Laptop vs Steam Link

[Herbalizer]

Hi guys, i need some help here, i tried searching on google but didn't really find an answer, here's my issue.

i want to stream to my tv in the living room, my host pc is i7 4770k with gtx 780 and 16gb ram, which should be plenty. the steam client is wired through internet and so is the host.

My question is, do you think i'd get better performance with an old laptop ( dual core t4200 1.8 ghz, 4gb ram, mobility radeon 4500 win 8.1) or with the steam link.

So far my laptop works ''OK'' but not so good either, it's ok for CIV but not much for fps.

Before you ask i did enable the hardware encoding/decoding + QoS in my router.

I'm also not sure if moon-light on android box would work better, i just wanna be able to play fallout in the living room, thanks :)

[Tucu]

Check in the logs the name of the decoder being used in your client. It might be a software decoder, otherwise it should be able to handle 1080p60.
And if you have not done it already, join the Steam Client beta.

[endtropy]

I'm going to outline some things for you and then ask that you c clarify some details that you left out so we can best answer this..

First, I use steam streaming on a Surface Pro 3, a Toshiba Radius laptop, and a steam link so my comparison points are pretty broad sweeping. I also tested it on several budget tablets (HP x2 with Atom processor, HP 7" stream, etc.).

Your client hardware sounds like it should NOT have an issue decoding 1080p60. So I'm guessing your bottle neck is something configured in less then ideal state on the server side (easy to do) or network..

You mentioned that your hardwired, if I assume your on ethernet and not something like power line then we can eliminate networking issues as a culprit. If you look at your analytics, does your encoder line say ANYTHING about "# of threads", if you see that, your encoding in software and your going to have a bad time. If you see NVENC your in good shape. If you see some other thing like NVIFR or something your probably not running the steam beta (which you should be as the streaming stuff is updated 2-3x a week sometimes and is far ahead of the public release).

On the DECODE side does it mention anything about hardware decoding? Enabling the check boxes does not mean they are actually functioning. You need to look at your analytics graph while playing or open your log after the fact.

Also try to be better about describing your problem. Telling me Civ works fine doesn't help. When your playing fps games, are you experiencing spikes but otherwise smooth? Is it a constant high round trip png time (like 50+ms) that never seems to go down?

throwing all that out though, if your happy plugging your laptop into your TV then you don' need a steam link. I bought one out of curiosity and because I thought it would be nice for my main TV to not have to constantly be plugging tablets into it. It provides a more convenient but not BETTER experience.

[Herbalizer]

Thank you both for your replies, endtropy thanks for taking the time to write all this down and helping, so lets get down to business.

They are hardwired through ethernet to the router.

i'm sorry but i'm not sure what to look for in the log, so here' my streaming log with dying light playing, which is the game i had issues with (lower fps, sloppy performance)

What i meant before is that playing CIV was smooth and pretty much the same as desktop, but playing dying light, the menus were slow, so was moving around, i can'T say if it was low fps, but it was in no way a fun experience, nor could i play that way.

Once again thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to help, i really appreciate it, let me know you need me to provide more information.

edit: btw i did have steam beta on the client, but i seems not on the host side, so i just updated it now, sadly i can'T try it because i'm working on the computer ATM, so please let me know if you see something that's not right in the log.

[2015-12-07 17:23:37] Game: Dying Light (239140)
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] Recording system audio
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] Changing record window: 00010350
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] Recording on device: Logitech (Logitech USB Headset H540)
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] Audio client mix format:
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] format: 65534
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] channels: 2
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] samples/sec: 44100
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] bytes/sec: 352800
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] alignment: 8
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] bits/sample: 32
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] channel mask: 0x3
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] data format: {00000003-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] Initializing audio with 2 channels and 44100 samples/sec
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] Audio mix: start=151915150687, returned=0
[2015-12-07 17:23:37] Audio source [System Windows]: init=0, through=0, last_start=0, mixed=0, drop_before=0, drop_after=0
[2015-12-07 17:23:46] >>> Switching video stream from NONE to Desktop_MovieStream
[2015-12-07 17:23:46] CDesktopCaptureNV: Unsupported device or driver
[2015-12-07 17:23:46] CDesktopCaptureDWM: Reinitializing D3D for adapter 0xa1b3
[2015-12-07 17:23:46] Video adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780, vendor ID: 0x10de, device ID: 0x1004
[2015-12-07 17:23:46] CDesktopCaptureDWM: desktop duplication enabled
[2015-12-07 17:23:46] >>> Capture method set to Desktop DWM NV12 + NVENC H264
[2015-12-07 17:23:46] >>> Capture resolution set to 1920x1080
[2015-12-07 17:23:47] CLIENT: Video size: 1920x1080, output size: 1920x1080
[2015-12-07 17:23:47] CLIENT: DXVA init resetting SDL renderer
[2015-12-07 17:23:47] CLIENT: DXVA: Using device ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series (Engineering Sample - WDDM v1.1)
[2015-12-07 17:23:47] >>> Client video decoder set to DXVA: H.264 variable-length decoder, no film grain technology
[2015-12-07 17:23:47] CLIENT: DXVA: H.264 variable-length decoder, no film grain technology
[2015-12-07 17:23:47] CLIENT: Video size: 1920x1080, output size: 1920x1080
[2015-12-07 17:23:47] CLIENT: Targeting 29.84 FPS
[2015-12-07 17:23:48] CLIENT: Targeting 59.69 FPS
[2015-12-07 17:23:50] CLIENT: ScanForSteamControllers found new controller index 0
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] Changing record window: 000F01BE
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] >>> Switching video stream from Desktop_MovieStream to GameOverlay_MovieStream_5108
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] >>> Capture method set to Game polled D3D11 NV12 + NVENC H264
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] >>> Capture resolution set to 1920x1064
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: libav info: Reinit context to 1920x1072, pix_fmt: 61
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: Surface size changed from 1920x1088 to 1920x1072, resetting decoder
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: libav error: decode_slice_header error
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: libav error: decode_slice_header error
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: libav error: decode_slice_header error
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: libav error: decode_slice_header error
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: libav error: no frame!
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: Marking frame 119 complete with status k_EStreamFrameResultDroppedDecodeCorrupt
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: DXVA init resetting SDL renderer
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: DXVA: Using device ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series (Engineering Sample - WDDM v1.1)
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: DXVA: H.264 variable-length decoder, no film grain technology
[2015-12-07 17:23:51] CLIENT: Video size: 1920x1064, output size: 1920x1080

[Tucu]

It will make sense to retest after both the client and the host are updated to the latest beta.
Can you then post the streaming.log from the server too? Upload it to pastebin or gist.

The client is using the hardware decoder, but there were some errors in the logs.

[Herbalizer]

thanks i'll hook it up in an hour and try it out, i'll post the log in pastebin as you suggested, i'll get back to you!

[Herbalizer]

Alright , so here's my log http://pastebin.com/c1g16cWz

i have both client and host updated, performance what ok at best, i try arkham knight and i was getting mostly 30 fps at 1600x900, the game runs fine on my host pc, dying light was a little sluggish too. Do you have any idea what i should do?

[Tucu]

Originally posted by Herbalizer:

Alright , so here's my log http://pastebin.com/c1g16cWz

i have both client and host updated, performance what ok at best, i try arkham knight and i was getting mostly 30 fps at 1600x900, the game runs fine on my host pc, dying light was a little sluggish too. Do you have any idea what i should do?

The only thing that stands out is the SlowGamePercent in Arkham Knight and Dying Light. Can you double check if you can get a stable 60FPS in your gaming PC in the same areas? Do you have v-sync enabled in the games (should be disabled for streaming)?

[Herbalizer]

alright, so i believe i've found a solution, atleast part of it, i disabled hardware encoding, since maybe the i7 should be faster to encode, and it has fixed the ''slowness'' of the streamnow batman, even at 40 fps, feel much more responsive compared to earlier, and i think i<d be playable.

Now the only issue left, it seems that if i stream in 1080p, i get a ''slow display'' which makes me believe it might be the client that's having issues, because when i set it to 1600x900 i don't get that message, what do you think of that?

Also, is the fast, balanced and beautiful spec influenced by the client hardware? if so would that mean the laptop isn<t good enough to decode 1080p ?

thanks!

[Tucu]

fast, balanced and beautiful directly affect the bitrate (beautiful is 30Mbps at 1080, not sure about the other two)
I have not seen a SlowDisplayPercent above 0 before. Maybe a dev can comment on that?

[Herbalizer]

so if i understand correctly, the fast , balanced, and beautiful options are only dependent on the connection? So the client hardware doesn't influence the performance?

I'm not sure what to do anymore, and since the beginning i was wondering if another client (as in different, link steam link or something else) might be the solution...

[Tucu]

As you increase the stream bitrate the encoder and the decoder have to work harder (the network adapters too).

It is possible that you are maxing out your client GPU decoder. How does it behave with?:
1600x900 and Beautiful setting
vs
1920x1080 and Fast setting

[Herbalizer]

I only get the ''slow display'' with 1080p, and i feel like i get less hiccups with 1600x900, i believe it might be because the client can't decode fast enough.

It's one of the things i was wondering about, since i obviously want to get 1080p, would a mobile chip, like the one in the link, be better at decoding than an old gpu and cpu...

And though it's working at 1600x900, i believe the host is fast enough, so i don't see the point of not getting the max out of my games\TV


edit: I just tried with a hp split i5, which is like a table pc, and even though it was on wifi, i didn't get any ''slow display'' and the decoding part seemed better, is wasnt as smooth because of the wifi, but decoding wise i believe i was on the right track. i really don't know..

[Tucu]

The Marvell SoC in the Link has a hardware decoder with specs to handle 1080 at 60 fps for a stream with bitrates of around 30Mbps. If the bitrate increase a lot above that level then it would struggle too. The Link works fine for me with the latest firmware update.

[Herbalizer]

so are you able to stream 1080p in beautiful settings using the link?, My real concern i getting 1080p to work with most games. I was just really hoping to get this laptop to work flawlessly, since i also use it to stream movies and such, didn't need to have 2 boxes.

This sucks loll but thank you so much for the help.

[Tucu]

Yes, I stream all my games at 1080p60 to the Link. No problems in the Link side with latest firmware. Most changed/fixes are happening in the Steam Client now.