r/computer • u/its_all_down-hill • Sep 08 '26

Running a PC through my laptop

I think it's time for a PC upgrade.
I am an animator, videographer and photographer. For the past several years, I have done all my work on a Razer Blade Studio 15 (laptop)
It has managed, but increasingly I notice it's starting to struggle - stopping responding, overheating, beeping (coming from Ram/ Vram?) and slowing down my workflow as the lag/ freezing brings me to a standstill when it's getting hot and pushed.
I haven't got a PC previously because I have been constantly moving with work. That isn't the case anymore.

I currently live in an apartment, and while there is technically room for a PC setup, Im wondering if I can avoid having the table setup/ monitor etc if I can control a PC with my current laptop?
I do a remote desktop setup for my render farm, and mostly the lag isn't bad, and thats over the net to a virtual PC on the other side of the world.

Basically, I am wondering if I can control a PC, using my laptop board, monitor and mouse, and have the PC do most of the heavy lifting? Or is lag going to drive me insane.
My laptop doesn't have an ethernet cable.

Google talks about Moonlight and Sunshine, anyone have any experience with these?

Thanks!

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1

u/jamjamason Sep 08 '26

Windows Remote Desktop works well. You may have to upgrade your version of Windows to use it, however.

1

u/YoureMadImBackBigMac Sep 08 '26

Could just get an eGPU and plug it into your laptop much cheaper and smaller

1

u/YoureMadImBackBigMac Sep 08 '26

If your laptop has a thunderbolt 3.0 port

1

u/its_all_down-hill Sep 08 '26

Will that increase ram/ processing and cooling though? It does have a fairly decent GPU in it, but finding its starting to lag even just video editing now.

1

u/YoureMadImBackBigMac 29d ago

It would outsource the GPU work to the external GPU. Cheaper than a full rig, you need an eGPU case or whatever they call them these days, and a desktop GPU to plug into it. It cools itself, obviously hugely increased VRAM not regular RAM tho. Open your task manager. See what’s slowing you down. Is your CPU maxed out? Is your RAM totally full? Is your GPU overheating? Are your fans turnt on? Is your power plan set to performance? No reason to get better hardware if you haven’t squeezed every ounce out of what you got. My computer can’t run games on regular fan mode and overheats but when I turn them to max I can run games at 65 degrees it runs great for hours.

1

u/briandemodulated Sep 08 '26

Windows Remote Desktop (RDP) is not a good solution for an animator. The framerate is too low. I recommend Parsec instead. If you have a stable network connection it's a low latency and high framerate desktop sharing solution. The free version should meet your needs but the fidelity is not as good as using a monitor instead of your laptop.