Tips to improve latency
Updated
When latency issues arise while using Shadow, you may notice a reduced performance, including symptoms like a laggy mouse cursor, stuttering audio, or low Shadow frame rates.
If you've experienced latency or similar symptoms with Shadow, try making the changes outlined in this article.
💡 Tip: Are you using Shadow for the first time? Read our Getting started article.
Keep your local device and Shadow PC up-to-date
Before seeing our other tips, we strongly recommend ensuring that your local device and your Shadow PC are up-to-date, especially the graphics drivers.
See our articles to update your local device and Shadow PC:
Improve your internet connection
One possible other cause of your latency can be the internet connection.
To improve your connection, we invite you to see and follow the instructions from our article How to troubleshoot your Internet connection.
Decrease the selected bandwidth
The bandwidth selected is the bandwidth Shadow can use on your connection. We recommend setting Shadow to approximately 10Mbit/s less than your current internet speeds. For example, if your speeds are around 42 Mbit/s, Shadow's selected bandwidth should be set to 32 Mbit/s.
Read test your connection to Shadow to find your speed results.
By accessing your launcher, you have two available options to set up your bitrate:
Auto-detect
Access your launcher
Settings and the Network tab.Use the Auto Detect setting to let Shadow choose the selected bandwidth.
Click "Restart auto-detection" to have Shadow test your connection again.
Custom
Access your launcher
Settings and the Network tab.Use the Custom setting to choose your own selected bandwidth.
Use the slider to change this value.
💡 Tip: You can also test your connection by setting the selected bandwidth to 5 Mbit/s. Slowly increase the bandwidth until you find a comfortable balance between stability and video quality that works for you.
You can also find the same setting in the Network tab of your quick menu.
The Quick Menu is only available on the following applications:
Windows, macOS, Linux, Raspberry Pi, Android, Android TV, iOS, and Apple TV.
To open the Quick Menu, log into the Shadow launcher, then Start Shadow.
Once Shadow starts, click the Shadow logo 
located at the top of the screen, or press the Quick Menu shortcut:
Windows: ALT + WIN + O
macOS: ALT + CMD + O
Linux: ALT + Super + O
Change Optimize Streaming to Prefer Stability
Access your launcher
Settings and the Network tab.Click Advanced Settings.
Use the arrow keys to choose Prefer reliability (TCP). This changes which protocols Shadow uses to stream to your device.
Enable low bandwidth mode
If your internet connection is not fast enough, enable low bandwidth mode. You can find more information in the article Low bandwidth mode (H.265).
If your device was manufactured before 2014, it may not support H.265 encoding.
Still have questions after reading this article?
Feel free to check out our other articles.
You can also contact Shadow support via our form.