Steam just threw a fly in my ointment....

[Scott]

I've been set on a gaming laptop for months now. I'm ALWAYS on my laptop and never on my desktop, I use it all the time hence why I settled on one.

However, being completely ignorant to gaming to any degree I just assumed it was my only real option. That was until I started looking into this "steam" thing, yes... I know... point and laugh, and found out that I can actually stream to a not-so-powerful device.

This has left me with a rather unique opportunity. I still don't really know the ins and outs of how this steam thing works along with it's limitations so I'm hoping some of you guys on here will be able to help me make my mind up. My options are as follows.....

Option 1. Top end gaming laptop with desktop CPU/GPU, able to play VR and just about everything I can throw at it.

Option 2. High end gaming laptop with desktop CPU and mobile GPU (likely GTX 970m) and either a GTX 1070 or a GTX 1080 for my current desktop PC.

I have a reasonably fast wired network (1GB router, switches, etc).

What would my limitations be?

 

[LFFPicard]

The steam in home streaming is ok, but does not work for everything.
It will only work on the same network, as in in the same home.

Also you will have to run the game at least once manually on the desktop to get around any logins, installs (DirectX etc) first time setup questions etc etc. You also can not have your Desktop go into sleep mode or it will stop the Steam share. I instead use the Steam Big Picture and just run a 10m HDMI from my PC to my TV and play it that way, I can put the audio through the HDMI so all I need to do is grab my controller and away I go.

 

[Scott]

I would only really be using it in my home anyway. I would still be going for a relatively high end laptop for anytime I wanted to game out and about. I was more concerned with the GSync and framerates and that sort of thing. Are there limitations to the system when streaming to my laptop? Are there features that just don't work due to the processing happening on a separate system?

Basically, if I have a GTX 1070 on my desktop, will the results I get through streaming to the laptop be better than they would if I was to just play the game on the laptop to begin with? Would I get higher framerates, smoother GFX, better GSync through Steam streaming or would I be better to just use the hardware in the laptop (GTX 970m, GTX980m or GTX 980)?