4K is the current buzzword in the console gaming world, but Steam has already moved on — it's now offering users the chance to stream games in glorious 8K.
The bump in graphical resolution has rolled out now to the service's Remote Play feature, but to take advantage you’re going to need a pretty beefy PC. Valve’s release notes are careful to state “results may vary depending on hardware”, so unless you’re rocking an uber-powerful GPU like the Nvidia RTX 3090, you might want to stick to 1440p for now.
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Of course, you’ll also need a display that can output in 8K. While there's a range of consumer-level 8K televisions on the market, they start from around $1,999 — so they’re certainly not a cheap investment. Still, it's not that long ago that the best 4K TVs would also have cost a fortune, so expect the price of 8K sets to drop before too long.
If you've got all the necessary equipment, you’ll probably want to unlock your bandwidth limiter in Steam’s settings to make use of 8K streaming. Just go to the settings tab on Steam, then “Advanced Client Options”. The default limiter is set at 50Mbps, which could well throttle your ability to stream in 8K.
For the vast majority of gamers, 8K resolution is likely overkill, especially as 4K adoption still isn’t ubiquitous. However, it’s good to know that Valve is thinking ahead and future-proofing Steam for what will surely be the next big gaming advancement. And in the meantime, you could check out our list of the best gaming TVs and treat yourself to a slightly cheaper upgrade.
