NVIDIA's GeForce Now Service is Launched - And You Can Stream Games for Free

[R0H1T]

Really? If we're talking the US, the middle of Vegas has crap internet...

Tbf US also is 3x the size of India & what a 12th of the population density? Making internet work isn't cheap, even though the US terrain is generally not as bad as we see in much of Asia.

 

[KV2DERP]

System requirements for NVIDIA's GeForce Now are as stands:

• 15 Mbps internet connection (25 Mbps recommended). A 5GHz network is preferred if using wireless.

me in a 3rd World country :

 

[HeavyHemi]

Tbf US also is 3x the size of India & what a 12th of the population density? Making internet work isn't cheap, even though the US terrain is generally not as bad as we see in much of Asia.

The US has large areas where population density makes the ROI decades if ever. I am personally lucky that a local WISP company was willing to put a dish about 75' up a cedar tree in my yard for LOS to their tower about 11 air miles away. I now have 50mbs ~13msec to my first hop internet. Compared to the 768 on a good day 200ms DSL, it's better. Not great. But better. My nearest neighbor is a mile a away. An entire 3 county area around me is 95% 1.5 DSL or cell or Sat service. No cable or fiber except the larger towns which number about a half dozen. This ain't Arkansas. I can drive to the MS campus in less than 2 hours.

 

[R-T-B]

I mean..... what can you do?

Install CPU+LCD in tree stump. Install hydroelectric plant next to treestump. Play game like a greener and please The Lorax.

 

[Vayra86]

So many talented business analysts here.

Oh, wait, some nonamers who believe they know how to earn money ... yet they leave comments on one of a gazillion tech websites on the Internet because they have so much spare time.

It's almost laughable except it's just sad and pathetic.

Especially all the talks about Google Stadia is gonna fail regardless despite the fact that the platform is the cheapest way to game. You don't need a PC, you don't need a console, just a TV and a controller. Oh, and games run at the highest settings.

And what makes you eligible to state Stadia is going to succeed then?

I'm also strongly in the camp of 'Please, die, streamed gaming'. For several reasons
- It offers nothing to devs but everything to publishers (you need deep pockets to weather the early phase with low player count high support cost etc.; something devs don't have, pubs do)
- It moves us further away from ownership and the net result is we bring away a vast amount of our paycheck to all sorts of services and the more we have, the less we make use of them. The long term net result isn't pretty. Fragmentation everywhere just like you've already got it for movie and series. You already need what, 3-4 streaming subs to have all content you may want to watch. For gaming, its probably far worse than that.
- Cheapest way to game? I beg to differ.... the only saving here is the console itself, the game offerings are limited and the net result is you have created yourself a new walled garden with a device that can't do jack shit unless Google says its OK and you've paid up front. Now and forever. There was a reason once that we bought the consoles instead of renting the stuff from the local video rental shop; it was actually cheaper because you did actually play quite a bit more than you thought. This hasn't changed.

- Quality of the experience. Do you seriously, really think you're getting 4K60 or even 4K30 streamed to your doorstep? Do you understand what compression means? Also, round trip latency best case is 16-19ms and that is with a very good line. Good luck with that, every single player game will feel like your average online shooter now. And no, its not the same, and yes, you do notice that latency. And note, best case, but you're streaming a pretty hefty data stream here, not just 'some' game info as you normally do. Hiccups do happen. Offline or even online but locally processed they do not.

No, I don't want an Amazon speaker, a Google console or a Facebook whatever-they-think-up. These tech companies are really not here for our greater good and its clear as day. I avoid them as much as I can just like I do the big publishers like EA. There is an agenda here and its not for us. Its about control. And some weird dystopian future where we think we need all kinds of continuous services to 'have fun', slaves to contracts.

Might sound far fetched to you but this is what I feell when I see all these on-demand services and the push they're given; that alongside very low-barrier payment methods and MTX... yikes. Not good. Irresponsible ways to make people spend and think of money.

 

[cucker tarlson]

And what makes you eligible to state Stadia is going to succeed then?

I'm also strongly in the camp of 'Please, die, streamed gaming'.

Kill before it lays eggs

Actually, this is quite interesting, as I have a laptop that doesn't have the hardware to play games, but this way, I could play games when travelling if I get bored, which is often the case on business trips when you're stuck in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. I think it has its uses, but it's obviously not going to replace purchased games. As long as the price is kept reasonable, why not? It's not a service I would use instead of having "local" games on my PC for any foreseeable future, but it might just have its place.

Buy a switch or for a decent price you can have a 1660 super laptop.
Paying for streaming is like paying for renting compute power online.
5 dollars a month though,pretty cheap indeed.

 

[gamefoo21]

Need to own the game's first, then you get to pay to play them all laggy like but only for a limited amount of time.

Sounds like even if you pay you are still getting bounced after so long and you still have to suffer through the que.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Had a look again last night, needs work, lots and lots of work.
Wasn't even useable imho in home with 120MB dl hitchy , variable ,distracting, totally killed emersion.

 

[HwGeek]

I used Steam to see the Hardware specs and found out that some servers have different hardware, EU3 is Xeon 2697 V4 + Tesla P40 while EU4 is the new unannounced Intel CC150 3.5Ghz + RTX T10-8

 

[LiveOrDie]

No thanks Nvidia, we don`t want that.

Speak for your self! console peasant.


people that bash this or NVIDIA are just console peasants and should stop replying to threads on TPU using there phones or potatoes.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yay..... another lame duck streaming service...

Speak for your self! console peasant.


people that bash this or NVIDIA are just console peasants and should stop replying to threads on TPU using there phones or potatoes.

 

[chodaboy19]

I tried it via the Shield TV on my TV and it works seamlessly. Not sure if people will pay for yet another subscription service, but these days everything is a monthly drain on your wallet.

 

[lexluthermiester]

but these days everything is a monthly drain on your wallet.

Exactly! One or two streaming services, ok. But these days, everyone has one. I'm not signing up for more than 2 or 3.

 

[TheGuruStud]

Tbf US also is 3x the size of India & what a 12th of the population density? Making internet work isn't cheap, even though the US terrain is generally not as bad as we see in much of Asia.

It's very cheap when tax payers have subsidized it to the tune of hundreds of billions. More is payed out every year with nearly nothing to show for it while profits soar.

Stop apologizing for criminals. You deserve dial up if you think land mass is a problem.

Nationwide fiber was supposed to be completed in 2000 (so every single urban area).

 

[Lindatje]

Speak for your self! console peasant.


people that bash this or NVIDIA are just console peasants and should stop replying to threads on TPU using there phones or potatoes.

That is why I have a gaming computer and no console ...

Apparently you can only say good things about Nvidia otherwise you are a console peasant and you can no longer respond to TPU? Weird....

 

[gamefoo21]

That is why I have a gaming computer and no console ...

Apparently you can only say good things about Nvidia otherwise you are a console peasant and you can no longer respond to TPU? Weird....

Hmmm...

I like my Radeons and my PC plays games really rather quite well. Despite it not using a GeForce for rendering. LoL

 

[BiggieShady]

Played Diablo 3 on my phone in public transit on 4G ... as you imagine it was laggy because mobile networks. On decent 50Mbs downstream over wire it lags less often, which is still infinite times more than desired. Input lag is horrible and understandable. Also recently, free accounts start their sessions a the back of the 500 person queue. Still imma play dishonored 2 on my phone now-ish.

EDIT: Surprisingly good experience on my home network ... there was consistent latency and unnecessarily huge onscreen virtual game-pad

 

[TheLostSwede]

So, one for all the naysayers in this thread.
Signed up and tried it, as I'm currently travelling for a couple of months.
It works surprisingly well, at least for Apex Legends.
I don't feel like there's any extra lag although I did play on the lowest ping server and internet here is rather good.
Only complaint is that on my laptop I'm limited to 1280x720 and a 12.5" laptop screen is WAY too small to play Apex Legends on.
Oh and it now means I need to get a mobile gaming mouse... Or you know, at least bring a normal gaming mouse with me.

Overall I have to say I'm quite impressed with how well it works. The only slightly frustrating part of the service is that you're doing a new Origin sign-in every time, so you have to validate your Origin login every time. Not sure how it works with other games, but yeah, much better than expected.

 

[Vayra86]

It's very cheap when tax payers have subsidized it to the tune of hundreds of billions. More is payed out every year with nearly nothing to show for it while profits soar.

Stop apologizing for criminals. You deserve dial up if you think land mass is a problem.

Nationwide fiber was supposed to be completed in 2000 (so every single urban area).

You are correct. It does make things a bit more costly. But regardless, a lot can be done that isn't being done. Here in NL... land mass certainly isn't a problem and we still only have local fiber to the home projects. That barely gain traction. No gov push, and the old national phone company (privatised) bought up most independent fiber ISPs / start ups and put things on hold.

Yup. Land mass is not the problem here Its like a few hundred square km

 

[R0H1T]

Stop apologizing for criminals. You deserve dial up if you think land mass is a problem.

I'm not apologizing for anyone, heck what you're saying has happened in India as well. The govt basically laid down fiber network at their own expense throughout the nation, the result ~ from what I know the cheapest (gigabit) broadband plans across the world. I have 5 options to choose from when it comes to wired broadband, 7 if you include wireless providers. And I live basically in a suburb, the rural areas still do not have anyone other than govt to rely on & that's just a couple of kilometers away from me!

The difference between US & our part of the world though is population density. And that does make a difference whether you like it or not, businesses like profit & that's the only thing they care about. If you want something like universal broadband across the nation, the urban areas will have to subsidize the countryside for decades to come.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Civ VI at 1080p, no problem at all. This time on an external monitor which helps a lot.
Is the service worth $4.99? Possibly, but not sure if it's worth more than that and it needs to be on a month to month basis, as I wouldn't be subscribing to it, nor using it at home.

CPU usage isn't too crazy either, especially considering this is a few years old laptop by now.

 

[kings]

I was pleasantly surprised by this service, I tested it with ethernet cable and it plays very well! In terms of latency I didn't notice anything special, in fact, after a while I forgot that I was playing by stream.

These are services that are unlikely to fully replace having the game installed on our machine, but if they continue to improve, they can be a very viable alternative for many people, especially the more casual players.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I was pleasantly surprised by this service, I tested it with ethernet cable and it plays very well! In terms of latency I didn't notice anything special, in fact, after a while I forgot that I was playing by stream.

These are services that are unlikely to fully replace having the game installed on our machine, but if they continue to improve, they can be a very viable alternative for many people, especially the more casual players.

The obvious downside is that you need to own the game(s) for this to work. As such, I don't see this as a service that can charge too much, as you're pretty much just rending their hardware for the streaming of your games. I do agree though that apart from some minor streaming glitchyness where the resolution drops, it works better than I expected. They've clearly invested in some rather good hardware too, as turn time in Civilization VI was very fast.

 

[Splinterdog]

What's disappointing is that the free tier doesn't get a taste of Ray Tracing, so it's a bummer having to fork out $5 just to see and play it for real.
That one aspect alone would have been a carrot to buy an RTX card, maybe.

 

[bug]

What's disappointing is that the free tier doesn't get a taste of Ray Tracing, so it's a bummer having to fork out $5 just to see and play it for real.
That one aspect alone would have been a carrot to buy an RTX card, maybe.

This. Especially since there aren't that many RTX titles out there and even fewer that do RTX justice.
Or, maybe they were thinking that putting RTX streaming behind a pay wall, people will buy more RTX-enabled cards?
Either way, seems a little misguided.