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Wired setup giving giant blips in performance, why?
I get a huge spike in lost frames periodically, every 1-5 minutes typically but sometimes up to 30min between them. It manifests as a sudden video freeze for about a second, then it returns to normal.

Image of the network performance overlay graph: https://i.imgur.com/xLlOgQv.png

Here's a pastebin of `streaming_log` for my entire session: https://pastebin.com/21KWJNup

Some timestamps of note:

09:33:12 - says hardware encoding is too slow, falls back to software encoding
09:40:20 - I manually toggled hardware encoding off
09:40:21 - I manually toggled hardware encoding back on
09:41:44 - the blip happens

While there may be correlation with hardware encoding failing, it's happenstance the blip happened shortly after turning hardware encoding back on. It happens in software encoding, too.

I have a 5600 and RTX3080, I have the stream limited to 30Mbps, 1080p60, and use the Beautiful setting. Settings are the same on host (Win10 PC) and client (Steam Link hardware). I'm using the latest build 930 but I was experiencing it with the previous builds introduced since September, too. I don't experience it when using WiFi, but WiFi has a host of other issues I was trying to solve by going wired.

Here's what I've tried:

- toggling ICS, Energy Efficient Ethernet, Interrupt Moderation, disallowing Windows to turn off ethernet adapter to save power, flow control on host and router
- turning HAGS on and off, clean installing new nVidia drivers, clean installing new LAN drivers
- fullscreen, borderless, windowed, gsync on/off, vsync on/off. I always framelimit to 60 when streaming
- toggling network prioritization in Steam, hardware encoding and decoding on/off
- I have no overlays that could be interfering like Discord, RTSS, Xbox PC stuff, Shadowplay, GeForce Experience
- I have tried Link wired directly to PC and Link wired to router wired to PC and it still happens (although maybe placebo, the router inbetween helped)
- trying Fast/Balanced/Beautiful presets, all of the available mbps settings (higher than 40mbps introduces audio desync)

It is not specific to any game but some games I've played with a huge incidence of issues are Silent Hill 2 Remake and Forza Horizon 6. Games like Onimusha WOTS and Pragmata, it happens very infrequently (every 15~45 min), and in games like Super Lucky's Tale, it happened once in an hour session. In Tenebris Somnia, it didn't happen during a 6hr stretch.

The only changes I made before this started happening was some build updates and I went wired. I'm just not sure when it started having issues exactly, but definitely in the last 45 days since I went wired on Sept 9th.
Last edited by stratzilla; Oct 26 @ 10:42am
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Showing 1-15 of 18 comments
_I_
Oct 20 @ 11:46pm 
what gpu driver?

the latest nvidia drivers are for the 5xxx, the 3xxx and earlier do not run as good on them
#1
stratzilla
Oct 21 @ 6:05am 
Originally posted by _I_:
what gpu driver?

the latest nvidia drivers are for the 5xxx, the 3xxx and earlier do not run as good on them
I'm on the latest drivers, I typically update to the latest the day of or the next day. I went wired Sept 9th and probably started getting these issues around the same date. Do you think it could be a driver issue?
#2
_I_
Oct 21 @ 9:43am 
most likely yes

nvidia has been using ai to code drivers, and its been failing at alot of odd things
Last edited by _I_; Oct 21 @ 9:43am
#3
GoodThanks15
Oct 21 @ 6:35pm 
Just for a test, try setting it to 20Mbps.
Also if your router is a Fritzbox make sure Layer 2 packet acceleration is disabled.
#4
stratzilla
Oct 23 @ 9:41am 
Originally posted by GoodThanks15:
Just for a test, try setting it to 20Mbps.
Also if your router is a Fritzbox make sure Layer 2 packet acceleration is disabled.
I've tried changing to the Balanced preset and 25mbps and 20mbps and it still happens. It's hard to gauge whether it's frequency is reduced since it is down to random chance.
#5
_I_
Oct 23 @ 11:31pm 
in link menu -> streaming -> advanced
change it to 75
or when you are streaming
steam -> settings -> remote play -> set bandwidth to 75
#6
stratzilla
Oct 24 @ 5:33am 
Originally posted by _I_:
in link menu -> streaming -> advanced
change it to 75
or when you are streaming
steam -> settings -> remote play -> set bandwidth to 75
I thought the Marvell chip could not break 35mbps? The reason I use 30mbps is I read something to that effect and there's no setting between 30mbps and 40mbps. Nevertheless, doesn't hurt to give it a try to verify. I'll report back.
#7
_I_
Oct 24 @ 8:54am 
copying a file to the link, it can hit 30mb/s
but thats probably limited by its flash storage

but a 1080p60 stream only needs 30-50mb/s
so setting it to 75 is just clearance and keeps the quality good
at auto and unlimited it often drops to 10-20
#8
stratzilla
Oct 26 @ 5:31am 
Originally posted by _I_:
copying a file to the link, it can hit 30mb/s
but thats probably limited by its flash storage

but a 1080p60 stream only needs 30-50mb/s
so setting it to 75 is just clearance and keeps the quality good
at auto and unlimited it often drops to 10-20
No dice unfortunately. Trying 40, 50, 75, numbers higher than 30 introduces audio desync and the blips still occur.
#9
_I_
Oct 26 @ 8:11am 
Originally posted by stratzilla:
Originally posted by _I_:
copying a file to the link, it can hit 30mb/s
but thats probably limited by its flash storage

but a 1080p60 stream only needs 30-50mb/s
so setting it to 75 is just clearance and keeps the quality good
at auto and unlimited it often drops to 10-20
No dice unfortunately. Trying 40, 50, 75, numbers higher than 30 introduces audio desync and the blips still occur.
on link hardware, i do not have that issue
Last edited by _I_; Oct 26 @ 8:12am
#10
stratzilla
Oct 26 @ 10:23am 
Originally posted by _I_:
Originally posted by stratzilla:
No dice unfortunately. Trying 40, 50, 75, numbers higher than 30 introduces audio desync and the blips still occur.
on link hardware, i do not have that issue
Are you on a specific version? Do you have Discord open concurrently? Trying to narrow down issues since I'm not convinced it's a networking issue.
#11
Major Gnuisance
Oct 27 @ 3:41am 
Try intentionally torturing the video encoder to see if it that makes it happen more frequently.

Here's some inspiration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_j41eTuEq0 (wish this was a generator and not an already compressed video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCVc36qv3sM (This one I found naturally by idling in the main menu while streaming. The way it alternates between degrees of complexity is good to torture the adaptive bit rate control of the encoder.)

https://www.shadertoy.com/view/wl3fzl (no video compression, but the complexity is constantly high, so you may need to manually alternate between this an a simpler scene to really torture the encoder)
#12
_I_
Oct 27 @ 3:46am 
Originally posted by stratzilla:
Originally posted by _I_:
on link hardware, i do not have that issue
Are you on a specific version? Do you have Discord open concurrently? Trying to narrow down issues since I'm not convinced it's a networking issue.
are you sure its using a direct connection and not internet relays?
ping <1ms
windows network set to private, not pulbic
any vpn disabled
routers isolation disabled for lan and private ssid you use
if local connection is not available, steam/link will use internet relays and your internet upload+download with much increased lag
#13
stratzilla
Oct 27 @ 2:23pm 
Originally posted by _I_:
Originally posted by stratzilla:
Are you on a specific version? Do you have Discord open concurrently? Trying to narrow down issues since I'm not convinced it's a networking issue.
are you sure its using a direct connection and not internet relays?
ping <1ms
windows network set to private, not pulbic
any vpn disabled
routers isolation disabled for lan and private ssid you use
if local connection is not available, steam/link will use internet relays and your internet upload+download with much increased lag

I'm on a direct link, even if both host and client are disconnected from the Internet. It also happens if I bypass the router completely by hardlining client to host.

Originally posted by Major Gnuisance:
https://www.shadertoy.com/view/wl3fzl (no video compression, but the complexity is constantly high, so you may need to manually alternate between this an a simpler scene to really torture the encoder)

Played it for 30min or so while monitoring the network performance graph and it was perfect throughout. No frame loss, blips, nada.
#14
Major Gnuisance
Oct 31 @ 4:42pm 
Any new developments or insight?

If you have the hardware for it, trying more combinations of streaming host and client could help shed some light on the issue.

(My money is that it's an issue in the host, since there seems to be a correlation with how resource intensive the games are.)
Last edited by Major Gnuisance; Oct 31 @ 4:47pm
#15
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Steam Link > General Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: Oct 20 @ 9:09pm
Posts: 18
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