Is Gigabit possible?

[Megalanuth]

Just got into Steam Remote Play. I have a monster of a desktop in the office, and just finished installing a shielded cat6 network up to the living room TV with a maxed out Rasberri Pi 4. Both locations use a 4K OLED display. Tried running Hollow Knight on remote play with keyboard and mouse, and noticed the defaults had scaled down the client picture to 720p. This was because when I tried to look at a guide in the overlay, the text was almost unreadable being upscaled from 720p to 4k. Tinkered with the settings to regain some of the high quality view, and found that on either 1080p or 4k, the lag was so bad as to be unplayable. I would hit a key and the game would respond a split second later and for random lengths of time greater than the keypress.

One thing I've noticed is that in running the network test within remote play on the client, it only gets up to about 95Mbs, and then quits and says the network connection is good to 90Mbs. But the various gigabit network switches in between the connections all have indications for whether a port is running at megabit or gigabit speeds, and shows gigabit speed on every leg along the way, from the host connection to the client connection. Distance of cable is definitely not the issue, as I'm not even close to the limits for gigabit runs.

Just not sure why the client is capping out at megabit speeds, when gigabit network is verified between the client and host. Surely a 10x network speed limit might be responsible for some of the lag at higher resolutions?
Not sure if at this point, if I want to remotely play at 4k I'd be better off just buying a 4k rated KVM switch.

[_I_]

steam -> setting -> remote play -> [advanced client options]
limit res to -> 4k

steam -> setting -> remote play -> [advanced host options]
tick change res to match client

[Megalanuth]

Thanks for the help. Tried the settings recommended. It did improve, but not enough to make games playable. Tried Hollow Knight and had less lag than before, but still enough to make it difficult. White Palace? Forget about it.
Tested Serious Sam HD 2nd as well and the lag was far worse, choppy to the point I could only turn in large increments, with crosshairs pointing to far right or far left of target with no in between. FPS was showing 30 at best, though host handles 120 on 4K easily.

Does anybody get smooth performance above the recommended 720p?

I also still never see the network tests break 90 Mbs, even though I’m on a verified gigabit network. Has anyone else had a test enter gigabit speeds?

[_I_]

specs?
gpu may be too weak for 4k gaming+streaming


if its more than capable,
check windows network, make sure its set to private not public
if using wifi, make sure the routers wifi isolation setting is disabled
and steam -> settings -> remote play -> allow direct connection = auto or enabled

any of those set wrong will force remote play to use steams internet relays instead of connecting directly via lan


or are you using a 2nd router? (or smart/managed switch)
do the host and client get a similar ip?
192.168.same.different
can they ping each other directly?

[Megalanuth]

Thanks again for your consideration.

i9-10900k cpu at 3.7 Ghz, 64GB RAM, Win 10 pro, Asus Maximus XII Hero motherboard, GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, looks like 48GB of VRAM, all hard drives are SSD's. The only game that chokes this rig is Minecraft turned up to ridiculous draw distances (32 chunks).

Windows network verified private. No wifi involved at any step. Direct connection verified at auto/enabled.

Network pathway is Host motherboard Gb LAN-> Cat6 -> office Unifi Gigabit switch->Cat6->house Unifi Gb switch (Gb Nighthawk router attached running DDWRT) ->Cat6->living room Unifi Gb switch->Cat6->Raspberri pi 4 8gb. Each switch indicates currently used speed on each port. A cat5 cable lights up as Mb LAN, a Cat6 lights up as Gb LAN. All switches indicate Gb LAN speeds for the entire path. All IP addresses are 192.168.1.x. No other routers other than the one connecting from the main house switch to the ISP.

[_I_]

cat5 may be limiting it to 100mb/s (can work at gigabit speeds for upto about 10ft)
cat5e is needed for longer runs at gigabit speeds (100m/330ft)
cat6a is good for 10g at 100m/330ft

[Megalanuth]

All cable runs are shielded Cat6. Each run is much less than the 100m limit (only run from one room to the main rack). All switches are Gigabit rated and indicate operation at gigabit speeds for the ports in use.

[_I_]

make sure the client network bandwidth is set to unlimited

steam -> settings -> remote play -> [advanced client options]
or
link menu -> settings -> streaming -> advanced