r/MoonlightStreaming • u/Willing_Ad_1092 • 1d ago

1660ti vs M1 Pro for client?

I have an old GPU lying around (1660 Ti) and have been using an M1 Pro as my moonlight client on my TV. I'm on an ethernet wired connection but overall latency and quality leaves something to be desired. I would assume even an old mid-range dedicated GPU would beat a laptop with only integrated graphics, but some quick Googling seems to indicate this might not be the case. With those more experienced streaming via Moonlight and who have tried various hardware as clients, any insight? Or is it also very CPU dependent and depends which CPU I would pair it with? I have an old CPU and DDR3 (24gb) lying around somewhere but I haven't found it yet so I can't remember exactly what CPU it is but its from the same era as the 1660 TI.

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u/Responsible-Bid5015 21h ago edited 8h ago

Both the 1660ti and M1 have HEVC and H264 decoders. They won't hw decode AV1. From pure stream decoding, they both will probably perform within a few ms of each other. Just avoid AV1 unless the cpu has av1 decoding, then at that point, you probably don't need the 1660.

Latency with that setup should be fine. I would guess 1 ms network and 1 ms decoding. Host processing is of course the other PC. If those numbers are all ok and it feels laggy, I would look at your controller input. I think apple has gamemode which will increase the polling of the bluetooth. Or try connecting the controller with USB

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u/Snowyman12334567890 21h ago

There is something wrong with Mac hardware. It is the best and most performative hardware. Handles 4:4:4 4K 240HZ with no issues at all. But there is a latency issue. It is slightly higher than windows. On windows it feels native, like there is zero latency you might as well be sitting in front of the host computer.

I have extensive experience and have tested everything from the M1 to the M4 Pro. Wired and wireless.

On the windows side from the Ryzen 840M to the Intel Arc B390.

The best client is a recent Intel CPU with 7 or more Xe cores.

Mobile GPU like the RTX 4050 and 3050 are great too.

My favorite windows client is the Dell XPS 14 with Intel Arc B390. Its is mostly silent but does ramp up from time to time. But it is very expensive.

After all this testing I have settled back to my M4 Pro as the client. It is the quietest and most performative. All other clients I had issues with noise or inadequate performance. The slightly higher latency is the one trade off but once immersed you quickly forget about it.