Google Stadia's less than stellar launch might have proved that hardcore gaming audiences weren't ready for cloud gaming just yet, but that won't be stopping NVIDIA. Their GeForce Now service has left beta and officially launched today, offering low-latency game streaming to a multitude of platforms, such as PC, macOS, Android, and the NVIDIA Shield. GeForce Now, much like Google Stadia, is a game-streaming service, but it makes itself different from the competition in a key way: instead of renting a library of titles, players pay monthly to access a remote computer to play their own games on, and stream directly to their devices. Currently, it only costs $4.99 a month for GeForce Now, though it's an introductory price that is slated to increase after the initial launch. You can also use the service for free, though it comes with certain stipulations, such as having to potentially wait in a queue for spots to open up, and limiting sessions to an hour at a time. Paid users get six-hour sessions at a time, which is done to prevent mining or non-gaming high resource activities, though you can jump back in after your session is over.

Users in 30 countries across the world will be able to subscribe to GeForce Now, which has data centers that deliver an average of 20-millisecond latency in Europe and North America, while eastern locations like Korea, Japan, and Russia get around 10 milliseconds of lag. Those interested in trying the service out are advised to have a 15mbps connection at minimum, and recommending 25mbps internet to have a better experience.

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[kumikochan]

It doesn't work on Switchroot anymore. Unless someone found a new workaround? I tried everything to get it working a couple months ago and it was not possible.

Sounds like a bug, I haven't had that issue.

Actually you even get 20 streaming games for free with Shield TV. Nothing new, but some older AAA titles are on there, like Tomb Raider 2013.

Could be, but when using the android app on my tv the sound didn't sound quite good either

 

[lordelan]

It doesn't work on Switchroot anymore. Unless someone found a new workaround? I tried everything to get it working a couple months ago and it was not possible.

Oh really? Had it in use a couple months ago lol. Haven't tried in the nearer past though.

 

[Pipistrele]

I'm still extremely baffled by how service costs three times more in Russia than in any other country (1000 rubles, i.e. ~$15 a month) - considering that it's not the richest market in the first place, and most marketplaces lower prices for the region to remain competitive. Whoever was behind that boneheaded decision pretty much ruined all chances of GameForce Now ever gaining momentum in Eastern Europe - which is a shame, since Russia is a perfect market for this kind of stuff (very expensive hardware + very cheap internet).

 

[scroeffie1984]

extended sessions means ? i can play as much as i want ??

 

[Stunx]

I really don't see much use of this at home, although on wifi 5.0ghz it feels and looks perfect. The real test is going to be when I have to say "honey, I need to go to work early today" and try to play on my 4g soon to be 5g network in my car.

 

[Ericthegreat]

Did they ever fix the problem where if you play "backups", you lose your save file due to it being a different machine next time you played?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Oh really? Had it in use a couple months ago lol. Haven't tried in the nearer past though.

Seems to have been patched in late nov/early dec, right before I installed Android on my Switch
The Nvidia Games app won't connect to the servers anymore, even by using an older version (which used to be the workaround people used to make it work)

 

[Lodad]

If this was 4k and high-bitrate audio you'd be burning through an assload of data every hour... I don't think that's really the point out of the gate for them.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I really don't see much use of this at home, although on wifi 5.0ghz it feels and looks perfect. The real test is going to be when I have to say "honey, I need to go to work early today" and try to play on my 4g soon to be 5g network in my car.

4G has higher latency (probably still fine for many games) but 5G should work well. Unless you have truly unlimited data, it's going to eat it up pretty quickly though.

 

[Pluupy]

I just use Parsec since I pirate games. Streams just fine. Hoping Parsec goes to more platforms.

 

[gnmmarechal]

You can already stream from your home pc lol. It's built into steam and you can just add games. It's called steam link and it's free.
The latter is what this is though.

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Also it (Gefoce Now) has V-SYNC on by default so y'all might want to turn that off to reduce input lag and all that jazz

You can stream with Geforce Experience too, I remember using Moonlight on the Vita for it, worked ok enough

 

[Axido]

Dang it! Seems like it's time to return my overpriced 2080Ti and get back to using an iGPU before GPU prices drop because of this pure innovation.

Oh wait...

 

[Dr.Hacknik]

I used this to play GTA V for a while on pretty good internet back in it's BETA for a year. Was a great alternative, and I can see this being really good for people that may have decent or good internet but not the best hardware.

People are too quick to assume the worst, and strike down legit good services. There isn't much room to complain with this, as you can use your steam or other gaming storefronts.

 

[Xabring]

I thought stadia failed because current internet structures required too much latency? How is it that Nvidia can deliver packets with such low latency? Secret deals with T1 providers?

having hardware encoding experience helps, I suppose.

I truly think this is a better way to handle game streaming, regardless. You bring your own games to the table.

It's just another method to let you install and play your existing library of games though. It's not like Stadia's exclusive nonsense, just an option for people who might want it.

essentially, you renting a PC for playing your own games.

This could be really interesting and actually made me think.

What if we had a service akin to a VPS, but set up for gaming. Basically, you pay x money a month and in exchange, you get access to a remote server that runs Windows 10 or something that already has the needed tools to remotely log in set up for you. That plus a clean client to do so, and you'd avoid the entire need for business deals with publishers altogether, since you're effectively renting out server space on dedicated gaming devices and what users do on it becomes irrelevant at that point.

GeForce Now seems like a move in that direction, but given how they still need deals with publishers would make it seem that there's more going on?

There it is, is called Parsec, but it runs on other's people PCs rather than servers.....so quality Might vary.
it is a good (and free) choice if you can and want to stream from your own computer though. A personal recommendation (assuming you don't have a labyrinth for a router like me, rather than poor internet.)

This is not a replacement for Console/PC gaming, this a companion for that. You won't always have your rig with you (vacation , work trip, toilet time?, etc) but you might want to play some heavy games but you only brought a GPD win 2, or any device compatible with this.

Speaking of renting a PC.

 

[Rahkeesh]

If this was 4k and high-bitrate audio you'd be burning through an assload of data every hour... I don't think that's really the point out of the gate for them.

They need to sort out their capture tech first in the RTX 2000 series. I can stream 4K from a computer in house but display lag goes up to 50 ms. Got to give credit to Stadia for figuring that out, especially with AMD hardware.

 

[Ericthegreat]

I have to say I did try it with BioShock, was more than playable.

 

[Jonna]

This is not a replacement for Console/PC gaming, this a companion for that. You won't always have your rig with you (vacation , work trip, toilet time?, etc) but you might want to play some heavy games but you only brought a GPD win 2, or any device compatible with this.

This is true. Although, I have a way of doing this for free, and my setup is pretty cool. GeForce Experience allows you to stream over the internet, so I bought a FlyDigi Wee 2 controller for my phone and can stream my games to my phone.

"But it requires your computer being on, you keep it on when you go on vacation or leave the house?"
Nah, power bills are high enough. I have a smart plug that my computer is plugged into, and I use either google Chrome remote desktop or Microsoft's remote desktop to login to my computer to get to the main screen, and shut down the computer properly.

"But how do you turn on the computer, you need to press the physical switch?"
Combine the smart plug with an option in the BIOS, which is something to the effect of "Power PC in the event of a power failure." When I shut down the computer, I also turn off the smart plug, and when I want to turn on the computer, I turn on the smart plug, which emulates a power failure, and it turns on.

Pretty awesome setup. It actually worked pretty well even while playing a quick reactive game like Sonic Mania. If you don't have the hardware to play the games you own, GeForce Now is pretty good. But if you have an NVidia GPU that's moderate-to-high end, this is a great setup (and smart plugs can be cheap).

 

[Lodad]

They need to sort out their capture tech first in the RTX 2000 series. I can stream 4K from a computer in house but display lag goes up to 50 ms. Got to give credit to Stadia for figuring that out, especially with AMD hardware.

That depends on what is actually encoding the stream - your CPU or GPU - and what video format it's encoding to, and how the receiving device can decode the stream, and handle the input streaming. Are you talking about streaming from Steam Link / remote play, or GeForce Experience? I've also had problems where Steam Link doesn't understand that my PC is on the LAN, so it goes over my internet connection instead of in-home streaming.

 

[lordelan]

Seems to have been patched in late nov/early dec, right before I installed Android on my Switch
The Nvidia Games app won't connect to the servers anymore, even by using an older version (which used to be the workaround people used to make it work)

Umm according to two different users in the FB group Nintendo Switch Modding & Homebrew (here's the specific link to the actual post once you're a member: click me) it's working (again).