Remote play, compared honestly

How to play games on a remote PC: five ways side by side

Parsec, Moonlight with Sunshine or Apollo, Steam Remote Play, plain Windows Remote Desktop, and RDP FIDO with its FIDO Stream mode. One table, one legend, and a separate list of where each one loses.

Beta Game streaming in RDP FIDO (FIDO Stream, version 1.19) is a beta. Gamepad, 120–240 Hz, AV1, HDR, Opus audio and relays are implemented and pass automated tests, but part of them have only been verified on virtual displays so far. Expect rough edges and report them.

Free plan RDP FIDO is free with up to 10 saved sessions, which in practice means up to 10 hosts, plus an ad tile in the client. Pro is a one-time $49 for unlimited sessions and no ads. No subscription.

The comparison

Rows are the things people actually argue about on r/cloudygamer. Cells that describe RDP FIDO carry a beta tag wherever the feature exists but has not been through hardware verification.

Criterion	RDP FIDO 1.19 beta	Parsec	Moonlight + Sunshine / Apollo	Steam Remote Play	Windows RDP (mstsc / Windows App)
Host → screen latency, LAN	25–45 ms at 2304×1440 on NVENC, measured by us on version 1.17¹; no independent measurement yet	vendor: “near-zero”, ~8 ms encode²; community reports 30–50 ms³	community reports under 15 ms at 1080p120³	community reports 50–80 ms³; experimental Pyrowave codec (250+ Mbit/s) aims lower	100 ms and more; not designed for games
Video codecs and colour	H.264 / HEVC / AV1, 10-bit, 4:4:4, HDR. beta AV1 and HDR are implemented but not yet verified on an RTX 40 card and an HDR monitor	H.264 / HEVC; 4:4:4 and 10-bit only on the paid Warp plan; no AV1; HDR not officially supported	H.264 / HEVC / AV1, 10-bit, HDR; 4:4:4 experimental	H.264 / HEVC / AV1 (AV1 chosen by default since the July 2026 beta); HDR only on Steam Deck OLED	H.264 (AVC 444); HEVC with a GPU, but HEVC drops 4:4:4 to 4:2:0
Frame rate	follows the client monitor up to 240 Hz, mouse at up to 1000 Hz. beta 60 Hz verified on real hardware, higher rates so far only on a virtual display	up to 240 fps (60 fps at 4K)	120 Hz and above (custom values in the client)	up to 120 fps	30–60 fps
Gamepad	virtual Xbox 360 on the host through ViGEmBus, rumble sent back. beta tested with the driver self-test, not yet with a physical controller	yes, including rumble	yes; on Windows through ViGEmBus or the paid Virtual HID Driver	yes	no
Client platforms	Windows 10/11 only	Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, Raspberry Pi, web	Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Steam Deck, TVs, Raspberry Pi and more	any device running Steam or the Steam Link app	everything
Who checks that it is you	hardware FIDO2 key (YubiKey and others), no cloud account	Parsec cloud account, optional MFA	PIN pairing, no second factor	Steam account	password or NLA; smart card optional
Encryption in transit	AES-256-GCM on ECDH keys, always on; the UDP port opens only for the peer that passed the key check, only for the session	DTLS, always on	off by default on LAN, optional on WAN (Sunshine settings); ports stay open	Steam transport encryption	TLS
Through NAT / from outside	hole punching via your own gate; beta relay on your own VPS, end-to-end encrypted (the relay never has keys)	Parsec relays; dedicated relays on the Enterprise plan	port forwarding, UPnP or a VPN	Valve relays	port forwarding or a VPN
Audio	Opus 128 kbit/s, microphone back to the host	Opus	Opus	Opus	yes
Third-party servers in the chain	none: gate, host and client are yours	account and relay servers	none	Steam servers	none
Open source	no (Windows binaries; third-party components listed on the product page)	no	yes (GPL)	no	no
Price	Free: up to 10 saved sessions. Pro: $49 one-time, unlimited sessions, no ad tile	free for consumers; Warp from about $9.99/month for 4:4:4, 10-bit and 240 fps	free	free	included in Windows Pro
Versions compared	1.19.0, 16 Sep 2026	current release, Sep 2026	Sunshine 2026.914 / Moonlight-qt 6.1.0	Steam client beta, Sep 2026	Windows 11 24H2

¹ our own measurement, single machine, not yet reproduced by anyone else. ² vendor claim. ³ community reports, different hardware and methods. None of the products have been measured on the same stand yet; that is what the methodology page is for.

Sources: product documentation and release notes of each vendor as of September 2026 (Parsec help centre, Sunshine and Moonlight release pages, Steam client beta notes, Microsoft RDP graphics encoding docs), the RDP FIDO changelog. Corrections: see the About page.

Which one fits you

We do not call any of these “the best”. Until measurements from the shared stand are published, the honest answer depends on what you need.

Pick RDP FIDO if…

you want a hardware key instead of a password or a cloud account at the door;
nothing may leave your own machines: no vendor account, no vendor relay;
both ends are Windows and the host has an NVIDIA, Intel or AMD encoder;
you are fine with a beta and want to try AV1, HDR, 240 Hz and your own relay.

Pick Moonlight + Sunshine if…

the client is not Windows: Steam Deck, Android, a TV, a Raspberry Pi;
open source matters to you;
you accept PIN pairing without a second factor and know that LAN traffic is unencrypted by default.

Pick Parsec if…

you want somebody else to run the relays and the accounts;
you play with friends on a shared machine or collaborate on creative work;
you are ready to pay monthly for 4:4:4 and 10-bit.

Pick Steam Remote Play if…

your library is on Steam and the client is a Steam Deck or a TV;
zero setup matters more than the last milliseconds.

Plain RDP is for work, not games

Remote Desktop is excellent for office work and it is what RDP FIDO protects in its non-stream mode. For games its latency and 30–60 fps are the wrong tool.

Where RDP FIDO loses today

This list is maintained by the RDP FIDO team and updated with every release. It is here so that you do not have to find it out yourself.

Windows only. No Android, Linux, macOS or Steam Deck client. Moonlight and Parsec run almost everywhere.
The gaming features are a beta. Gamepad, high refresh rates, AV1/HDR and relays were shipped on 16 September 2026; gamepad and 144 Hz have not yet been tested with a physical controller and a real high-refresh monitor.
No independent measurements. The 25–45 ms figure is our own, from one machine. Nobody has reproduced it, and we have not measured competitors on the same stand.
Closed source. Moonlight and Sunshine are GPL and audited by their community; RDP FIDO is not.
The virtual gamepad depends on ViGEmBus, a driver whose project is archived. It is signed and works on Windows 10/11 today; a replacement is planned if a future Windows breaks it.
Anti-cheat compatibility is not tabulated yet. We have not checked kernel-level anti-cheats (Vanguard, EAC, BattlEye) with the stream agent and the virtual gamepad.
Young product, small community. Fewer guides, fewer answered questions, fewer people who have hit your problem before.

The products in short

RDP FIDO (FIDO Stream)

A gate in front of Windows Remote Desktop that lets a connection through only after a hardware FIDO2 key is presented, plus a low-latency UDP streaming mode for games and creative work. Host agent lives in the gate, the viewer in the client; hardware encoders NVENC, Quick Sync and AMF; Reed–Solomon FEC instead of retransmits. Free up to 10 saved sessions, Pro $49 once. Product page and downloads.

Parsec

The best-known commercial remote play service: account, peer-to-peer with vendor relays, clients for every platform, up to 240 fps, 4:4:4 and 10-bit on the paid Warp plan. Requires a Parsec account on both ends.

Moonlight + Sunshine / Apollo

Open-source host (Sunshine, or the Apollo fork with a built-in virtual display) and client (Moonlight). AV1, HDR, high refresh, every client platform imaginable. Pairing by PIN, encryption off by default on LAN, NAT traversal is your job.

Steam Remote Play

Built into Steam. AV1 by default since the summer 2026 beta, HDR on Steam Deck OLED, an experimental high-bitrate Pyrowave codec for lower input lag. Works through Valve relays and needs a Steam account.

Windows RDP (mstsc / Windows App)

The protocol built into Windows. H.264 with AVC 444, HEVC when a GPU is present, but 30–60 fps and 100+ ms make it a productivity tool, not a game streamer. RDP FIDO protects exactly this protocol in its standard mode.

Questions people ask

Is RDP FIDO the best for gaming?

We do not know yet, and we do not claim it. The claim will appear only for scenarios where measurements on a shared, documented stand show it, with the raw data published. See the methodology page.

What exactly does “beta” mean here?

The FIDO Stream features listed with a beta tag exist in version 1.19, pass automated tests and work on our virtual machines. They have not all been through real hardware yet: a physical gamepad, a 144–240 Hz monitor, an RTX 40 card for AV1, an HDR display, and a relay across a real symmetric NAT. Also, the version offered by the auto-updater may lag a few days behind the changelog.

What is free and what costs money?

Free: the gate, the client, FIDO Stream and up to 10 saved sessions, with an ad tile in the client and activation within 14 days. Pro is $49 one-time for unlimited sessions and no ads. There is no subscription and no per-user fee.

What hardware do I need?

Host: Windows 10/11 with a hardware encoder (NVIDIA NVENC, Intel Quick Sync, AMD AMF); AV1 needs RTX 40, Intel Arc or AMD RDNA 3. Client: Windows 10/11 with a hardware decoder. A FIDO2 key such as a YubiKey on the client side.

Does it work with anti-cheat?

Not verified yet. The host is a normal PC, not a VM, which helps, but kernel-level anti-cheats may object to the virtual gamepad or input injection. A compatibility table is planned after testing.

Who measured the 25–45 ms?

The RDP FIDO developers, on one machine at 2304×1440 with NVENC, version 1.17. Treat it as a vendor number until it is reproduced.

Try the beta

One installer for host or client, free plan without registration cards. If something is broken, the changelog page on the product site says where to write.

Download RDP FIDO (free) Methodology