Overview
I will go through how to solve low frame-rates due to GPU, CPU or RAM usage being too high. If you have another issue please comment and I will try my best to help you. 🙂
Getting Started
You need quite a mordern computer to get the best experience out of the Steam Link. However, there are ‘In-Home Streaming’ settings you can change, which might help with the low frame-rates you may be experiencing. The first thing you want to do is to diagnose the issue. You can do this by checking the performance tab in Windows Task Manager or dowload a program like ‘HW Monitor’ to monitor your PC components. Make sure you check your monitoring application while streaming a game to the steam link. The culprit will be a component that is at or close to 100% usage.
HWMonitor free download[www.cpuid.com]
High RAM usage solutions
If almost all your RAM is being used:
1) High RAM usage is usually due to the fact that you have a lot of background programs running. One method of closing background programs is to open the task tray and right click the the icon for the program you dont need and close/exit it. System Tray [www.howtogeek.com] After doing this you need to go to the Start-up tab in Task Manager and disable all of the same applications you just closed through the system tray. This will stop those programs from starting everytime you boot up your computer, so you don’t have to keep closing them from the system tray. (disabling a program will only stop it from starting automatically when you turn your computer on. You can still open it manually e.g. from a desktop icon)
You may also experience faster boot times because there will be less for your storage drive to load.
2) The only other thing that I can think of is for you to reduce in-game settings as much as possible, although, this may not have a huge impact on system RAM usage.
High CPU usage solutions
If your CPU usage is very high:
1) Click on “ADVANCED HOST OPTIONS” in the ‘In-Home Streaming’ settings and make sure to check the box next to “Enable hardware enocoding”. (Software encoding will automatically enable if hardware encoding is disabled)
CPU is reponsible for Software encoding
GPU is reponsible for Hardware encoding
2) If suggestion 1) did not work or it is already enabled, then you can try suggestion 1) of the RAM section. Closing uneeded programs will reduce the number of things that your CPU has to process.
3) If you need to use Software encoding (lets say your gpu is really rubbish so you can’t do hardware encoding) and your cpu is still struggling, you can increase the number of software encoding threads in “Advanced host options”. This will however leave less threads available for the game you are streaming, so try to find your ‘sweet spot’. (most games today utilise a maximum of 4 cores but you can check the recommeded specs on the games store page)
4) As a last resort you can change Client options to “Fast”. This reduces streaming resolution to 720p but will reduce stress on the CPU.
You can also set ‘Steam Streaming’ to high or above normal priority in Task Manager by right clicking the task then select “Go to details”, right click the highlighted process and ‘Set priority’. (DO NOT SET TO REALTIME; setting anything to realtime will force the CPU to prioritise that process as number 1 no matter what. This can be bad because if that process starts demanding lots of resources your cpu may be forced to only process that one task and nothing else. Your mouse and keyboard could even stop responding. However, you can easily avert this by restarting your computer)
High GPU usage solutions
If your GPU usage is very high:
1) If you have a very weak GPU but a good CPU, you can turn off Hardware encoding in “Advanced host options”. This makes the CPU do the encoding instead, which can allow for better frame-rates.
2) When your GPU usage is high while using hardware encoding, you can change Client options to Fast. This will reduce the encoding load on your GPU because the capture resolution gets reduced to 720p.
3) If you want to keep Hardware encoding enabled but your GPU is still struggling, what I would recommend above anything is to reduce in-game setting as much as you need to get a fluid streaming experience. This way you will get a smooth gaming experience on your TV without having to sacrifice resolution or increase latency.
When adjusting in-game settings pay attention to VRAM versus GPU usage. Though most graphics setting will affect GPU usage, if it’s just your VRAM usage that is high then you only need to lower settings that heavily impact VRAM usage such as texture quality and model detail.
Still struggling to get a playable experience? Go to “ADVANCED CLIENT OPTIONS” and manually set the resolution to 480p. I know that sounds horrible but you may find it to be an OK experience if nothing else worked.
That’s pretty much all I can think of right now. I hope this has helped someone! 😀 Also, If you have a suggestion or I made some sort of mistake please let me know, as this is my first guide.