Key Takeaways
- There are several methods to play PC games around your home, including using Valve’s Steam Deck for portability, or streaming to various devices like laptops, TVs, and phones using different streaming services and technologies.
- Nvidia’s GeForce Now service allows you to stream games to different devices through a virtual gaming PC hosted on Nvidia’s servers, requiring a stable internet connection and is compatible with many devices including Android TVs, LG TVs, and Chromecasts.
- Steam offers Remote Play and Steam Link for easy streaming of games to various devices, while Moonlight and Parsec provide alternatives for streaming non-Steam games and sharing your entire desktop, respectively, with both requiring a good network connection for optimal performance.
There are various ways to play PC games in your home — the obvious one being from your own gaming PC. But sometimes you just want to step away from your gaming rig and play elsewhere, whether in bed, on the sofa, in the bathroom or in any other room of your home.
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The good news is there are a few solutions. If you’re after something portable, then Valve’s Steam Deck is an obvious choice. However, if you want to use your gaming PC’s horsepower to stream to a laptop, TV, phone, or tablet, there are a few different ways of doing so. Read on to find out what they are and learn how to stream PC games to another device.
Before you get started, ensure you have a fast and stable home Wi-Fi network. A fast broadband connection can make a big difference if you’re using cloud-based game streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming or Nvidia GeForce Now. Ethernet cables will give you a solid connection, but a combination of Wi-Fi 6, a great Wi-Fi router or a Mesh Wi-Fi network can work really well, too.
1 Use Nvidia GeForce Now
Virtual gaming PC hosted on Nvidia’s servers
Nvidia
One of the easiest ways to stream PC games to one of your devices will be to use a game streaming service such as GeForce Now, which gives you access, via the internet, to a virtual gaming PC hosted on Nvidia’s servers, allowing you to play all your already-owned games on Nvidia’s hardware and stream it to your device.
One of the great things about GeForce Now is that it can be installed on various devices, such as Android TVs, LG TVs, Chromecasts, and so on. In fact, it can be played in-browser on any device that can use a Chrome or Chromium browser. Any Android device can run your games at 1080p over GeForce Now, but if you want access to higher resolutions and high refresh rates, you’ll need a computer or a newer Samsung or LG TV.
To use GeForce Now, simply set up an account, download the app from the Google Play Store, LG Content Store, or Samsung App Store, install it, log in, and play. Or, if you’re playing in-browser rather than via an app, go to https://play.geforcenow.com, log in, and play. Just be aware that it won’t work very well if you don’t have a fast, stable, and reliable internet connection.
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2 Use Steam Remote Play / Steam Link
Probably the quickest way to stream PC games
If you’re a PC gamer, chances are you’ve already got a good collection of Steam games. If so, you’re already off to a flying start as Steam makes it remarkably easy to stream your games locally to all sorts of devices, including your Google Chromebook. Steam allows you to stream games via a service called Steam Remote Play or Steam Link. Using Steam Link or Remote Play is probably the quickest and easiest way to stream PC games to other devices.
Steam Link is an app that you can download and install on everything from your Apple iPhone to Android phones and tablets, Raspberry Pi, Apple TV and more. Or, if you want to stream from your Gaming PC to another computer with Steam installed, all you have to do is click the Stream button next to a Steam game on the client PC while the Steam client is running on both devices.
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Obviously, if you have Steam Deck, you can stream games from your gaming PC to your handheld console as well. Using Steam Link, any games in your Steam library can be played. The quality of your experience solely depends on your Wi-Fi connection and the power of your gaming PC.
Steam Link requirements
It’s worth noting that Steam recommends using a 5GHz connection or wired ethernet for the best results. Many Bluetooth game controllers are compatible with Steam Link, meaning you can still use a controller while playing on your phone, tablet, or other device, but some games are optimized for touch controls, too.
If you’re not sure which games will work, the good news is you can apply a filter to the Steam store which shows which games work with controllers and Remote Play.
How to use Steam Link
Steam Link is remarkably easy to set up. We have an entire guide on it which goes into detail about how to stream games via Steam Link to all kinds of different devices:
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First, you need to make sure you have the latest version of Steam installed on your gaming PC. Then head over to the device you want to play on and download and install the Steam Link app via one of the following download links for different devices:
Once the app is downloaded, launch it, and you’ll find some easy steps for connecting to your gaming PC. The app will automatically scan your Wi-Fi network to find the PC that’s running Steam. So make sure the device you’re using is connected to the same network as your PC.
Once it’s found, click to connect to it, and you’ll see a PIN appear on the screen that you’ll need to input on your Steam PC in order to pair the two devices. This should happen automatically with a pop-up appearing on your PC. If it doesn’t, head to Steam, click on your Settings and find the “Remote Play” section. From there you can click to pair a Steam Link device, unpair devices, set a security code and more.
The security code part here is useful if you’re setting up Steam Link on a device that’s shared with the rest of the family. It’s essentially a PIN that needs to be entered each time someone uses Steam Link, so it’s a perfect way to stop your kids from playing games remotely that they shouldn’t be able to.
Once all that’s done, hit “Play” on the app, and it’ll launch Big Picture mode on your PC and let you pick and launch a game.
Stream Steam games on another Windows device
If you have a laptop or other Windows machine around the house that’s not quite as powerful as your main gaming rig, but you’d still like to use it, you can do that too.
Steam allows gamers to stream games across different Windows devices with ease using Remote Play (which is essentially the same technology the Steam Link app uses to do its thing — confusing, I know). All you need to do is to download and install Steam on your other machine too. When you do that, once you’ve logged in, you’ll have the option to play any game in your library from there.
To do so, click into your games library and find the game you want to play, then click on the downwards arrow where you’d normally see the play button (next to “Install”). From there, you’ll find the option to stream the game from your main gaming machine.
3 Use Moonlight
Stream Epic, Blizzard, or other non-Steam games
Moonlight
Steam Link or Steam Remote Play is probably the quickest and easiest way to stream PC games, but what about if you want to stream non-Steam games? Well, you could always try adding them to your Steam library as non-Steam games, but this might not always work.
In such cases, we’ve found the Moonlight app to work wonders.
Moonlight works by using Nvidia’s GameStream protocol, so it will only work by default if you’re using an Nvidia GPU. However, AMD users can use Sunshine and run Moonlight via that, which should add AMD GPU support.
You can download it for PC, Mac, ChromeOS, Android, iOS, and more. Moonlight’s written their own very useful setup guide, so we recommend checking that out if you’re unsure how to set it up. But the essential steps are:
- Enable GameStream in your GeForce Experience settings
- Start Moonlight on a device connected to the same network as your gaming PC
- Click your gaming PC in the Moonlight app and enter the PIN on your PC to pair the two devices
- Launch a game via the app and start streaming
4 Use Parsec
Share your desktop
Parsec
We’ve also had a lot of success using an app called Parsec. It’s essentially like Steam’s in-home streaming, but rather than just streaming a specific game, it allows you to share your entire desktop to be controlled by another PC or mobile device.
Just ensure you have a mouse and keyboard at your disposal, because you might have to navigate your game clients via the standard Windows desktop to launch them. Unless, that is, you take the time to configure Parsec to allow for direct execution of the game executable files without having to navigate the desktop.
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