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Steam’s October 1, 2026 beta notes add @PyrowavePSNR and @PyrowaveHeightFactor to tune automatic bitrate calculation. The striking estimate of about 125 Mbit/s at 720p and 300 Mbit/s at 4K comes from Pyrowave author Hans-Kristian Arntzen’s own evaluation—not a universal minimum or a measurement of every Steam Remote Play session. It applies to a particular target-quality curve and viewing-distance assumption.
What the 125–300 Mbit/s estimate means
Arntzen’s objective evaluation estimates roughly 125 Mbit/s at 720p rising to about 300 Mbit/s at 4K for a target quality around 35 dB PSNR-HVS-M-H when the viewing-distance factor, H, is 2. The author says the curve flattens near 300 Mbit/s around 1440p under that setup. H is viewing distance divided by the height of the active video area, so the estimate changes with how closely the viewer sits; very close viewing at H=1 can call for substantially higher rates. These are estimates for the stated evaluation conditions, not a fixed setting every player should use. Arntzen’s objective bitrate evaluation
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Steam describes Pyrowave as a high-bandwidth, low-latency codec for Remote Play that uses GPU encoding and decoding. Valve says it can use five to ten times the bandwidth of other streaming codecs and recommends wired Gigabit Ethernet. That guidance describes the codec’s potential demand; the author’s 125–300 Mbit/s range is a separate evaluation result, not a promise that all sessions will use those rates. Steam’s Pyrowave beta announcement
How the evaluation was made—and where it stops
The evaluation used challenging lossless 4K 4:4:4 clips from Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Expedition 33, The Witcher 3, and Street Fighter 6. It swept 16:9 output resolutions from 720p through 4K, 4:2:0 and 4:4:4 chroma modes, 16 viewing distances, and a broad range of bitrates. Because of the calculation cost, it sampled about ten representative frames per game rather than measuring every frame of a full play session.
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- Not every aspect ratio: Arntzen says 21:9 and 32:9 were not tested, so the curve should not be assumed to apply unchanged to ultrawide displays.
- Not every kind of image difference: the objective metric focuses on luminance error and does not quantify the chroma-error benefit of 4:4:4.
- Not a broad gameplay benchmark: the limited clips and frames cannot establish how every game, scene, or live network behaves. The author also notes that one HEVC comparison clip had unusually low motion complexity.
The author reports that 4:4:4 needs about 15–20% more bitrate than 4:2:0 to reach the same luminance quality in this evaluation. That is a result for the tested material and metric, not a measurement of the full visual benefit of 4:4:4. Steam likewise warns that 4:4:4 uses more bandwidth and processing and leaves it off by default; HDR is enabled automatically when both ends support it. Arntzen’s evaluation and Steam’s announcement
What Steam’s new convars change
Valve’s October 1, 2026 beta notes say Steam improved automatic Pyrowave bitrate calculation and added @PyrowavePSNR and @PyrowaveHeightFactor to tune it. The same notes raise the manual bitrate ceiling to 1 Gbit/s and say the Pyrowave bitrate was reset to the automatic default. The notes are available here as a secondary transcription, not the opened Valve release-note page, so consult Steam’s current client notes for exact live wording or availability. Steam Client Beta – October 1st notes, transcribed October 2, 2026
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The convar names suggest controls related to a quality target and viewing geometry, but they do not turn the author’s curve into a recommended universal preset. The notes say the controls tune automatic bitrate calculation; they do not establish that selecting a particular value will produce the same visual quality or traffic on every host, client, game, or display.
How to try Pyrowave and assess your own stream
Steam says Pyrowave is not enabled by default and directs users to Steam Remote Play’s advanced client settings. The announcement describes automatic quality tuning, a quality slider, and manual bitrate control. At launch, Valve described a manual range of 100–500 Mbit/s; the October 1 beta notes later raised its ceiling to 1 Gbit/s. The launch announcement listed beta availability on macOS and Windows, with Linux requiring the experimental SteamRT3 client, and described Steam Link mobile support as forthcoming. Those are launch-era details, not confirmation of current availability.
- Open the Steam Remote Play advanced settings on the client and enable Pyrowave if the option is available in your current client.
- Start a stream and begin with automatic quality or the quality slider rather than copying the 125–300 Mbit/s evaluation figures as a preset.
- Use the Steam performance graph to inspect your stream’s total latency and behavior as you adjust settings.
- If you choose manual bitrate, increase it in steps and watch for network strain or rising latency; a larger bitrate is not automatically a better end-to-end result.
Steam’s directly stated network context is wired Gigabit Ethernet. If your setup lacks a suitable wired link, an Ethernet cable is one way to establish one; Steam does not specify Cat 6 as mandatory. A Gigabit switch is relevant only if you need more wired LAN ports, not as an automatic upgrade for a network that already works.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why a low-latency codec may not lower total latency
Steam says a video stream’s total latency includes encoding, network transfer, decoding, and display. Pyrowave’s codec processing may be low latency, but the network path and the host and client also contribute. Steam cautions that a setup may or may not benefit, depending on the balance between codec and network latency. The performance graph can help assess your own stream; the available sources do not provide a systematic, independently controlled real-world comparison against HEVC, AV1, or competing streaming apps. Steam Remote Play announcement
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