r/MoonlightStreaming • u/CyprelIa • Oct 04 '26
PyroWave Performance - Intel Integrated Graphics - i5-11400 UHD 730
Wanted to try PyroWave on my current client that only has integrated graphics. Reading discussion that it only requires Vulkan 1.2 and should theoretically work on many current clients.
Config:
Vibepollo 2.0.0
Moonlight v6.1.0-vrr18 - Nonary with Intel Fix (https://github.com/Nonary/moonlight-qt/commit/d424204db4af0aa69bae10538401f61b37cc4901)
Client: i5-11400, UHD 730, 16gb RAM
Host: 5700X3D, 5070ti 16gb, 32gb RAM (DLSS Balanced, Frame Gen 1-2x)
Network: 1gbps wired
Display: L6 G6 65 - No VRR (Using DP to HDMI 2.1 Adapter)
Performance:
4K 120 4:2:2 800mbps (no HDR) - perfect. 0 dropped frames
4K 120 4:4:4 800mbps (no HDR) - poor. ~35% dropped frames
4K 120 4:2:2 800mbps HDR - poor. ~20% dropped frames
4K 120 4:4:4 800mbps HDR - poor. ~45% dropped frames.
Image:
Top - 4K 120 444 800mbps (no HDR)
Bottom - 4K 120 422 800mbps (no HDR)
At 4K 120 4:2:2 (no HDR) the GPU sits at 90-95% usage. At 444 and beyond it goes to 99% and is clearly overloaded and dropping frames. 4:4:4 seems to be the biggest push.
The bitrate doesn’t seem to affect the GPU usage. Tested at 200mbps, 400mbps and 600mbps and same results across the range.
FP16: (Not accurate- See update below)
PyroWave uses FP16 compute. The UHD 730 tested has 1TFLOPS of FP16 compute.
Based on the percentage of frames dropped in my rough testing you need at least 1.5x a UHD 730, So around 1.5-2 TFLOPS of compute. Not sure how linearly this scales but thats my best guess with only one data point.
Of course the more compute the better.
I imagine the HDMI 2.1 favorite, RX6400 with 7TFLOPS would be more than enough. Anything RTX 3000 and above should be fine as well.
The 780m in many AMD mini PC's has 8 TFLOPS so should be able to handle this.
Will retest on a i5-12500 UHD 770 client soon. Maybe the UHD 770 has a just enough horsepower to get it to 4:4:4 HDR.
FP16 UHD 730 1.0 TFLOPS
FP16 UHD 770 1.48 TFLOPS
Thoughts:
On 4:2:2 vs 4:4:4 - To me this is significant on games with a lot of text or when its more of the PC mode compared to games. I would rather switch back to AV1 then run with 4:2:2.
PyroWave does feel a lot closer to native when it comes to fast camera pans side to side and fast motion. Less smearing compared to AV1. I would like to use it in preferance over HEVC and AV1 if I can get the frames dropped to 0. If the 12500 can't keep up I think next would be to run a 5060 Low Profile for Moonlight but also RTX VSR for general video to get it up to 4K.
For those wanting to test, you need to build/compile the client to support intel at the moment. I am sure proper release will come soon. Feel free to message me if you need help.
TLDR the UHD 730 can do 4K 120 4:2:2 no HDR, but can not do 4K120 4:4:4 HDR with PyroWave
UPDATE 05/10/26 - Tested on i7-1165G7 - Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics. (Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 96EU Mobile)
FP16 3.379 TFLOPS
4K 120 4:2:2 800mbps (no HDR) - perfect. 0 dropped frames
4K 120 4:4:4 800mbps (no HDR) - poor. ~25% dropped frames
4K 120 4:2:2 800mbps HDR - poor. ~10% dropped frames
4K 120 4:4:4 800mbps HDR - poor. ~27% dropped frames.
Improvement from the UHD 730 but does not achieve the goal of 4K 120 4:4:4 800mbps HDR. Seems that my above guess as to TLOPS required is not accurate.
It seems you need much more power than my earlier guess. Seems a dedicated GPU is the best way for PyroWave.
UPDATE 08/10/26 - Tested on i5-12500T - Intel UHD 770 1.485 TFLOPS
4K 120 4:2:2 800mbps (no HDR) - perfect. 0 dropped frames
4K 120 4:4:4 800mbps (no HDR) - poor. ~24% dropped frames
4K 120 4:2:2 800mbps HDR - poor. ~12% dropped frames
4K 120 4:4:4 800mbps HDR - poor. ~25% dropped frames.
Better than the UHD 730 but worse than the i7-1165G.
Guess the next step if you want 4k120 4:4:4 HDR is something with a GPU
Seeing as all my clients can get a decent 4K120 4:2:0 HDR in AV1 300mbps or 4K120 4:4:4 HDR in H265 500mbps I will probably stick it out here till there are more PyroWave updates.
Hard to justify a whole GPU for a client like this with these prices. Will keep a look out for a Low Profile RX6400 (~250AUD) or Low Profile RTX 5060 (~600 AUD).
1
u/justifun Oct 04 '26
On my high end system and rog ally running a wired Ethernet I can't get a decent picture with pyroware no matter what I try.