u/ARMCHA1RGENERAL

I have been using Steam Remote Play to stream games from my desktop to a Steam Deck. After lots of troubleshooting, I have Remote Play working extremely well (beautiful quality, <1% frame loss), but only once I switched my desktop PC to WiFi instead of Ethernet.

With the host desktop PC connected to Ethernet, Steam Remote play frame loss jumps to 80%. Trying other Ethernet ports on the router makes no difference.

The PC otherwise works fine on the Ethernet connection. Testing internet speed; I get ~400 Mbps down, 40 Mbps up, and ~15 ms latency over both Ethernet and WiFi.

It almost seems like Remote Play isn't treating WiFi and Ethernet as the same network and is instead routing the stream through the internet, but I don't know much about Remote Play or if that's something that it does.

I also wouldn't think that's the case since the host and client both have 192.168.50.X addresses.

I also tested this by streaming to a laptop to rule out any issues with the Steam Deck, but I got the exact same results.

The router is an ASUS RT-AX88U Pro. This router and my Motorola modem are my only networking devices.

I haven't been able to find any other posts or resources about this sort of issue.

I have a weird scenario and I'm wondering if anyone has come across this.

After lots of troubleshooting, I have Remote Play working extremely well (beautiful quality, <1% frame loss), but only once I switched my PC to WiFi instead of Ethernet.

With the PC connected to Ethernet, Steam Remote play frame loss jumps to 80%. Trying other Ethernet ports on the router make no difference.

The PC otherwise works fine on the Ethernet connection. I get ~400 Mbps down, 40 Mbps up, and 15 ms latency over Ethernet and WiFi.

It almost seems like Remote Play isn't treating WiFi and Ethernet as the same network and is instead routing the stream through the internet, but I don't know much about Remote Play or if that's something that it does.

I wouldn't think that's the case though since the host and client seem to be on the same network; both have 192.168.50.X addresses.

I've read a ton of posts about Remote Play settings, but I just can't get it to work smoothly.

The weird part is that it did work well for me when I used it several months ago. It would occasionally lag, but it would only happen for a few seconds every hour or two; very minimal. This was while using the 'beautiful' video setting.

Now, there's stuttering about every second.

I've tried adjusting a ton of settings and I'm about to just give up.

Yes, I've tried Sunshine and Moonlight. The performance was never noticeably different.

Router settings

Separate 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz networks

Prioritize host PC and Steam Deck IP’s

Disable QoS

Disable ‘DFS channels’

Disable ‘Target Wake Time’

Disable ‘Wifi Agile Multiband’

Disable WPA3 authentication

Disable 160 MHz

Limit to 20 MHz

Limit to 40 MHz

Limit to 80 Mhz

Manually set channel

Reboot router

I've even tried using the 2.4 GHz network and even bought a newer, higher end router to try (it didn't change anything and I returned it). My testing has been done while sitting two feet from the router.

Steam Deck settings

Tried all video quality settings

Lock to one radio

Desktop mode

WiFi settings

Select network

Select drop down menu for ‘BSSID’

Select the listed BSSID

Apply

Decrease Remote Play bandwidth to various levels

Manually set resolution

Manually set frame rate to various levels

create /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/wifi- powersave-off.conf inside this file: [connection] wifi.powersave = 2

Uncheck/check HEVC video

Uncheck/check low latency networking

Uncheck/check WiFi power management

Uncheck/check hardware decoding

Try launching the game stream from desktop mode

Try toggling WiFi on and off after restarting the Deck

Try toggling WiFi on and off after starting the game stream

Reboot Deck

I've also tried the stable, beta, and preview update channels.

Host PC settings

Uncheck/check hardware decoding

Uncheck/check Use NVFBC capture

Uncheck/check Prioritize network traffic

Reboot PC

Drivers are up to date. The host uses a 4080 and a 9800X3D. The host is connected to the router using Ethernet.

There are probably other steps I've forgotten to note down here.