Unplayable streaming? Try disabling hardware decoding.

[Marcio Miranda]

Disabling client "hardware decoding" made a huge diference for me on 3 diferent computers. Already sugested it to some friends and they also had a huge improvement in streaming performance. I see many people here complaining about lowering resolution, bandwith and locking FPS at 30 to get an acceptable performance, but I never see anyone commenting about disabling hardware decoding... Try it if you hadn't before and post your results here. I passed from acceptable 720p, 30fps, 5Mbps to a very good performance at 1080p, 60fps and 15Mbps.

[slouken]

If this makes a big difference for you, please post your computer specs including your video card.

Thanks!

[Marcio Miranda]

Since the beta client is being updated regulary and the last time I messed with the hardware decoding setting was almost 2 weeks ago I decided to test again.

I couldn't test on all 3 client computers as one of them is busy with some work. But here are the results and specs from this latest test.

Host is an Desktop, i7 4770, GTX580, Gb LAN running at 1080p, VSync On, AA 2x, everything else maxed out. Games: Half-Life 2, Crysis, Metro2033. OS is Windows 7 64 bit.

Client 1 is a notebook i5 3230M (2 cores 2,6Ghz), Intel HD Graphics 4000, wireless conected at 72Mbps, Windows 8.1 64 bit. On this computer hardware decoding isn't a issue anymore. I was able to get the streaming at 1366x768 @ steady 60 fps using 20Mbps bandwith. Video latency was oscilating 39ms ~41ms.

Client 2 is a desktop Core2 Duo E8500 (3Ghz), GeForce 9800GT, connected with the Gb LAN, Windows 7 64 bit and SteamOS on a secondary HD. On this computer hardware decoding still make the game unplayable (Window and SteamOS). Lags a lot and stuters considerably. Video latency oscilates from 100ms to 350ms (it starts about 100ms builds up to about 350 then drops to 100 again and repeat, repeat, etc). Disabling hardware decoding, video latency drops to 44ms ~ 46ms.

The untested client is an MiniITX with Intel Atom dual-core at 1,6Ghz, Intel GMA Graphics 3150.

Note: Everything with the most up-to-date WHQL drivers.

[chickeninferno]

Host: i7 2700k, 8gb ram, Radeon 6970 running wifi 5.0ghz Wireless-N

Client: i3 2120T, 8gb ram, Intel HD2000 integrated GPU running ethernet to Belkin N600db (100Mbit not gigabit)...I don't know if this matters but the computer is outputting video via HDMI to an Onyko reciever, which then outputs the video to my 47" tv. I think this may explain the display latency I mention below.

I noticed that borderlands 2 1080p was having some severe lagging issues but framerate was ~40-55 consistenly. Ping 4ms but latency is pretty high 2ms Input, 50ms Display, 17ms Game. Network utilization was all over the map but ussually around 20-30% of estimated 60Mbps (but even the estimated value changed).

The game was not smooth like 40-55 fps suggests. There was a choppiness to it. I disabled hardware decoding on the client computer and it became much smoother but the framerate dropped to 30-45. All of the other numbers (latency, network utilization, etc) The choppiness is present every once in a while, but is fine. The frame losses have always been close to 0.

[Sayaka Miki]

Originally posted by slouken:

If this makes a big difference for you, please post your computer specs including your video card.

Thanks!

Client is a Dell Inspiron N5040. disabling hardware decode helped slightly.

[MasoMaat: De Hoge-Ping Krijger]

how do i disable hardware decode?

[Marcio Miranda]

Originally posted by INF Maso25:

how do i disable hardware decode?

Steam settings -> Remote play -> Advanced client options