Seven years after AMD Link’s initial release in 2017, AMD has decided to discontinue the game streaming software, citing “many options available for users to stream their PC content to other devices” in the officialannouncement postregarding the end of the service. Support will end in a future Q1 2024 AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition update.
Over time, though, it seems like AMD has decided that game streaming from an AMD-powered PC is best done with third-party software solutions that are capable of leveraging AMD GPU hardware encoding, rather than dedicating resources to it itself. Here are three solid options to replace AMD Link within your PC Remote Play setup.
The AMD Link alternatives listed above are listed roughly in order of difficulty to use and performance. Moonlight + Sunshine can get the best results, but is the most difficult to setup, while Steam Link/Remote Play is dead-simple but restricted mostly to Steam games and not quite as performant as Parsec or Moonlight + Sunshine. All listed solutions should work perfectly fine on Linux or Steam Deck, as well, especially with an attached keyboard.
It’s a little sad to see AMD drop its official Nvidia GameStream competitor, but there is fortunately no shortage of alternatives for people who want to keep game streaming from their AMD PCs.
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Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.
