• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

How is Steam Link on 5Ghz WIFI?

Gamezone

Gamezone

Gold Member
Have anyone used a Steam Link on a 5Ghz WIFI? Is it good enough? I`m currently replacing my gaming console by moving on to PC gaming, but I won`t be having my PC in my living room. My PC is in my room, and that`s next to our living room.
 
I've honestly not had a lot of success and moved to PoE lines and it works really well now. Could just be my house set-up though as I know others have had varying degrees of success but imo if you play anything relying on quick inputs try and find a way to get it hardwired.
 
Tried it only 2 days ago, it was a terrible terrible experience for me, No idea why. Super close to the router as well :-/
 
Question on steam link; as I see it, the full HD is the max. Does the game has to run in full HD or it can be higher and the stream will be full HD nonetheless ?
 
I tried playing Rocket League on it but the lag was a bit too much for me.

Any other game has been fine for me including getting A+ on plenty of levels of Cuphead.
 
Just be aware that 5Ghz WiFi has reduced range over 2.4 It's a big problem in my apartment for some reason.
 
No hiccups for me over 5G and max settings but my room is only a couple of walls away. It’s really going to depend on your router location.
 
I have my PC connected via 5Ghz in the basement and the Steam Link wired upstairs on the TV.

It works great, other than playing FPS games with a mouse there's virtually no noticeable lag.
 
Mine should be coming in tomorrow. Does anyone have experience playing couch mp games like Nidhogg, Castle Crashers, etc on it? That's really the only thing I see myself using it for. Will be using it wired so I'm thinking it should work well?
 
But if you are using wired, what's the difference between a wired HDMI cable or LAN cable? I don't see much benefit in the Steam Link if I can't connect wireless.
 
I hope to hear some impressions because back when the Link was on sale for 20 bucks I passed because every review I watched on Youtube or read about showed it being quite terrible on Wifi. Moving my Router to the living room just isn't an option I'm wiling to deal with right now.
 
If the main machine is on Wifi, just don't expect it to work perfectly.
Heck I've had hiccups even on wired, I had to reconfigure my settings to get it to work.
 
I just recently got a Steam link and tried the 5ghz because the link is sitting literally right by the router.

I have to admit it was beyond horrible. It was a stutter slideshow in the menu and in-game (Grim Dawn if curious). I went out and got a very long ethernet cable and it works nearly perfectly. I can still see a very slight delay/input lag I guess you could call it, but it's fairly minor and not always noticeable. For some reason Fallout 4 ran better on it than Grim Dawn, which was odd.

I did a fair amount of internet searches and adjusted what I could on my PC and the link to try to make it better and couldn't get the wireless to be viable.

I am open to suggestions though!

Gamezone said:
Can I somehow use my XBO controller wireless on the Steam Link?
Click to expand...

Supposedly you can but the way I saw looked overly complicated and I didn't want to bother with it. Wired connection works fine though.
 
Sorcerer said:
I know it sounds crazy but it works better on 5ghz for me than it does on Ethernet. Almost flawless.
Click to expand...

I bet your router or hub is limited to 100Mbits/s

After I upgraded to gigabit ethernet on my router it made a huge difference for this kind of device streaming.
 
I tried it again recently after changing some hardware. Worked well for me, only a couple of stutters/drops in a handful of faster games.

Wired is 100% flawless though... so plugged it back in ;P
 
I used wifi before but you could really tell the lag playing Tomb Raider and Dark Souls 3 max (both max settings).
Since i have 5ghz it’s been awesome. Finished Tomb Raider and played through Shadows of Mordor without any problem at all!
 
Gamezone said:
Can I somehow use my XBO controller wireless on the Steam Link?
Click to expand...

If you have the Bluetooth one then it works fine, there is a setting that tries to turn non steam controller’s into steam controllers or something similar you just have to turn that off.
 
I found it bad for fast/reaction dependant type games but alright for slower paced game. Note I'm wired in and its pretty good.
 
Rourkey said:
If you have the Bluetooth one then it works fine, there is a setting that tries to turn non steam controller’s into steam controllers or something similar you just have to turn that off.
Click to expand...

You know if the Elite XBO controller has Bluetooth?
 
I was cautious about this but it actually works fine. I have the steam link connected to the router via ethernet but a pci Wi-fi card (up to 450mbps) connected to the 5ghz wireless. Honestly it works great. I’ve been playing cluster truck which is a reflex intensive and I’ve got no complaints.

What I’ve heard is that keeping devices too close to the router can cause problems. That could explain the issues some are experiencing. Honestly, if you have a device that’s really close you should just run a wire anyway.
 
Stupid question, but is it possible to use a wired connection from my router to the Steam Link while using WLAN on PC?
 
Well I recently bought a steam link but it doesn't really run very well...

Steam link hooked up via cable and the laptop via 5ghz. Laptop is only 3 meters away from the router. Any ideas on what goes wrong?

My laptop is very old though. 4 years old approx. I3 etc... Could that be the problem?
 
Mr YuYu said:
Well I recently bought a steam link but it doesn't really run very well...

Steam link hooked up via cable and the laptop via 5ghz. Laptop is only 3 meters away from the router. Any ideas on what goes wrong?

My laptop is very old though. 4 years old approx. I3 etc... Could that be the problem?
Click to expand...

Run the network diagnostic tool in Steam Link. If you're getting good results, then it's really just your laptop. i3 is quite a bit slower on laptops, and I doubt an i3 gets fitted with a GPU good enough for gaming.
 
You'll need to do it also via a wireless AC capable network with at least 2200Mbps bandwidth for 1080p but I've used it to play Cuphead in co-op and noticed little if any lag. Still would not recommend it for any kind of online game, but it's surprisingly capable all things considered.
 
Wolf Akela said:
Run the network diagnostic tool in Steam Link. If you're getting good results, then it's really just your laptop. i3 is quite a bit slower on laptops, and I doubt an i3 gets fitted with a GPU good enough for gaming.
Click to expand...

Just Ran the diagnostic tool. I am getting 0 frame loss and 8ms something. Is that good? Average? Juste doable?
 
CrunchyFrog said:
You'll need to do it also via a wireless AC capable network with at least 2200Mbps bandwidth for 1080p but I've used it to play Cuphead in co-op and noticed little if any lag. Still would not recommend it for any kind of online game, but it's surprisingly capable all things considered.
Click to expand...
400mbps and over will be absolutely fine for 1080p

I don’t know where you pulled 2200 from.
 
Mr YuYu said:
Just Ran the diagnostic tool. I am getting 0 frame loss and 8ms something. Is that good? Average? Juste doable?
Click to expand...

About as good as it gets, network wise.

Your problem is really just your old laptop. You'll need either a much beefier CPU, or a GPU that has a video encoder in it, which are usually in gaming tier GPUs. You'll have to drop the resolution or framerate to get better results.
 
It's okay for most games, but anything that requires fast reactions is unplayable to me. I can feel the lag. For a lot of games it doesn't matter, but things like shooters or fighting games are a no-go.
 
It doesn't work for me for some reason.

I'm using the Steam Link app on a Samsung KS9000 (KS8000 in Europe), latest firmware, and connected to the 5Ghz WiFi.
The PC is connected with an Ethernet cable.
When lauching Steam, the Steam Link app detects it properly but I always get an error when selecting it.
I wanted to play Cuphead on TV but couldn't do it because of that :(
 
Wolf Akela said:
About as good as it gets, network wise.

Your problem is really just your old laptop. You'll need either a much beefier CPU, or a GPU that has a video encoder in it, which are usually in gaming tier GPUs. You'll have to drop the resolution or framerate to get better results.
Click to expand...

Good to hear that the network is ok. Better start saving up for a new pc then :-)

Thanks for the info!
 
Just booted my Steam Link up for the first time and played some Wolfenstein trough a 5Ghz wireless network. It played like a charm. I'm definitely going to use the Steam Link in my living room for some games. It really replaces the feeling of having a console hooked up to the TV.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Deponia is free on Steam right now
9
366
Kuranghi replied
Graveyard Keeper is currently free on Steam and PlayStation
4
255
Tobimacoss replied
Steam to feature how much FPS you’ll likely have on a game before buying
Platform 
27
495
Soodanim replied
R.U.S.E. is Back With Re-Release on Steam
News Retro Platform 
6
202
IbizaPocholo replied
New PlayStation Link Adapter
23
93
Hudo replied
Top Bottom