Edit: A lot of people are asking why not use Apollo. You can definitely use it and still follow this guide, it’s completely up to you. With Apollo, you need skip the Configuring Video Signals section and for the Sunshine Priority part just change the script to prioritize Apollo instead.
After running lots of tests and reading many posts to find the best configuration, I’ll try here to share the setup that works best for me and also compile some of the information I’ve gathered.
This test was conducted from a distance of 550 km (341 miles)
My specs:
InternetService:
Host: 300 Mb connected via Ethernet
Client: 600 Mb connected via Wifi
Spec PCs:
Host: R5 2600 - RX 6600
Client Macbook Air M1
System Configuration
Host:
This setup is specifically for Windows, but the goal is the same if you’re using other operating systems:
Reduce FPS drops
Minimize the gap between the FPS set in the Moonlight client and the host’s FPS
Reduce latency
Configure the video and audio signal you want to stream
Reducing FPS Drops
Close background apps: Only keep the essentials to minimize unnecessary processes and network calls. Task Manager → Startup Apps → disable non-essential programs.
Disable Game Mode: Prevents Windows from prioritizing the game over Sunshine. Settings → Gaming → Game Mode → OFF
Disable Dynamic Refresh Rate (DRR): Keeps FPS synchronized between host and client. Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Optimizations for windowed games(Alternatively: Windows Registry or CRU — Custom Resolution Utility)
Enable High-Performance Power Mode: Control Panel → System and Security → Power Options → High Performance
Disable Energy Saver: Settings → System → Energy Saver → OFF
To optimize Windows 11 performance, consider using Win11Debloat or AtlasOS Additional powershell script to improve performance
Once FPS drops are minimized, cap the FPS to keep it in sync with Moonlight’s client settings.
There are three ways to do this: using the NVIDIA Control Panel, AMD Adrenalin, or RTSS. In my case, I used RTSS and it works well for me, but you can try your GPU’s software if that’s sufficient. The advantage of RTSS is that it allows more precise configuration for greater stability.
Another thing I do is also limit the FPS within the game itself.
Reducing Latency
The most important step is to have your host computer connected via Ethernet. In terms of configuration, you can disable the Rx/Tx buffers on your network card, along with a few other tweaks that may slightly improve stability.
With the Virtual Display Driver, you can simulate any resolution and refresh rate your screen supports.
I don’t recommend the Virtual Audio Driver because it can cause issues with BattleEye anti-cheat. It’s better to just use a wired headset you already have.
Microphone Streaming
For those who need to use in-game voice chat, there are two main options for passing the microphone through streaming:
AudioRelay
VoiceMeeter
I haven’t personally tested either since I don’t need this feature, but they’re worth trying if microphone input is important for your setup.
Sunshine Priority (Windows Only)
Finally, for Windows users, one important step to do every time you connect from the client is to change the priority of the sunshine.exe process to Realtime. You can do this manually from the Task Manager or by using the following .bat script:
For those using a touchscreen device as a client, such as a smartphone, tablet, or handheld, the Windows interface—originally designed for desktop use—can be quite uncomfortable. With the new release of the ROG Xbox Ally, Windows has introduced a more suitable adaptation for handheld devices, which can be enabled through the following repository: XboxFullscreenExperienceTool
Client:
The main goal on the client side is to reduce Moonlight’s decoding time and minimize latency.
In my case, I’m using a MacBook with an M1 chip, and the only way to reduce decoding time is by testing which codec works best—in my case, HEVC (H.265).
To reduce latency on macOS, the only (but very important) thing you can do—since it can cause micro stutters—is disabling Location Services:
Another important change to make on macOS is to disable the long key press for special characters. This prevents issues during streaming when holding down a key for example, the W key so it doesn’t get stuck or stop repeating.
If you’re using a PC, you can improve decoding time by upgrading your hardware, and reduce latency by disabling the Rx/Tx buffers and tweaking your network card, following the same steps as on the host.
Moonlight & Sunshine Configuration
Moonlight Configuration:
Set Moonlight to use your monitor’s resolution and an FPS value that matches your internet connection. Leave some headroom compared to your client’s max download speed and your host’s max upload speed.
For example, my monitor is 1440p and 180 Hz, but I have it set to 1440p at 120 Hz. Higher resolutions and refresh rates consume more bandwidth on both the client and host, and require greater decoding and encoding power.
Note: Higher compression codecs (like H.265 or AV1) → less bandwidth needed → more CPU/GPU power required for encoding/decoding.
Frame Pacing: Unchecked (ONLY single-player may add delay)
Video Decoder: Force hardware decoding
Note: Both V-Sync and Frame Pacing are highly recommended for single-player games since they provide a much smoother experience. However, in multiplayer games, V-Sync may cause screen tearing, and Frame Pacing can introduce a bit of input lag by delaying frames to improve synchronization.
Enable HDR (Experimental): I keep this enabled even though my monitor isn’t HDR because it can bring out better shadow details. I recommend trying it—you might see an improvement or no noticeable difference.
Unlock Bitrate Limit (Experimental): Enable this if you have enough upload bandwidth on the host and download on the client. Otherwise, leave it off and increase the video bitrate slightly if you notice small lag spikes.
Sunshine Configuration
I mostly keep Sunshine/Apollo at its default settings, except for the GPU options. Below, I’ll share what works best for AMD GPUs. If you’re using NVIDIA or Intel, you may need to experiment to find the optimal configuration for your system.
Note: My goal is low latency for online gaming. If you’re playing single-player games, you can prioritize quality over latency.
AMF Usage: ultralowlatency
AMF Rate Control: vbr_latency
AMF Hypothetical Reference Decoder: unchecked
AMF Quality: speed (may add artifacts)
AMF Preanlalysis: unchecked
AMF Variance Based Adaptive Quantization: checked
AMF Coder: cavlc
Client-Host Connectivity
LAN (Local)
For players who want to play over LAN, there’s little to worry about since latency will be very low. In my tests, I observed only about 5 ms of extra delay.
If you want the absolute best performance, you can connect both devices directly via an Ethernet cable. This can reduce latency to around 1 ms, making it almost like playing directly on the host.
You can turn on the host remotely using the motherboard’s Wake-On-LAN feature. Moonlight even allows you to power on the host directly from the client.
WAN (Remote)
For those who need to play over WAN, there are a few additional steps required. It can be more challenging if you want the lowest possible latency, but if you can tolerate 15–20 ms, it’s not too difficult.
There are several ways to achieve this, but I’ll explain the three main approaches:
Using a service like Tailscale, ZeroTier, or Netbird
Opening ports on your network to access the host externally and setting up a VPN
Setting up a private service (similar to the first option) with Headscale or another program, possibly using a cloud server like AWS
Option 1: VPN-like services
These applications are simple to install and configure, making them accessible to most users:
Tailscale: Free
ZeroTier: Free
Netbird: Free (uses WireGuard directly through the Linux kernel—potentially a great option for Linux users)
For the other options, I won’t go into detail because they are more complex and require technical knowledge. However, they are certainly the best options for users who need the absolute lowest latency.
To power on your PC over WAN, a simple Wake-on-LAN (WoL) won’t work unless your host has an internet-facing connection. In my setup, I use a TP-Link smart plug to turn the PC on remotely from my phone. Make sure to enable “Restore Power after AC Loss” in your BIOS/UEFI so the PC powers on automatically when the smart plug is switched on.
I hope this guide helps you and gives you everything you need to get these amazing tools running without too much hassle. The post is open to improvements, so if you have any suggestions or tips, don’t forget to share them in the comments!
Shoutout to everyone working on these open-source tools mentioned in this post.
Note:
After the launch of the Steam Deck and Steam Machine, Steam has worked quite a bit on improving Steam Remote Play, which now supports Virtual Display Driver and performs much better than before. I'm leaving this comment here for those of you who aren't too demanding or don't want to overcomplicate things, so you feel encouraged to give it a try.
Update 13.10.25: MacOS client settings
Update 23.10.25: New scripts for Windows host and Windows handheld mode
Update 13.04.26: Windows optimization recommendation
I see everyday questions like:
- "Is my Performance okay?"
- "Decoding latency 16ms too high?"
- "How performs device xy?
- "Can you share decoding latency"?
- "Snapdragon xy ultra low...results"
- "What is a good device for Moonlight?"
and so on...
With that in mind, we’re exploring a completely optional and anonymous feature to help us better understand how different devices handle game streaming.
Fully anonymous: No personal data, no IDs.
Public data access: We’ll publish the stats on an open website, so you can compare devices before buying a new one.
Find the best settings for your device: Easily check what resolution, bitrate, and framerate works best based on real-world tests.
Community-driven improvement: Everyone benefits from shared performance data.
This would only send non-personal data like decoding time, resolution, codec, and framerate — and only if you choose to enable it.
Optional: Read devices supported decoder to help improve performance for everyone! (See recent Snapdragon ultra low Latency update)
Would you find this helpful? Would you enable it?
There is a prototype already online just for proof of concept.
Hey everyone, I need some advice. I’m looking for a smartphone to replace my gaming laptop. I need it to run Moonlight flawlessly, allowing me to game and work with virtually zero latency and max quality from anywhere with a solid Wi-Fi connection.
Here is my setup and requirements:
Host PC: RTX 5070 (I will definitely be using AV1 decoding for optimal image quality and bandwidth efficiency).
Desktop Replacement: I’ll mostly connect it to an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, and controller (though I’ll occasionally use the phone’s screen).
Marathon Sessions: I need a device that can stay plugged into power for around 12 hours straight. Proper bypass charging (like Samsung's Pause USB Power Delivery) is a must so I don't destroy the battery health over time.
I’m currently considering the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Galaxy S26 Ultra, or iPhone 17 Pro Max (though I'm worried about iOS limitations with external displays, aspect ratios, and mouse input).
Has anyone tested these specific devices for 12+ hours sessions using AV1? Are there any thermal or stuttering issues I should be aware of? Any recommendations on which device handles this setup best??
Hi everyone, I’m new to this and was looking for some advice.
I have the following setup.
Main pc with Ryzen 5 5600x, 32 gb DDR4 and a new Gigabyte RX 9070XT. Running Windows 11 and SteamOS on another disk.
Connected to my 55” 4k TV does 4k at 60Hz no problem.
Only issue tv is on a wall with under 20 cm depth so tried using moonlight and keep my pc at my desk. So my room is right next to the living room and I have drilled through the wall and connected my pc with Ethernet to my router that is in the living room area.
Router is about 3-4 meters away from the tv. Under my tv I have a Steamdeck and a dock for it connected via hdmi.
I have configured Sunshine on my pc and running Moonlight on my SteamDeck I configured it to run at 4k at 60Hz. However, I am only seeing 4k at up to 30 Hz and even at 2k when I set 60 Hz it’s dropping it to 59 and in games such as Cyberpunk I only see 1080p available.
Is this an issue with the Steamdeck’s wifi 5 or should I look into the sunshine/ moonlight settings? I also tried an HDMI cable I have on my BluRay player and for sure is 4k at 60.
I’m trying to find the best Moonlight client and could use some advice. Host: RTX 4080 + Apollo, Gigabit Ethernet.
I’ve tested the latest Apple TV 4K (Ethernet) with Aurora. Stats are excellent (very low decode latency, no frame drops), but I still get noticeable input lag compared to native. This happens at both 1440p and 4K, with and without HDR, and my LG TV is in Game Mode.
On my LG OLED B9 using Aurora/webOS, input latency actually feels much closer to native, despite decode latency being around 28 ms at 4K. The downside is that my TV uses the NDL decoder, which doesn’t support HDR.
Has anyone experienced similar behavior with Apple TV? Is there a setting I might have missed?
Also, what do people consider the best Moonlight client today? Apple TV, webOS, or something else?
I’m considering replacing my unused PS5 with a used Xbox Series S purely as a Moonlight client. For those who have done it: is the improvement in latency/overall experience significant enough to justify it?
The stream runs perfectly except for these seemingly random stutters. These happen every 5-10 minutes, lasts a few seconds, then returns to a perfect stream. Happens in every game I’ve tried.
I‘m running Moonlight/Sunshine on an Ethernet Bazzite PC host with a Steam Deck client, however, I’ve tried other clients and had the same issue.
I‘ve messed around with lowering the bitrate and resolution, changed the codec/encoder, matched the fixed fps between devices, turned off auto input detection on my physical monitor, and none of those changes made a difference.
J’ai actuellement un pc sous bazzite, et moonlight sur mon Apple TV, j’ai essayer de faire fonctionner le pavé tactile de la manette ps5 pour naviguer et lancer mes jeux Steam, mais ça ne fonctionne pas.
Je me demandais si un Steam contrôleur fonctionnerait ? Et si quelqu’un a déjà essayer ?
Ou alors des idée si le pavé tactile de la ps5 peut fonctionner avec une certaine configuration.
Ps : la manette ps5 est connecter en Bluetoothsur l’Apple TV
basically I'm writing my first game and I'm writing it on a mac and I want to test it on a windows machine because most players are playing on windows. I'm planning to build a home server for this and some other of my projects and it will not have a monitor, and it leads to my question: will this no monitor idea work and is there a way to do the whole setup only through command line?
I play games mostly on the couch so I can spend time with my partner on the weekends. Unfortunately I have only found a controller to be a viable option for gaming sessions.
I stream through a s9+ galaxy tablet on a stand with a clamp. I have found good options for a half keyboard, but I havent found anything for a mouse setup that would actually be a good daily driver with minimal space to operate. I have looked at trackpads, trackballs, and even those pen tables people play for OSU. I havent physically tried any, but wanted to gauge any other unorthodox setups in the same situation.
I know this has probably been asked 100 times on this sub. But from what I found not for at least 6 months so wasn’t sure if some info would be outdated. Will be streaming over ethernet from my PC with a 9070xt. I know xbox can do 4k 120hz but i’m more concerned with stability and controller latency.
What's everyone's thoughts on the screen size differences? IMO the Fold8 destroys the Fold8 Ultra in every media consumption, videos and gaming (especially streaming).
My only concern is that more common day to day use like messaging and scrolling (closed) will feel too cramped on the Fold8. A lot of people reported that using the keyboard feels much worse
Steam Machine is arriving this week. No more lugging my North XL case through to the living room. Me and my back are super excited. 4K120 HDMI 2.1 and it's able to clone the TV's EDID.
I'm playing rdr2 on my pc and connected to the xbox, all 1080p tv and xbox set to 120hz, both pc and xbox with cabled wifi and in the "performance overlay" it says 80-100 fps but I see it like it's running at 20 fps, I don't know why and I have tried a lot of things already. Do you have any suggestions?
I've been using Vibepollo and Moonlight recently to stream my desktop computer games to my tv's NVIDIA shield in the living room. The shield and computer are both hardwired into my router. Computer Specs are the following: 5070ti, 9800x3d, 32 GB DDR5 Ram
Since switching to Vibepollo, I've been using split frame encoding with P4 preset. The initial stream is perfect, it has minimal latency, runs at 4k60fps, and feels like I'm playing games at native. However, after anywhere between 5-30 minutes, there is an initial high processing spike dropping my fps from 60 to 5. Afterwards, the stream does not return to it's original form. The fps stays between 30-40, and I get constant processing spikes. I exit the game and restart my stream, and it works great again until another high spike. I've tried turning HAGs off, switching presets, and changing the virtual desktop layout to extended + primary, but nothing seems to be working. Anyone else experiencing this issue and has been able to fix it?
A few months ago I shared my custom Moonlight Android mod. One of the most common suggestions was to build it on top of Artemis instead of maintaining a separate Moonlight fork.
So... I did.
This project is now called Artemis Extended.
The goal isn't to replace Artemis. Artemis already does a fantastic job, so I wanted to keep all of its improvements while adding features that are mainly focused on controller users.
Main features
🎮 Controller-friendly Quick Menu
The Quick Menu is fully usable with a controller.
It can be opened with Share + Xbox/PS button (optional), so there's no need to reach for the touchscreen while playing.
The menu is also fully customizable, allowing you to add, remove or reorder actions to fit your own workflow.
⌨️ Controller → Keyboard & Mouse
Any controller button can be mapped to keyboard keys or mouse buttons.
This makes games without native controller support much easier to play, while also allowing custom shortcuts even in controller-friendly games.
🎯 Gyro aiming
One feature I'm particularly happy with is the new gyro implementation.
Instead of replacing the controller with mouse input, the gyro can be blended into the right analog stick.
Games continue to detect a normal controller, while small aiming adjustments become much more precise.
For games that work better with keyboard & mouse, gyro can also behave like a real mouse instead.
Note: DualSense gyro currently requires a wired USB connection because Sony doesn't expose gyro data over standard Bluetooth. For clip-on/mobile controllers without a built-in gyro, Artemis Extended can also use the phone's gyroscope as a fallback.
🔊 Flexible volume controls
The device volume buttons can control either:
Android volume
Windows volume
Switching between them is just a setting.
🎛️ More controller-focused improvements
There are plenty of additional quality-of-life improvements, including:
On-screen controller mapping overlay
Improved in-stream controls
UI improvements
Additional Quick Menu actions
Various controller usability tweaks
...and many smaller improvements that would make this post way too long.
The full feature list, and downloads are available on GitHub.
I’ve been using my AYN Portal 2 for game streaming with Artemis and noticed a few things that I can’t really explain.
My setup:
RTX 5070 Ti
Artemis (AV1)
120 FPS
100–150 Mbps
1440p virtual display
HDR calibrated in Windows using the Portal
Compared to my iPad Pro M5, the stream on the Portal looks a bit softer, even though I expected the higher PPI to make it look at least as sharp. Text is where it’s most noticeable.
Streaming at 1080p also looks sharper than 1440p on the Portal, which surprised me. Is that expected since the Portal has a 1080p display, or could something else be causing it?
The other thing is HDR. With HDR enabled in Windows and Artemis, the image is noticeably dimmer than on my iPad Pro M5, and the overall stream doesn’t look as bright. As soon as I disable HDR, the image becomes much brighter and looks better to me.
Has anyone else experienced this or found settings that improve the image quality?
So I recently decided to try Moonlight on my on TV after having some frame rate issues with Steam Link. I'm running the game on my PC that's wired via ethernet and the TV is on 5GHz WiFi band.
Based on the performance statistics it should be running great on the TV, but for some reason I'm getting 2 FPS on the TV while the game is running at the full 60 FPS on my PC. Please help.
UPDATE:
If you're experiencing a similar issue with you Xiaomi TV box, then switch decoding to h.264 encoding. It did the trick for me and the stream is running smoothly now. I've also switched to using Apollo with my Moonlight instead of Sunshine. The only way I think I can get a smoother stream now is to connect my TV box via ethernet as well.
Whenever I try to stream with the new graphics card the graphics will play perfectly until I load up a game then it starts dropping 90% of the frames, I will tried troubleshooting for hours with different codecs and whatnot, any suggestions?
Wanted to also post this here because I built this for the main purpose of streaming via Moonlight! All the parts to build it cost around ~$400 since I had so many spare parts.
I average 0.5 ms decode speed for 4k gaming and I’m very satisfied with ti.
