So what's the consensus on using Steam Link vs. AMD Link and Parsec for remote play in June 2021?

maximumzero · June 24, 2021

Last year I built a (what was then) mid-range Gaming PC to play a handful of titles I had been intending on checking out. At the time I didn't really have a place for a PC setup, nor did I really want to invest in a monitor, so I decided to make it basically a streaming-only PC instead, with intentions to beam out its signal to any number of devices.

For the first few months I was using it directly connected to a television like a fancy console, but now that the dust has settled on a few things (Namely support for the new "Series" controllers under iOS and moving from a Wi-Fi 5 to a Wi-Fi 6 wireless access point) I've decide to put my original plan in action and stash the computer in a closet, wired to my router, for all of my gaming needs.

I currently have three devices I'd be streaming out to: a iPhone 12 Mini, a 2016 Macbook Pro, and a 2017 Apple TV 4K, though the Macbook Pro will likely be replaced with one of the new M1-equipped iMacs by the end of the year.

While the PC will obviously be wired directly into the router, unfortunately the rest of the devices will be operating wirelessly. The Apple TV is on the opposite end of the house as the router, and both are on exterior walls meaning the headache of stringing ethernet cables up walls and across the attic is that much more annoying, and I honestly don't know if I even want to deal with it just for remote play. The Apple TV, being the 2017 model, is utilizing Wi-Fi 5 as opposed to the newer Wi-Fi 6 but I'm seriously considering replacing it with the recently announced 2021 model just to get it up to the faster speed.

The iPhone 12 Mini is wireless as well obviously, and while the Macbook Pro is currently wireless, the iMac will likely end up being wired into the router as well, as it'll be going into the same room as the router, our "office" space.

I've got multiple options for streaming the games, depending on the platform. On the Apple TV, iPhone, and Macbook I can utilize the "Steam Link" App (or the "Streaming" function built into the Steam mac application.) On the Apple TV and iPhone I can utilize the "AMD Link" application, and on the Macbook I also have the option of using Parsec.

Has anyone done any sort of testing to see which of these options work best? My gut feeling says go with Steam Link as its the most supported option, but AMD Link may work best since it's designed specifically to work with AMD's GPUs by AMD themselves.

Any suggestions as to what I should stick with on each platform respectively and any tweaks I should use to get things running optimally?

Chris Pratt · June 25, 2021

I'm assuming you already have a WiFi 6 router, since you're considering updating devices like your Apple TV for WiFi 6. If not, that's a pretty obvious precursor.

Other than that, make sure you're using separate SSIDs for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, and only put your high priority devices on the 5GHz SSID. Put any IoT or lower priority devices like eReaders, etc. on the 2.4GHz SSID. This will help to improve the latency, especially with IoT devices, since they tend to be very chatty, and you don't want to be wasting valuable transmission time on the band for those.

You should also look into the QoS settings of your router and shape the traffic so any of the devices that you'll be streaming games to have the highest priority. Something like your work laptop may need to connect to the 5GHz SSID, but you don't necessarily want it messing with your gaming session because it decided it was time to update or something.