Now limited to 30mbps?

[TheJFK]

I have been extensively using steam in-home streaming as my default way of playing Steam games for about a year now. I have a gigabit network with a dedicated gigabit switch and my computers are well set up for the tasks. The host is on Windows 10, previously 8.1 and client on Windows 10/Steamos, depending on my mood.

Since my network setup is so ideal for the task, I've been using the "beautiful" setting and "unlimited" bandwidth on the client side for decoding. It's been working great with very low latency and very good quality. However, as of about a week ago, I've noticed a huge drop in streaming quality with colours washed out and compression artifacts. The stream is still fast and reliable, just a drop in quality. I did notice that where once my estimated bandwidth was around 600mbps and varying around that point it was then limited to 30mbps and was rock-solid limited to that point. I verified that my settings were set to unlimited, but 30mbps was the hard limit.

I solved the problem by opting out of the beta and all was back to normal. However, last night the changes were pushed to the stable client (I presume) and the issue is back. Is this something anybody else is noticing? Can I get back my high-quality unlimited stream? My network can push at least 10x what the new hard limit is and the quality is suffering from it. I suspect this has something to do with the imminent influx of Steam Link users and preventing complaints of latency issues on less-than-ideal network connections :(

[pato]

I have that too. I have it longer though, but also enabled the beta versions. I don't see any difference between beaturiful and balanced, neither is there any bandwidth difference when the overlay is enabled between those two options.

[slouken]

The stream is now limited to half of your estimated bandwidth. What's your estimated bandwidth now?

[TheJFK]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von slouken:

The stream is now limited to half of your estimated bandwidth. What's your estimated bandwidth now?

That's the bizarre thing, my estimated bandwidth is reading as 30mbps. I'm fully wired for gigabit and all network transfers and everything outside of Steam In Home Streaming is just singing along beautifully.

[TheJFK]

Update. Seems it's NVIDIA related. When turning hardware encoding off, my bandwidth and quality return using software encoding on my i7 4790. Interesting. I will investigate further.

Update: I've tried everything I can with NVIDIA and can't get past the 30Mbps wall. Only disabling hardware encoding will increase my estimated bandwidth. This is so totally bizarre. I'm now rocking software encoding (which thankfully is pretty good on a Haswell i7) but would love to figure out what's up with this issue if anyone has input.

[Nebiont]

I've got the exact same issue going on as well. Unfortunately my CPU isn't as good at software encoding though :(. Streaming seems to struggle to run at anything above 30fps now as well. Usually hovering between 25-45 on the in-game overlay.

I am playing on a 5GHz AC network, but that's how I've always used in-home streaming and up until now it's been flawless.

I've also noticed that my encoding latency is way higher than it used to be. Sitting around 40ms. The only game I've really had a chance to test is Far Cry 4, but up until the latest update I was streaming that game perfectly fine on the exact same setup.

Slouken, is there any other information I can give you that can help you guys narrow down this issue?

[Zoktar]

same issue, NVFBC encoding and client hardware decoding (intel) has been working near flawless since steam inhome streaming started. recently, NBFBC is dropping frames like crazy mostly getting stuck at around 30 spiking to 60 every other second. Im not sure if its driver related. Cant run software encoding its unplayable. i will try to roll back my nvidia driver see if that helps. Should note that im on a 5ghz intel wifi. I did see something about wifi changes?, i dont know

[TheJFK]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Zoktar - Loud:

same issue, NVFBC encoding and client hardware decoding (intel) has been working near flawless since steam inhome streaming started. recently, NBFBC is dropping frames like crazy mostly getting stuck at around 30 spiking to 60 every other second. Im not sure if its driver related. Cant run software encoding its unplayable. i will try to roll back my nvidia driver see if that helps. Should note that im on a 5ghz intel wifi. I did see something about wifi changes?, i dont know

Please update me on your driver experiment!

[Nebiont]

I've tried on the most recent Nvidia driver, and the one directly before it. Same problem :(

[Saftle]

I'm having the same issue. An update on this would be great.

[Zoktar]

So im unclear what made it work again, i did the following. uninstalled all nvidia software on host. reinstalled latest, with gforce experience, uninstalled steam on host (only keept SteamApps) reinstalled steam, and did various config options like i had before. also switched to beta. Hmm what else, i reinstalled steam on client (arch linux) removing (~.local/share/Steam) and (~.steam), Did a local arch linux trick to get hardware decoding to work(like i always had to do).
set to beta steam here aswell. At this pont NVFBC wasnt loading, i read somewhere that u should enable shadowplay and turn it off again, from nvidia geforce experence panel. So i did that . not sure if i did anything else, but after the game started with the NVFBC encoder the frame drops seem to have vannished and is at a stable 59.xx fps without dropping.

Never got around to rolling back. Not sure what exactly fixed it, But if ur having trouble getting NVFBC to even load, try the shadowplay on/off trick. So im not sure what made NVFBC to start working again without drops. Sorry :/

[fatSki]

I have this too, my estimated bandwidth is locked at 30mbps when it's actually much more and the quality is much worse. Just got my new Steam link too, but it's like this on my previous client laptop as well :(

What's the reason for locking streaming at 50% of bandwidth? Fair enough as a default, but it would be nice to have the option to turn it off. More options in general would be nice, like setting a minimum bandwidth maybe?

[TheJFK]

So long as I'm not alone! Are you nvidia as well on host? What is your host OS?

[Saftle]

I think I found the issue for those of us using a Steam Link. Looking at the options, when in the main menu (before starting a stream), it shows that it only goes up to 30 Mbps. The Unlimited option is missing. When using a normal Steam client, the option is there. This is most likely a limitation of the Steam Link at the moment.

[TheJFK]

I'm using Windows and steamos as a client :(

[fatSki]

The issue isn't with the Steam link, I have the unlimited option available there. The issue looks like the fact that the estimated bandwidth is wrong when using NVIDIA hardware encoding, it happens for me whether the client is my new steam link or an i7 laptop with hardware decoding capability. If I use software encoding the estimated bandwidth is correct, but I get judder and variable fps.

Host OS - Win 10 with GTX980