I’ve recently resurrected my partner’s old gaming PC by wiping the Windows install and putting Kubuntu on it. It’s a reasonably old machine at this point, but it’s still capable enough to play games like Red Dead 2 without any issues.
It’s running an AMD 8120 3.10Ghz CPU, with an Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU, with 16Gb RAM.
The GPU happens to be the minimum spec for Cyberpunk, which runs pretty well on it. I have the Nvidia drivers installed and everything seems ok in that regard.
The trouble comes when I try to stream it to, well, anything other than its own screen. With both Steamlink and Sunshine/Moonlight it’s unplayable. If/when a game does finally load, it runs at a good 5fps.
I’m pretty new to Linux gaming, so don’t really know where to start, so also don’t really know what questions I need to ask in the first place.
So yeah, which are the best guides to look at to figure out how best to optimise my setup?
Entirely seriously and not trying to be rude:
Learn how to write better supports tickets / help requests.
Your title implies you need help with an initial efficient set up, but then you go on to describe that what you actually want is help figuring out why moonlight/sunshine/steamlink streaming is quite slow on your system.
Just be that specific in the title.
There are tons of different ways a system can be efiicient, things it can be optimized for, both in hardware and software terms. People see a title like you have and generally think its someone asking a pretty broad question, a different question than what you seem to actually want the answer too.
Now to attempt to answer that question:
Well, you say that RDR2 and CP77 run decently well locally as compared to when it was a Windows machine, so it seems the pc itself is doing ok… but, we have problems when trying to stream it to other devices.
What are those other devices? What are their speces/configuration?
What is the network card on this resurrected pc? Does it have drivers that work with your streaming software?
What about your wifi router, what are its specs, model number, settings config?
With streaming, we are now talking about at least 2 devices that all have to meet min specs and be configured correctly, at least 3 if you’re doing this wirelessly.
Also… were you doing local wired or wireless streaming from/to this device back when it ran Windows, for a point of perfromance comparison, or are you just trying this for the first time when it is now a linux machine?
Streaming like this, the streaming itself is actually often quite a demanding and intensive process, its fairly likely using that rig that just barely, roughly meets CP77 min specs… well, throw streaming on top of that and now that machine is basically below min specs.
This is why say Twitch streamers who play very graphically intensive games at high to ultra settings tend to have absolutely monstrous rigs, or just throw in a dedicated capture card or device of some kind… realtime screen recording and transmitting is an intensive process… even a 2 to 3 thousand dollar modern setup is gonna lose maybe 5% ish off its avg FPS just doing local screen capture, muchless also realtime transmitting it.
IRT Steam Link for linux, it is relatively new and is probably still working through an initial ‘growing pains’ type stage of proper linux support on basically all conceivable hardware, its not even 2 months into its official, initial linux release.
More info:
https://linuxvox.com/blog/steam-link-linux/
https://www.linuxmadesimple.info/2024/06/how-to-install-steam-link-on-ubuntu-2404.html?m=1
https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithGame/?appid=353380
Moonlight/Sunshine:
https://github.com/moonlight-stream/moonlight-docs/wiki/Setup-Guide
Thank you for your response, I do appreciate your input.
However, if you weren’t trying to be rude, you kinda failed. I didn’t actually ask anyone for advice on how to sort out my setup (though advice supplied is always gratefully received), what I actually asked for was if anyone knew of any useful guides on how to learn how to set things up.
I was asking how to learn, not to be told how to write a better support ticket.
To address your reply further; how much information could I have provided that would have been enough for you? You even ask for information on my router (I use a TP-Link mesh network, if that helps. It streams my partner’s PC beautifully), on what planet would I have known to tell people that when asking how to learn?
But as I said, I do appreciate your input, and you have imparted some useful information. Thank you.
Well, I also wasn’t trying to not be rude.
I was being matter of fact, practical, objective.
Your response here, in a real world enterprise situation, would now get your ticket to the bottom of my priority list, or I’d just reject the ticket as too vague, try again, be more specific with an actual specific problem you want solved.
Learning how to write a better support ticket is learning how to learn.
If you can’t see that, or don’t agree, then uh… good luck!
I provided you with multiple general guides and resources for how to properly set up /ntroubleshoot both moonlight/sunshine and steamlink, and… you apparently didn’t read them or use them, as you don’t seem to recognize that they were provided.
You may notice that no one has actually yet answered your very vague and open ended question which could have many potential variables at play, beyond suggesting you educate yourself more or investigate the problem on your own, confined to some more narrow realm of potential issues or information.
This is because you are bad at asking questions in a way that can actually be answered.
In a real world, enterprise, bug report situation, you would be deprioritized for being obstinate and having a fragile ego, multiple other tickets can likely be worked on and succesfully closed in the time it would take to even figure out how to speak to you in a manner that does not offend you, or figure out how to get you to actually read what is written in response to your questions.
I am not your personal customer support, no one is paying me to do this, you don’t appreciate the help given, or even recognize it as help, and you are more concerned with whether or not you feel offended than you are with actually attempting to define and then solve some problem, achieve some goal.
You aren’t in a learner’s mindset, you are not coming to this topic you admit you have very little experience in … with humility.
You are in a ‘give me free simple answer to my vague and open-ended question’ mindset, you’re being a Karen.
You’re using faux-polite corpo speak to pretend you’re being polite, but… you’re not actually being polite, you’re being disingenuous and just trying to follow etiquette conventions for a non existant potential HR review.
IT support is communication, and communication is a two way street, not a vending machine… and also, again, you’re not paying anybody here anything, so no one actually owes you anything.
I didn’t actually ask you specifically to answer my question. If it was too difficult for you, then you needn’t have bothered. Instead you chose to be condescending.
You might not think that’s the case, but it is.
This isn’t a real world enterprise situation. I have never been in such a situation. It’s a forum on a website where enthusiastic amateurs and IT professionals alike discuss a shared common interest. I fall squarely into the former category, and I assume you the latter. But I don’t have to conform to your requirement for assistance. And if I don’t, then ignore me.
You tell me that I ignored the practical guides you linked, but in the comment you’ve just replied to, I specifically thanked you for the information you’ve imparted. I’m aware of the links, but life gets in the way and I’ve not yet had a chance to actually do anything with them.
You accuse me of lacking humility, yet if you look at my replies to others you’ll see that I’m grateful for their input. I am! What I don’t like is being criticised because I’m not conforming to a standard that you’ve imposed upon me. If I’m guilty of lacking humility, it’s purely in my responses to you.
I expect nothing of anyone here. I asked a question (that you considered insufficient) without any expectation of reply. I hoped for one of course, but ultimately it was just an attempt to pick the brains of those who know more about these things than I do. And evidently you do.
Your responses to me have irritated me enormously, which is a shame as I’m certain that wasn’t your intention.
I’ll draw a line under this here. Thank you for the information you’ve provided.
Thanks for your response to op, in my words answering him I would just sound like an elitist asshole 😁.
There are just so many gaps to fill and it’s not an issue of the hardware as far as I can guess.
I have to admit, I’ve not replied to the previous comment because it came across as condescending. Helpful in its way, but condescending enough to be unhelpful.
But I would like to respond to this one.
I never actually stated there was a problem with the hardware, and I didn’t actually ask for any specific help with my setup. I’m aware of my own limitations as I’m new to both gaming PCs and Linux. What I actually asked for was if anyone knew of any useful guides I could browse to help me get an understanding of what I need to optimise. Perhaps I shouldn’t have offered any further context to what I’m trying to achieve, because that’s just served to allow three different people in the replies to criticise my ability to request support.
I’m happy to admit that I don’t know what I’m on about here, but I am willing to learn, and I’m happy to take on board that maybe I need to be clearer in future. But the attitude from several in these replies has come across as almost gatekeeping. A weary sigh of a comment, a reluctant imparting of knowledge, for which the only payment is me knowing my place.
Thank you.
I’ve been in IT for decades and also privately (non pro non esport - for fun!) gaming. So I know my stuff but also know that I don’t know everything.
And I’m also Autist.
So this in combination let’s me make statements which always arrive at neurotypicals as negative, how could it not? The reason not being that I want to hurt people, but rather that we communicate in content only and NT communicate between the lines; and that’s inserted automatically even if it’s not even sent. So yeah sucks for both sides (double empathy problem BTW).
So what I see with a post like this is that the hardware is more than sufficient for many things, gaming works and… What? Streaming not? That’s basically the weakest in the equation.
But then a lot of context is missing. Streaming TO or streaming FROM. Of yours the streaming from that device, encoding, that’s another thing. That might cause issues although picking the right encoding in hardware should also be OK.
And streaming TO there should not be an issue at all.
So I am left guessing. The hardware is fine (that’s where that conclusion, not underhanded ‘you said’ came from) and the issue must be with software or skills (again, not blaming, everyone including me has this all the time and might require more knowledge for this specific case).
So, maybe I gave you some (also unexpected) insight in why I reacted like this.
Also, nonwithstanding, autists can also be assholes aside from this. And techies especially, too. But having had some of our experiences with people that’s often very understandable, too.
Yeah, it’s cool.
I’m ADHD as fuck, my partner is autistic as fuck (with probably a large sprinkle of ADHD too), so I get the communication thing. But also, being ADHD, I tend to either comment with all the context anyone could possibly ever need (and more), or with broad strokes because I want to achieve something but also want to go off and focus on something else. I can be very difficult to live with. My partner is a saint.
But yeah, I get that - as an IT professional - you come to support requests with a certain level of weariness. I work in engineering health and safety, so I know how thoughtless people can be.
Yeah, its probably worth clarifying that being able to actually describe, in detail, the problem you are having… that in and of itself is a very, incredibly useful skill to have or to develop, if anybody wants to get more proficient with linux particularly, but really with any kind of complex thing or process at all.
The better you get at asking for help, the better you get at recieving help, generating a useful discussion.
I’d test if the system correctly recognises hardware encoders and decoders on your graphics card.
You can do this by running mpv media player with the following command:mpv --hwdec=nvdec your_yideo_name.mp4If you then press I while the video is playing inside of MPV and it says “nvdec” next to “Video:” and “h264” or “h265”, it works.
If this works and you are still experiencing problems with game streaming from Sunshine, then you have misconfigured Sunshine.
If it does not say that, or it refuses to start because it can’t find NVdec, you need to install the (older) proprietary Nvidia drivers as you have an older 10 generation card, which aren’t supported by the integrated free software drivers that most distros use to talk to nvidia GPUs.
For the future, I mean this in a very kind way: Please be more specific and concise when describing your problems. From your question, I don’t know if you mean that you want to optimise your system in general, if you have trouble using it as a host for game streaming, so you run Sunshine on it and play the game on another device, or if you want to use it as a client for game streaming, so another machine is running the heavy game and you’re just streaming it to the “low-spec” machine. Reason is we’re strangers on the internet. We don’t know what’s going on with your system because we don’t have access to it. We don’t even know what your system looks like. So you need to be very detailed and very precise with what you want to accomplish and what problems you currently have.
Edit: typo.
Heh, TFW someone describes “resurrecting” a “low-spec” machine, and others talk about how old and out of date it is, and it’s roughly equivalent to your main gaming PC.
Sorry, I was trying to avoid replies from the kind of person who’d say “your shit’s too old! Get a new one!” when the point of what I’m doing is giving new life to a forgotten computer.
As I said, it still plays RDR2 beautifully, so for that reason alone I’m keen to get it running as well as I can, because I love getting lost in that wilderness.
Nah, you’re cool. I know my system’s old, but as you say there’s still plenty of life in it, so I’ll keep it for now. Especially since I stick entirely to indie games these days.
But actually, I’m keeping an eye on auctions for something just a few years newer. Games that require AVX2 extensions are finally starting to come out, and my CPU doesn’t support them. Even with indie games, most of them use third-party engines, so it might not be too much longer before it’s an issue even for me.
Nice. Mine is a bit newer, but it wasn’t long ago that I rocked a Phenom CPU with a 700 series GPU, which I later upgraded to a 900 series.
I’m now on something a bit newer with an AMD Ryzen 5600 and 6650XT, but that rig isn’t all that different from what I ran before this one.
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Maybe codec? maybe instead of hardware encoding h264 it’s software encoding av1
Thanks, I’ll look in to that.
Two of my family members are still rocking machines of this vintage. Get a Vishera-based (8300 series) FX CPU if you can find it cheap, so you at least have x86-64-v2 instruction set. It helps. You probably have (Realtek?) gigabit networking onboard, but an Intel gigabit card will improve networking performance.
When streaming, you’re running the game and encoding video at the same time. This will make the PC double as a space heater, which might be OK if you’re in the northern hemisphere and approaching winter! 😉
To help narrow it down I’d try streaming a low-end game that runs very well locally and doesn’t tax the system. If this doesn’t stream well either that would suggest that it’s something specific to the streaming setup, perhaps a networking issue.
By “stream it”, do you mean sending the video somewhere for other people to watch, or do you mean running the game on this computer while playing it from another one (aka remote play)?
The slowdown you describe could be explained by a slow video encoder. Can you configure Steam Link / Sunshine / Moonlight / whatever to use the GPU hardware for encoding?
As in playing it via Moonlight on an Apple TV in my lounge. So yeah, remote play.
16 GB RAM is sufficient, though with an FX 8120, Kubuntu might be a bit steep… if you want an Ubuntu, I would strongly suggest Lubuntu for the lightweightness, unless you absolutely need Wayland.
As for the Moonlight problem, make sure you have the nvidia drivers installed, and you also use nvenc to encode in h264 or h265.
Last I saw kde was less resource intensive? Been a bit tho
1.6 GB RAM KDE vs 500 MB RAM LXqt last I checked
It might be the old motherboard and chipset. If they don’t have good speed they won’t be able to keep up with the bitrate or bandwidth necessary for streaming. Old chipsets weren’t made for it since it wasn’t a thing years ago. Just to name one component, newer PCI express busses are sometimes 10 to 100 times faster than older formats (like PCI-X). For example, PCIe 8 doubles the speed of PCIe 7 that is barely 3 years old, imagine compared to even older versions. This is necessary to keep up with internet modems and the typical speeds and ping times required for game streaming with minimum lag.
We have had the same PC streaming to Moonlight in the past, but that was back when it was running Windows. Also, we only had a 1080 TV then. Even downscaling Moonlight to 720 didn’t really seem to make much difference.
Not being able to stream isn’t really the end of the world, but it would be nice if I could work it out.
What resolution are you streaming to now? Make sure the game is being streamed at 1080p or 720p, and not aiming for the native resolution of your target device. Because if it’s trying to stream at 4k for example it’ll fail miserably.
OK, now we know the hardware is capable. But there are still many other factors. I theorize it could be a driver. But for that it would be necessary to know distro, kernel version, hardware specs. It could be a kernel module that is not loaded on your distro version or it could be that the driver simply doesn’t exist yet. It could be a configuration problem in moonlight. Explore those venues and report back with more info.
