(Credit: AMD)
AMD this week released a driver update that officially kills its game-streaming Link app.
The company teased the shutdown last month and formally rolled it out with the 24.1.1 release.
"We originally launched AMD Link at a time when there were few alternative remote gaming solutions for Radeon graphics users," the company says. "Today, there are many options available for users to stream their PC content to other devices such as Steam Link or Parsec."
AMD Link dates back to 2017. It allowed Radeon graphics card owners to stream PC games—including VR titles—to their smartphones. It also let them control the mouse, click on icons, and more. Thus, it functioned as a sort of remote desktop as well as a game streaming platform.
At the time, Steam Link was just getting off the ground after facing some rollout setbacks, and AMD said Link had a 44% faster response time than Steam Link.
As VideoCardz notes, the AMD Link discontinuation comes about a year after Nvidia dropped GameStream PC streaming support for the Shield TV. It let PC gamers with an Nvidia GPU stream games from their computer to another device over a local network. At the time, Nvidia said the same thing AMD said, which was that other alternatives were available. However, Nvidia did have an alternative in the form of its GeForce Now cloud streaming service.