Testing on netbooks/low-powered laptops

[JTalent91]

Just got an invite to this beta and I tested this out on my 2-3 year old netbook (Toshiba NB550D) over Wireless-N Wi-Fi.

The results weren't exactly promising. The streaming just seems too much for the little APU to handle. Massive frame drops occurring every couple of seconds, with the red bar on the stats overlay showing massive spikes above 100ms when this happens. Frame loss is also horrible, with frame loss % figures going as low as 25% and as high as 40%.

On the same overlay, it seems network utilisation is quite low (only using around 10-18 mbps depending on the game out of a possible 80-95 mbps) so I'm guessing it's just the hardware limiting the stream. Checking CPU logs seems to confirm my thoughts.

Leaving all the streaming options on automatic seemed to display in 1080p only with variable framerates, so maybe locking it to 720p streaming might be worth a shot the next time I test it out. Failing that, I'll see if a gigabit ethernet connection helps any further. This netbook can handle 720p video with no issue and generally 1080p video has no major problems either, but I'm guessing the constant encoding for streaming is pushing the APU just a tad too much.

I'd like to see if anyone else has had similar or differing levels of success on similar hardware.

Also, what are the games is everyone finding to have most success with streaming? I've heard reports some games are better for testing than others, and I'd rather test the best working ones to eliminate any potential issues there to more easily spot any local issues.

[bendotcom]

The overlay itself causes lag on Intel integrated graphics. Try running with it disabled except to "peek" occasionally if you want to know the framerate. You'll be able to see in the red line when the stats were up.

[JTalent91]

Hmm, I'm running on AMD integrated graphics (this netbook has an AMD C-60 APU which I believe includes Radeon HD 6290 integrated graphics) but I'll follow that advice anyway. :)

[JTalent91]

Tested once again and it seemed a lot more stable this time around!

720p streaming seems to be going quite well, solid 60 fps with very minimal stutter. The advice above to only use the stats overlay sparingly helped a ton it seems!

1080p streaming is a bit touch and go though. 30 frames is the most it will output on any game, so 1080p60 seems a step too far for it to handle, and stutter seems to be more prevalent here. I'm absolutely positive there's no network issues either, as generally having wired ethernet did not have any visible change compared to my wireless setup and the network utilisation amount still seems quite low, so I'm positive I could stream at 1080p60 on better hardware. Maybe over time using ethernet might be more beneficial to prevent stutter, but wireless seemed to have no issues anyway.

Stream quality at 720p seemed quite decent as well. At first the picture seemed a bit blurry, but after I set the netbook's output resolution to match the stream at 720p instead of 1080p, the 720p picture looked quite decent. :)

Input lag also seems quite manageable, though I've only tested gamepad games at this stage so mouse inputs might make any lag more obvious. That being said, if a game like Super Meat Boy is playable then I'm not complaining. :)

[kendavies]

I am streaming Skyrim over a netbook (with GB ethernet) with the following specs
Intel Atom N270 1.60GHz, 1GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, 10.1" WSVGA
There is a little lag when there is a lot going on in the game, but it's playable, I was not expecting a system with this low of specs to be able to handle any steaming at all. it really looks like results are more network dependent then host dependent. I tried Castlevainia LOD as well, Outside of a very long load time , it ran great as well, used a Xbox 360 controller on the host.

[NeptNutz]

Batman:AA fired up and looked ready to go at a steady 15fps (with the overlay) in native resolution on my Atom N450, running Linux Mint Debian.

This was my very first streaming attempt, so I expect I can get some improvement from there.

[NeptNutz]

Originally posted by bendotcom:

The overlay itself causes lag on Intel integrated graphics. Try running with it disabled except to "peek" occasionally if you want to know the framerate. You'll be able to see in the red line when the stats were up.

Great tip. Thank you!

Yes, if this overlay is anything like what Big Picture does to these netbooks, it is best kept off.

[Blurb]

Tried it on an MSI netbook with an atom n455 over wifi with the overlay on and it was horrible, but with the overlay off I could play EYE reasonably, if not a bit laggy. Pretty impressive considering how poor the performance is on these little atom cpus.

[Armagedon]

Try to close antivirus and firewall, for me it worked great after that.

[Jude24to25]

I have an Intel Atom based tablet (Dell Latitude 10). My tablet is able to stream games. Audio streams perfectly. However, video is not right. On a static title screen, I only get a solid-gray picture, with flickers where any motion may occur. The video is definitely not streaming properly for me.

[Corps/Peau/Rate]

Thx for the overlay tips, i will try it right now.

And i notice, my mouse dont help at all. But i was with overlay.

Putting the resolution on client at 720p help a bit.

[Corps/Peau/Rate]

I just tried hard... And can't seem to make it playable... I can see on the host pc things moving playably. But not on my laptop. Amd Athlon TF-20 and Radeon 3200HD integrade graphic. windows 7 64bit on both

[ReBoot]

My old laptop failed at streaming. The diagnose console pops up "Slow decoding" every now and then. Looks like ill have to get a cheap but up-to-date PC for streaming.

[Diversant]

Lenovo-S10-3c: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N455 @ 1.66GHz, 1GB Ram, Intel i915 Integrated Graphics Controller
running amd64 Gentoo Linux

Host: Core2 Quad @ 2.40 GHz, 8GB RAM, GeForce GTX560
Tried streaming from Gentoo Linux amd64 and win7.

The results are quite unsatisfactory. Neither from Lin, nor from Win.
I suppose there's some connection with my Wireless setup.

I use MikroTik RouterBoard RB751G-2HnD as my internet router. The setup is pretty complicated and I suppose there are some options to be considered.
Moreover, I suppose there could be some interference from neighbouring WiFi signals.


Still have no guess what could be the reason of such behaviour. Similar happens to my WiFi connections in Win running on netbook.

[ 19.981327] r8169 0000:01:00.0 eth0: link down
[ 19.981375] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
[ 20.049911] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[ 24.070242] wlan0: authenticate with d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97
[ 24.082635] wlan0: direct probe to d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (try 1/3)
[ 24.283070] wlan0: send auth to d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (try 2/3)
[ 24.284538] wlan0: authenticated
[ 24.285106] wlan0: associate with d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (try 1/3)
[ 24.299786] wlan0: RX AssocResp from d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=1)
[ 24.299914] wlan0: associated
[ 24.299992] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[ 4175.778429] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[ 4177.061094] wlan0: authenticate with d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97
[ 4177.067577] wlan0: send auth to d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (try 1/3)
[ 4177.172167] wlan0: authenticated
[ 4177.173513] wlan0: associate with d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (try 1/3)
[ 4177.374079] wlan0: associate with d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (try 2/3)
[ 4177.408345] wlan0: RX AssocResp from d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=1)
[ 4177.408498] wlan0: associated
[ 4196.777133] wlan0: deauthenticated from d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (Reason: 6)
[ 4196.964645] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
[ 4198.121909] wlan0: authenticate with d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97
[ 4198.134688] wlan0: send auth to d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (try 1/3)
[ 4198.136250] wlan0: authenticated
[ 4198.137388] wlan0: associate with d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (try 1/3)
[ 4198.143846] wlan0: RX AssocResp from d4:ca:6d:56:4b:97 (capab=0x431 status=0 aid=1)
[ 4198.143992] wlan0: associated

As far as I know there are some problems with WiFi in this particular model of netbook. But don't think it's exactly the reason.
If anyone has anything to suggest me I would be really glad to read, try.

[Diversant]

Managed to cope with this deauthentication. Thus, I cannot really judge whether it is connection lags or client performance. Now I think that netbook is not capable of decoding fast-changing (bad predictable or whatsoever?) images. Because I get significant degrade in performance (almost unplayable) while there is some dynamic scene or action in-game (Mortal Kombat). While the games where the picture in large area of the screen static the performance is quite good (The Binding of Isaac The Basement Collection..)

Whenever performance degrades I see 'slow decode, network' info. And very often network is preceeded by 'decode'. Predictable bitrate as said in stats is not that high. Not even 10Mbs that moment. And graphs reach the top that moment.

And one thing I noticed streaming 'Orcs Must Die 2'. The screen is frozen in the client, but turning touchpad affects the Host machine simultaneously, Really doubt one-way connection problem. I suppose it's a performance issue.
But htop shows the use of CPU around 30-40%. Swap and Mem are not fully loaded that moment.

[Diversant]

After Feb 5 update the situation looks much more pleasant. But looks like with such client I'm limited to 480p at best if I'm not going to play turn-based strategies. Definitely the reason of issues is decode capability of the system,