# How to run a cloud gaming service on Amazon EC2

DevFeed: [How to run a cloud gaming service on Amazon EC2](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/revised-and-much-faster-run-your-own-high-end-cloud-gaming-service-on-ec2-21108.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://lg.io/2015/07/05/revised-and-much-faster-run-your-own-highend-cloud-gaming-service-on-ec2.html>)

Published: 2015-07-05T07:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Larry Land](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/larry-land.md>)

Topics: [Amazon EC2](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/amazon-ec2.md>), [Cloud Gaming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cloud-gaming.md>), [Amazon Web Services](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/aws.md>), [Streaming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/streaming.md>), [GPU](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/gpu.md>)

Tags: [aws](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/aws.md>), [cloud-gaming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cloud-gaming.md>), [cost](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cost.md>), [ec2](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ec2.md>), [gaming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gaming.md>), [gpu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gpu.md>), [linux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux.md>), [streaming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/streaming.md>), [windows](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/windows.md>)

## AI overview

A step-by-step guide to running games on an Amazon EC2 GPU instance and streaming them to a Mac. It covers graphics encoding, SSD storage, OpenVPN, AMIs, Spot instances, and estimated operating costs, with notes about internet requirements and client compatibility.

## Source excerpt

Playing Witcher 3, a GPU-intensive game on a 2015 fanless Macbook I've written about using EC2 as a gaming rig in the past. After spending some time and getting all sorts of feedback from many people, I'm re-writing the article from before, except with all the latest and greatest optimizations to really make things better. Now we're using things like NvFBC for graphics card H.264 encoding, using the built-in SSD for better hard drive performance, plus getting rid of things like VNC. I've also made the OpenVPN instructions easier to follow. This is the perfect solution for you fanatics that love to play AAA games but are stuck with one of the new fan-less Macbooks (or similarly slow machines). This is a pretty awesome alternative to building out a new gaming PC. Just make sure you have a good internet connection (ideally 30mbit+ plus <50ms ping to the closest Amazon datacenter). This article will assume you're on a Mac client, though it should work on Linux or Windows with some minor changes in the client tools. TLDR: I have made an AMI for you to use such that you don't need to go through this lengthy step-by-step. Note you become less of a badass if you use the AMI instead of doing it yourself ;). See instructions below. Costs Believe it or not, it's actually not that expensive to play games this way. Although you could potentially save moneys by streaming all your games, cost savings isn't really the primary purpose. Craziness is, of course. :) $0.11/hr Spot instance of a g2.2xlarge $0.41/hr Streaming 10mbit at $0.09/GB $0.01/hr EBS storage for 35GB OS drive ($3.50/mo) You're looking at $0.53/hr to play games this way. Not too bad. That's around 1850 hours of gaming for the cost of a $1000 gaming PC. Note that prices vary for different datacenters. Creating your own AMI with the right config On AWS, create a new EC2 instance. Use defaults everywhere except as mentioned below: Base image should be Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Base (since Windows still has all t