![]() ![]() Many of the Windows games I tested either didn’t run, or had obvious graphical issues, or ran significantly slower than on Windows. I tried SteamOS and Proton in 2019 with poor results. Then in 2022 Valve launched their own “Steam Deck” handheld gaming PC with a new version of SteamOS and improved Proton, this time finding commercial success with a vastly improved library of games supported. ![]() ![]() In 2018 Valve added “Proton” to Steam to enable running Windows games on Linux without native support. This “Steam Machine” initiative was a failure due to the low number of Steam games with native Linux support at the time. In 2015 Valve collaborated with PC manufacturers to launch a range of home game consoles running their “SteamOS” Linux operating system. This new user interface mode was intended for use on home TVs with a wireless game controller, essentially bringing a console-style living room gaming experience to PC. Next up: let's talk about how to set up in-home streaming and how to tweak it for better performance.In 2012 Valve released “Big Picture Mode” for their Steam game distribution platform. There's a whole section on the requirements and configuration of your home network below. Ideally, it has gigabit (not 100 Mbps) ports, although the Steam Link only has a 100 Mbps port on it. You want a router that doesn't crash on you all the time. Any Nvidia or AMD graphics card you can get your hands on should support hardware decoding. Again, Intel's processors with HD Graphics can decode video using Quick Sync, so you may not even need a separate GPU. Valve recommends a client with a GPU that can decode H.264 video. But your client machine still needs to be powerful enough to handle decoding the video signal Steam is sending it. ![]() Ideally, you can stream to some crappy old laptop or a cheap, low-power living room machine. The great thing about streaming is that your host PC is doing the brunt of the work. All you need to support the Steam controller is an HDMI cable to your TV, and wired or wireless Internet. It can also connect to multiple Steam controllers wirelessly, without the need for a dongle. It's small, cheap at $50, and can handle streaming with no performance issues. Valve's Steam Link is an easy choice for a client device. Here's a tutorial for enabling Quick Sync. If you are trying in-home streaming with an AMD card, but do have an Intel CPU, you should make sure Quick Sync is enabled on your computer. In fact, Intel's built-in HD Graphics GPUs also support hardware encoding with Quick Sync, so you may be able to stream a game without a dedicated GPU at all. So you definitely don't need an Nvidia card. I've successfully used Steam in-home streaming with an overclocked 4.3GHz Sandy Bridge i5 2500k CPU and an AMD 7870 card (which doesn't support hardware encoding). The Nvidia GTX 650 and above support hardware encoding see this post for a full list of the supported AMD cards. Why those cards? Because in-home streaming now supports hardware encoding on both Nvidia and AMD card. An Nvidia 600 series GPU or newer, or an AMD 7000 series GPU or newer.A quad core CPU (such as an Intel i5 or i7 processor from 2011 or newer).Your host PC should be powerful enough to run a game while simultaneously encoding it as a video signal. ![]()
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