning off the AI Scaling and setting to Basic seems to have solved it for me.

[wet socks]

Originally posted by iqbalg1:

Exact same issue here, tried adjusting all my network adapter settings and ran plenty of tests. Should have 100Mb/s no problem but steam link and sunshine run with a lot of dropped frames while the samsung steam link app was smooth as butter. Will post if I solve it somehow.

Update: turning off the AI Scaling and setting to Basic seems to have solved it for me.

that + ethernet fixed all my issues too. AI scaling should be turned off automatically though if Moonlight is running.