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In-home streaming from Linux host low FPS on client while playing steam play/wine/proton games.
Derheim May 6, 2019
Hi all,

I'm having an issue while trying to stream games from my Linux machine to my TV using Steam Link (hardware).

My host pc (edited):

inxi -SPARM -CGDN -v1 -xGCRS
System:             Kernel: 4.18.0-18-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
           Desktop: MATE 1.20.1 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu3)
           Distro: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
Machine:   Device: desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: H97-Gaming 3 serial: N/A
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i7-4790 (-MT-MCP-) 
           arch: Haswell rev.3 cache: 8192 KB
           clock speeds: max: 4000 MHz 1: 941 MHz 2: 1481 MHz 3: 1560 MHz
           4: 1594 MHz 5: 1601 MHz 6: 1767 MHz 7: 1390 MHz 8: 1662 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] bus-ID: 05:00.0
           Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.20.1 ) driver: nvidia
           Resolution: [email protected]
           OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2
           version: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 418.56 Direct Render: Yes


I'm getting capped to 30 fps while In-Home streaming, sometimes it spikes to 50s, high 40s but rarely hits 60fps. The issue seems to happen only with games that are played using wine/proton.

I have tried disabling/enabling hardware encoding/decoding but that doesn't seem to be the issue.
Tried 480p, 720p, 1080p, Fast, Balanced and Beautiful quality and the issue persist (no network Packet loss on any of the tests)

This are some points that I've gathered from all the testing that I've doing:
- Only happens to games played through Wine/Proton
- Linux native games work well
- The host pc runs at 60fps but the client displays 30s.
- There is not network Packet loss
- Host and clients are on Ethernet cables (also tried over wifi in some cases)
- Steam Link hardware presents the issue
- Other pc running Windows as client also present the issue
- A table using Steamlink as client over Wifi does not present the issue
- Raspberry pi running Steamlink app as client over ethernet also presents the issue

Hope you guys can help me find the issue.
Derheim Apr 5, 2021
Not a necropost, just answering this old thread that I made in case someone may need it.

After 2 years with the same computer and after some long testing I realized that my PC simply wasn't able to keep up with the task.
In windows, thanks to intel's QuickSync, my processor can handle encoding video and playing the game at the same time just fine, processor will be very busy but it can keep up.

Sadly on Linux it didn't even crossed my mind that QuickSync was not working. I will try to get it working and post my results.

I hope this helps someone with same issue in the future.

Last edited by Derheim on 5 April 2021 at 11:51 pm UTC
furaxhornyx Apr 6, 2021
Quoting: DerheimNot a necropost, just answering this old thread that I made in case someone may need it.

After 2 years with the same computer and after some long testing I realized that my PC simply wasn't able to keep up with the task.
In windows, thanks to intel's QuickSync, my processor can handle encoding video and playing the game at the same time just fine, processor will be very busy but it can keep up.

Sadly on Linux it didn't even crossed my mind that QuickSync was not working. I will try to get it working and post my results.

I hope this helps someone with same issue in the future.

That could explain why I had huge FPS drop when using OBS, while it worked perfectly fine when I was on Windows, on the same machine.
Good luck with that, I personally gave up (I will wait for my shiny new Ryzen build).
Derheim Apr 6, 2021
Quoting: furaxhornyx
Quoting: DerheimNot a necropost, just answering this old thread that I made in case someone may need it.

After 2 years with the same computer and after some long testing I realized that my PC simply wasn't able to keep up with the task.
In windows, thanks to intel's QuickSync, my processor can handle encoding video and playing the game at the same time just fine, processor will be very busy but it can keep up.

Sadly on Linux it didn't even crossed my mind that QuickSync was not working. I will try to get it working and post my results.

I hope this helps someone with same issue in the future.

That could explain why I had huge FPS drop when using OBS, while it worked perfectly fine when I was on Windows, on the same machine.
Good luck with that, I personally gave up (I will wait for my shiny new Ryzen build).

Thanks, so far is not looking good trying to enable quicksync on such an older processor. Just spent 3 hours trying to get it working and all I got was error after error.
Maybe I simply suck at this kind of thing. Will give it another try on the weekend. If I get nothing I guess I'll give up and wait until I can build a new pc.
Derheim Jul 7, 2021
Just sharing a last update on this topic.

I ended giving up, I recently got a new Ryzen 5800x and my Video Encoding issues went away.

While trying to make it work, I had to compile FFmpeg to specifically enable intel quick sync, but also, apparently and in some cases, there is a bug in Steam that doesn't use quick sync correctly, even if available. (Sorry, forgot the link to the GitHub issue that mentioned this).

Also, graphics driver for Haswell processor seems to be included in the old i915 driver rather than the Media Driver so I had to try installing a different driver.

Anyways, it was a pain in the butt, so I gave up.
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