How To Play Your PC Games On A Laptop In Another Room

Four Things That Matter Most

1. Plug the gaming PC into your router with an Ethernet cable.
2. Put the laptop on 5 GHz Wi-Fi, or 6 GHz if your router and laptop both support it.
3. Start at 60 frames per second and lower the quality if the picture stutters.
4. Use an app built for games, like APE Viewer, not a remote desktop tool made for office work.

The Game Keeps Running On Your Gaming PC

The game’s picture and sound are captured on the gaming PC and sent to your laptop, and your keyboard, mouse or controller goes back to the game. Nothing is installed on the laptop except the streaming app.

The laptop does need to decode video in hardware, which any recent laptop can. APE Viewer uses H.264 or HEVC decoding on the PC you connect from.

Plug The Gaming PC Into The Router

This is the single biggest improvement. When the gaming PC and the laptop are both on Wi-Fi, they compete for the same airtime, which is one of the main causes of a choppy stream. Connect the gaming PC to the router with an Ethernet cable, CAT5e or better.

If you can’t run a cable, powerline adapters are an option, though they can cause interruptions too.

Use 5 GHz Or 6 GHz Wi-Fi On The Laptop

The 2.4 GHz band is crowded. The 5 GHz band has a shorter range, but less interference from neighbors and other devices.

Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 add the 6 GHz band, which Microsoft describes as less crowded spectrum. Your router and your laptop’s Wi-Fi adapter both need to support it.

To see which band your laptop is using:

1. Select Start → Settings → Network & internet → Wi-Fi.
2. Open your network’s properties.
3. Look at Network band (channel).

Keep The Signal Strong And The Network Quiet

• Distance and walls matter. Walls, floors, metal and other electronics between the router and your laptop weaken the signal. Moving the laptop or router can help a lot.
• Pause big downloads and video streams on the same network while you play.
• Use your main home network. Guest networks, and networks that keep devices apart, can stop the two PCs from finding each other. For APE Viewer at home, Windows should treat your home network as Private.

More Frames Need More Data

A higher frame rate and resolution look smoother and sharper, but they send more data every second. If your network can’t keep up, you’ll see stutters, freezes or a blurry picture. Once the network is set up, lowering the frame rate, resolution or bitrate is the next fix.

Match Your Laptop’s Screen

A 60 Hz display updates 60 times a second, so a 60 Hz laptop screen can’t show more than 60 frames per second. To check yours:

1. Select Start → Settings → System → Display → Advanced display.
2. Look at the refresh rate under Display information.

If it says 60 Hz, a 60 fps stream is a sensible ceiling. If your laptop has a 120 Hz or faster screen and the gaming PC is wired, try higher.

Where The Settings Are In APE Viewer

Before connecting, use the PC’s Picture section in Your PCs to choose bandwidth, frame rate and H.264 or HEVC video. While playing, Picture on the stream toolbar changes bitrate and frame rate, with choices up to 240 fps. Turn on Show stats there to see your latency, frame rate and ping.

Pair An Xbox Controller With Your Laptop

Plug it in with a USB cable, or pair it over Bluetooth:

1. Press the Xbox button to turn the controller on.
2. Hold the Pair button for three seconds, until the Xbox button starts flashing.
3. On the laptop, select Start → Settings → Bluetooth & devices and turn Bluetooth on.
4. Select Add device, then Bluetooth, and choose your controller.

Play With It In APE Viewer

Xbox-style controllers work with rumble. Install the free controller driver on the gaming PC under Hosting → Settings → Controllers. Free allows 1 controller; the PC owner’s Premium allows up to 4, so friends can play too.

More detail, and why most remote desktop apps ignore controllers, is in How To Use An Xbox Controller Over Remote Desktop.

Step By Step

1. Install APE Viewer on the gaming PC and on the laptop.
2. On the gaming PC, turn on sharing under Hosting.
3. On the laptop, open Your PCs, choose the gaming PC and connect. Sign in with the same account on both, or pair them with a 6-digit code.

What You Get

APE Viewer streams your whole Windows desktop, so you use the same launchers and apps as at your desk. Frame rate choices go up to 240 fps, with sound, mouse capture and Xbox-style controllers with rumble. On one PC at 1440p, a new picture reached the viewer in 3.0 to 6.9 ms (how we measure).

Free has no time limit and shows one screen at a time, on your home network, through optional Tailscale or directly by address. Premium adds every monitor at once and, on the PCs you share, up to 4 people and 4 controllers. This walkthrough uses Windows 10 or 11 on both PCs, and the gaming PC needs supported NVIDIA, AMD or Intel hardware video encoding. Actual performance depends on your PCs, the game and your network.

Why Not An Office Remote Desktop Tool?

Remote desktop tools made for office work and IT support often cap the frame rate at 30 or 60 fps and ignore controllers. They’re fine for documents, not for playing. See how APE Viewer compares.

• Stutters or freezes: wire the gaming PC, move the laptop to 5 GHz, then lower the bitrate or frame rate.
• Black screen or glitches: update the graphics drivers on both computers. If the laptop can’t decode HEVC, choose H.264 in the PC’s Picture section.
• Controller doesn’t work: see the controller guide.