GeForce Now: How Does It Work and Is It Worth Trying?

Since game streaming services such as Microsoft xCloud and Google Stadia generate all sorts of buzz, it makes sense for graphics giant Nvidia to use its own massive hardware as a shared gaming resource.

If you’ve heard of GeForce Now, it’s because the service is finally out of beta and offers quite a few useful features that you won’t find in the competition. So what is GeForce Now and how does it work? You will find out what happens at the end of this article!

What is game streaming?

The easiest way to understand game streaming is to compare it to media streaming like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. Films are not stored on optical or magnetic media. Instead, when you hit the play button, a server somewhere in the world starts sending video data to your device, which is then shown to you as it arrives.

Streaming games works in a similar way, but requires many special problems to be addressed. A video game is launched on a computer somewhere in the world, which then sends sound and images to you, receiving input from your game controller, mouse, and keyboard.

While video streaming can provide smooth playback on any internet connection by using a “buffer” that stores a few seconds or minutes of footage locally in case your connection fluctuates, video games is a real-time application. where any delay can be unbearable experiences.

As such, game servers and internet connections have to be fairly high-end for this to be viable. As broadband fiber optic internet becomes more widespread and accessible, video game streaming is becoming more practical.

You can now also stream games on your local network. For example, here we are streaming gameplay from Playstation 4 to iPad.

# IOS13 # PS4 remote playback with built-in DS4 support! pic.twitter.com/1Qc5X9hvvB

— Sydney Butler (@GendoWasRight) September 28, 2019

The concept is exactly the same as for commercial streaming, it’s just that the source computer is far away from you.

What makes GeForce now so special?

At first glance, it might seem like there isn’t much difference between GeForce Now compared to Google Stadia or Microsoft xCloud On closer inspection, they could no longer be different.

With Google Stadia, the product is positioned as a standalone platform. This means that you buy games for Stadia the same way you buy games for PC or console. It is also marketed as high-end 4K video at 60fps.

Microsoft xCloud, on the other hand, offers an Xbox One S cloud experience. And that’s great because it gives you access to your existing Xbox One library. At the time of writing, xCloud is still a beta product with a limited set of games, but it will ultimately offer the same Xbox gameplay wherever you are, on virtually any device. Presumably, when xCloud leaves beta, you will have access to the existing library.

GeForce Now takes the idea of ??gaming in the cloud more literally. You get access to your own virtual computer, on which you can install games just like on a local PC. In other words, you’ll sign in to your GeForce Now account, install a client like Steam, and install games on the system.

This is great for several reasons. First of all, this means you don’t have to re-purchase games that you already have on supported platforms. You can play your own games if they are included in the list of supported games. Another reason this is cool is because these platforms support cloud sync. So, for example, you can play a game on your GeForce Now virtual PC and then continue playing on your local gaming PC without issue.

GeForce requirements now to connect to the Internet

For a service like GeForce Now to function properly, it doesn’t just take amazing data center technology. Your own internet connection should be appropriate for this task.

This means a connection of at least 15 Mbps for 720/60 fps performance and 25 Mbps for 1080p / 60 fps performance. The total bandwidth isn’t everything. Nvidia recommends using a fast router in the 5 GHz band to minimize latency.

Alternatively, you will have to connect your device to your router using a wired Ethernet connection. Mobile connections may have too much latency depending on your location. And if you have a data limit, such a service can eat it all up very quickly.

What platforms can I play on?

Nvidia supports a wide variety of devices. Windows and Mac computers and Android devices are supported. If you have an Nvidia Shield device, you can play too. Chrome OS support will appear at some point in the future.

Android devices require at least Android 5.0 with 2GB of RAM. Windows computers require a 2GHz dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM, and something equal or better than Intel HD Graphics 2000. You should check the official page to make sure your Mac is supported.

What is the cost?

At the time of writing, Nvidia hasn’t posted a final long-term pricing for its services, but there are two tiers available at launch. The free tier is obviously worthless. However, it has serious limitations. The most relevant is the one hour session limit.

After an hour, you will be excluded from the game. You can log in again, but you may find yourself at the end of the queue, behind other free players and paying players who receive priority.

In terms of gaming performance, Nvidia promises the same 1080p resolution and 60fps smoothness for both free and paid users.

In terms of user pay, the plan is $ 4.99 per month for the GeForce Now Founders tier. These are special introductory prices that limit you to 12 months of service. This means that you are willing to pay a total of $ 60.

Nvidia softened the blow by adding a 3-month free trial of the paid service. So if that doesn’t work, it’s time to help out. That means you get an effective 15 months of GeForce Now Founders membership for $ 60.

The paid tier includes two core value propositions. First, as mentioned above, you are put ahead of the free users in the queue. So while you may still have to wait to play, you won’t wait as long as they did. The second is to increase the duration of the session up to six hours! The vast majority of players probably won’t end up with six hours of continuous gameplay, so that seems more than reasonable.

The last major benefit for Founders users is the inclusion of RTX-enabled graphics hardware This is Nvidia’s unique real-time ray tracing solution supported by a small number of PC games. These cards are quite expensive, so this is an affordable way to experience impressive rendering techniques.

Before you buy GeForce Now, here are the caveats

GeForce Now is an incredible offering, bringing new insights into the cloud game streaming market. But before you get too excited, there are a few things to keep in mind.

First, using cloud resources like GeForce Now puts you in competition with other users who want to play too. This means that you will be queued during peak hours. Paying users also have priority, but even so, they are still competing with each other.

Another important caveat has to do with your specific internet connection. Even if your connection meets or exceeds the minimum requirements, something is happening. If your connection fluctuates or something happens to your service provider’s backbone, you may be cut off from the GeForce Now service. At the very least, owning your own local computer means you always have exclusive access to it.

Think carefully about how reliable your connection has been in the past. Of course, since you can try the service for free, you can test it yourself!

GeForce now could be the first

On the assumption that the technology and promised performance perform as advertised, GeForce Now is the most compelling game streaming service we’ve ever seen.

The ability to add your existing gaming library to the service means that instead of buying a new gaming PC, you can simply spend $ 5 per month plus internet fees to experience the best PC games have to offer.

If it happens that GeForce Now works with game subscription services like Xbox Game Pass for PC, it could very well be a true gaming match.

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