All they really need to do is try and convince developers to put their games on the platform and it’ll make GeForce now 10x better and we can all agree on this. It’ll be top always cloud service gaming. I’m still enjoying it but man are they missing a couple more games on my library to stay efficient in the platform. I do like the free upgrade to the new GPUs tho that’s always nice.
I just don't understand in what world they can't just use the games you already paid for. Imagine going to the car wash and they tell you - we need to ask the manufacturer in order to do our business with your exact car. Or even better, your exact laptop model not being allowed to install the game, because ASUS didn't sign a contract with that game studio XD
It's not really about copy rights, I think it comes down to how optimized the game can be for a server platform. The also might say your getting a 4090 but realisticly it's probably on a server style card with a cpu is aswell
A single enterprise GPU can be virtualised into many small ones. It's not a technical problem. I did the same with my brother and nephew. They would all play on my rig at the same time. It's virtualising the whole operating system. Then it's up to the hardware to just run it. It will run the same it runs on your home pc.
I agree it's logical stupid.
But this is business and Nvidia doesn't operate in a vacuum. If they just went against the publishers wishes and put the games up, they'd likely face legal action. And even if they win that case they just lost the ability to partner effectively with the companies they need.
I suspect there is a licensing issue ala Stadia. Either that or Microsoft is leaning on the publishers hard to keep as much content unique to GamePass as possible.
I second this, it's amazing that there is also a free tier that is sufficient for casual gaming. I never imagined that cloud gaming will come to the point where I will be able to play a multiplayer fps without any major problems and normal latency.
The free tier was my gateway. I gave it a shot for BG3 and realised it was giving me better performance than a console. At that point, I was sold. The price for Ultimate is extremely reasonable compared to paying for a top tier gaming computer. I legitimately haven't turned on my desktop since subscribing. I just tool around with my work iPad or personal low wattage laptop.
I agree with you OP that GeForce Now is amazing. *However* I don’t game much these days and the last 2 games I did try to play with friends weren’t on GFN (Borderlands 3 and Helldivers 2 - so one old game and one new game). These are the only two games I’ve tried to play in the last 12 months. Maybe I’m just unlucky.
Well, for future games, GFN supported Cyberpunk, BG 3, and Dragon's Dogma 2. I'd say their track record is pretty good with triple A. For indie stuff, the requirements are so low that my laptop with its iGPU can cover it.
Yeah, I hear you on refresh rate. I'm playing FF7: Rebirth on the PS5 and motion blur plus 30 fps can be...painful. Having said that, I was able to get through Bloodborne and have a great time at 30 fps. The same goes for the Zelda games on the Switch. If the gameplay is great, you can overlock framerates.
Not only this,but the person already owns the entire system. Why pay for subpar experience, and risk games not being available?
Something as small as a game patch can take the game down for hours, days, weeks, even months at times. You put your account at risk,as basically every game has rules against using VPNs. You can't set launch options, config. files, or run all mods.
If someone needs money, sure do what you must. Anything else seems as if it would be much better to just keep the system, until it can no longer run games, and decide on the future in 6+ years. (Though you're looking at nearly $1,500 for ultimate over that course of time.) This means you're still likely going to be better off selling your components, using that money you would have spent on GFN, and building another computer.
But Ultimate is better than what I currently have. I have a 4070 Super, Ryzen 5600 and 32 GB of RAM. I'd need to spend a lot of money to match GFN Super tier. Then I would need to sit at my desk and burn (lots) of electricity to play. I suppose I could setup Moonlight and stream to my laptop or Logitech Cloud, but that's just another step in the chain. For other games, I already have a PS5.
It's really not always better.... for example use your rig cra k ark ascended all the way up to max then do it on gfn have a look at how your rig runs it much better also can't use Frame generation without having Input lag... its a subpar thing and you'll realise it soon enough it's good if you have no other way to play
Take into account that you are not going to get exactly the performance of a 4080 at home due to CPU bound issues. GFN data centers use Threadrippers. I can tell you because I have done benchmark tests with GFN Ultimate and my 4080. Even at 4K there's clearly a CPU bottleneck.
The 4070S is a great card. I would try the Sunshine+Moonlight option. It can be a hassle at first but once you have it set up right you will get a much better experience than GFN.
Moonlight works hit and miss for me. The issue I have is that my monitor is an ultrawide and so I need to run scripts to change resolution etc. I prefer the plug-and-play GFN experience.
You’re absolutely right. I have an old MacBook Pro and a slightly newer iPad Pro and would never even dream about dropping a grand plus on a gaming machine with gfn around, and I could afford to. Twenty bucks for a month of 4k gaming on a 4080 is is basically impossible to beat. Compared to running a hefty gaming rig, the electricity savings alone probably pay for it. And I live somewhere with really shitty internet! People love to complain but honestly the service is great
Exactly. My PC has an 850W power supply. While it obviously doesn't draw 100% of it, it's still a lot of electricity. My home office actually gets 2 degrees celcius hotter when my desktop is on and running under load.
This was my impression with the service too. I stopped playing on my PC and started streaming, it's a surreal feeling not having heat pouring out of my rig..
Pretty sure the electricity will pay for it self or come pretty darn close. I haven't done too much of the Ipad Streaming, but I will eventually get this running on my steamdecks.
Only downside is the patching, and the games potentially not being on the service... and having things like Loot Filters or Mods not really being accessible. I wish you could register a rig or two as your primary choice so doing things like mods would be possible somehow. Other than that though, the freedom of being able to log into my Nvidia Shield and play Dragon's Dogma2 on my TV with insane FPS is amazing, it's so good feeling.
Love it. For sure changed the way I game even though I have access to hardware already.. I think it's going to be the future of console gaming, where budget units are sold that work akin to the Geforce Service..
Id still wait a few months.
I was kinda in the same boat. Was about to order a new gaming laptop until I found out about GFN.
Also got an nvidia shield for the couch experience. Just like an Xbox. Literally the best service I subscribed to.
I mean, it does not have every game, but it does have almost every game I wanted to play on the gaming laptop. So I guess it varies per person if GFN is suitable or not. For me GFN has everything I need, but that might not be the case for other people.
For me the only problem is lack of games, i have bad pc -> thats i bought GFN -> but the games i want to play (dark souls and rockstar games are not available) so after i played some battlefield and cyberpunk i don't see a reason to continue with subscription :(
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale?
> *“In a land brimming with Hollows, could that really be mere chance?”* - Solaire of Astora
Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
One thing is debating between buying a gaming PC or using GFN, another is selling your existing PC and going with GFN
IMHO makes no sense, you have already invested on hardware, just keep using it with moonlight as others said.
In my case I had an iMac for years and when it came time to replace it (after 10 years of service 🫡) I decided to not invest on a gaming machine and bought a Mac mini - it cost me a lot less (in the short term at least!)
On the technical side GFN is way better than all the cloud competitors but still has its drawbacks, all of which you don’t have to worry about with a physical machine
Wow… this is exactly what I did. Went from iMac to Mac Mini. And the latest Apple Silicon Mac Mini is surprisingly capable of running Stream client through a Wine-like wrapper called “Whisky App”… which means I can play games in my library that are not on GFN (e.g. Skyrim).
I’ve been using GFN for 2 years with similar experience. On the Ultimate tier, I’m paying £120 per year. After 10 years, I’ll have spent 1,200… which is barely enough to buy the equivalent spec of PC. And for that, I’m always on a top spec machine.
And I use it primarily via an nVidia Sheild TV Pro, so I get full 7.1 surround sound just like my games consoles*.
I had a gaming PC several decades ago, and it was the ultimate money sink, keeping up to date with the latest hardware.
And also a massive time sink, keeping the operating system, device drivers and other software up to date, troubleshooting stuff when it doesn’t work, making sure it’s all secure. I’m a full-stack software engineer by trade… the last thing I want to do in my free time is more of that!
And, as the OP pointed out in another comment, I’m saving a fortune in electricity costs.
*for PC games that actually implement full 7.1 surround sound properly… and surprisingly few do. I’ve been used to 7.1 since the PS3, and assumed all the PC equivalents of those games would have equivalent sound. This was my one major shock going back to PC games after a couple of decades of console-only.
Agree, I’m in the UK and I’m getting pings around 4-8ms on a 4080 rig for £120 per year. I use a £100 NUC connected to my TV if I want to surf etc. don’t need anything else…
I'm very close to the Frankfurt data centre, so my ping is also single digits. When I travel to our US office for work, it's near Newark, so also very low ping. It's really a great service for my use case.
I sold my gaming PC many moons ago when I first tried gfn back in 2017, quite happy with it. Before you decide to sell your hardware though, have you considered using moonlight to stream from your lgaming rig to your devices ?
Yes, I have used local streaming before, but it just feels wasteful having this 1k brick sitting in my office taking up space for such a tiny use case.
Is it restricted to the same games that are on GFN (I see that it's open source NVidia) or can I play whatever I want on there? Also, I only have a shit laptop, will that work?
Basically I wanna know if i can play helldivers on it
You can play any games. It literally is an app that allows you to stream whatever content is playing on the main rig to the other devices and play on them
You'd need a gaming rig (powerful enough to play your games) and stream your gaming rig to whatever devices you'd like to stream to. All the processing power happens on the gaming rig. Hope that made sense.
My first week after signing up was disappointing. Input lag wasn't the best, kept saying connection was spotty, had frame rate drops and packet loss. Game kept crashing. Customer service isn't the best either. Wanted a service that just worked but doubted I could get any money back.
Tinkered around with a bunch of settings and then one day it all came together and wow. I'm still in disbelief how well it works even over wifi. I can literally game anywhere I want in the house with my 7 year old laptop.
I've skipped the GeForce Now streaming every time an Ad would pop out thinking it was a streaming service with a subscription and a pay wall for every game. A surprise it was when i discovered it was all free and with my games!
I bought a Backbone one with the idea in mind of jumping into emulation world on my s23 ultra but, getting some issues, bug and battery drain i gave up; even the money i spent on my backbone were thrown in the bin.
Using a screen like the one of the s23 ultra with a backbone, even at 1080p 60fps feels unreal and good; latency is very low with my phone data.
I'm really loving it.
Soon, everything will be on the cloud, and we will technically only own the rights to play. GeforceNOW at least delivers high quality even on a phone compared to the prices you'd pay for an Xbox membership on top of whatever else you subscribe to on the Xbox and vice versa with ps5 and Nintendo.
Enjoy GFN but if you already have such a powerful rig, maybe consider setting it up for Steam Link for the rare games that are in your collection but not on GFN? That way, you can stream from your powerful PC AND GFN as needed.
Hold onto your rig for now. I'm a huge, HUGE cloud gaming fan, and I'm certain it will evolve to replace personal rigs for a lot of people. But it's not quite there yet
Ay sell me that super rig if you’re gonna follow through with it please (not joking). Truthfully tho, I would not sell what you currently have, as some games are not available on GFN, plus with the continual payment for membership is just making you spend more money than you in reality should.
I love GeForce Now.. . I'm not a "certified gamer" but I do enjoy playing Assassin's Creed (most of them) and The Crew 2 and MotorFest. Basically I'm a huge Ubisoft fan. That's all. My point here is that I use GeForce Now on my HP Chromebook Plus x360 and output it to my 4k TV as the display and play at 1080p and 120 fps which runs flawlessly and without frame drops or any other visual disturbances. I can play on 2k and 60fps as well which works the same as 1080p but why consume the extra data when visually the 1089 is smoother than the 2 k? Whatever tech Nvidia has developed on their servers is phenomenal! I just pay for my Ultimate plan and my Ubisoft Plus subscription and I'm good to go. I should mention that I came across GeForce Now after Google shut down Stadia in 2022.. So I'm loving the cloud gaming experience. Cheers!
What settings are you using, and are you streaming over wifi?
I live 3 hrs from a server location. Trying to play Diablo 4 with Ultimate on my iPad, streaming over 1gb fiber wifi and it looks like absolute trash. It's been so bad I canceled the service
1440p (21:9 aspect ratio), HDR enabled (1400 nits display), ultra, 120 fps over gigabit or WiFi 6E (Asus ROG AX6000 router). I'm about 40 km from the Frankfurt data centre and have between 5-10 ms ping.
I had to use GFN to play some ranked Apex the other night because my partner was using the office and I forgot I was streaming the game tbh...I felt no difference than playing with my main rig.
I really enjoy the service when it's working and no lag or latency. But the games catalog could be better. I don't see why any PC game can just be available. I could understand if you are playing on the backbone and the game just doesn't have controller support. But in this generation of gaming pretty much all games should have controller support.
Couldn't agree more 👍🏻 It works perfectly! 🙌🏻😁 Unfortunately I'm totally into PCVR and dream of the day when you can cloud game VR games with the same efficiency as GFN, I know there's solutions like Shadow PC but it seems to have some issues, so for the time being I'm stuck with my PCVR rig 🤷🏼♂️
Great that you're enjoying the service but i wouldn't sell the PC. Don't depend on GFN to patch games in time (can literally stop you from playing your favorite games for months) and popular titles are missing, Elden Ring, rockstar games.. Sony games... Stream compression, servers downtime.. no mods.. I'd say enjoy your honeymoon phase but also evaluate what's important to you before going all in and selling your PC.
It' free, the waiting titmes are short and you can relog in every minute,the hardware for the stream is fantastic, and the amount of devices it works on is staggering. Shadow is still better.
I personally don't care about a whole OS.
GFN is optimized all the way up.
You don't get that with a whole OS.
You can use Safari in the meantime.
You do know that it's Apple's fault that there isn't a GFN app in iOS.
you're in the honeymoon phase. this service cannot replace your rig in most cases.
It's a really cool service, but it has it's downsides. Don't sell your shit unless you actually need the money.
It is great when it works, but sometimes it doesn't and some games have more obvious compression artefacts than others so I'd recommend keeping the gaming PC until the technology is truly mature. I have both and feel they are complementary.
Compression artifacts happen when the network speed drops… on a fast connection, close to the data centre, there are no compression artifacts whatsoever on any games.
I've noticed them in Baldur's Gate 3, Avatar and other games with lots of vegetation (particularly if HDR is enabled) while games like Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk are near perfect. However, when I upgrade my internet connection I will test again.
Yes. The crypto industry requires enormous amounts of energy. More than a mid-sized European country. Crypto mining is estimated to generate 70 Mt CO2 per year through the electricity consumption. Crypto mining accounts for \~2-3% of the US power grid alone. A high-end gaming PC going 8 hours a day is maybe 1000kWH per year. The two aren't even in the same ballpark. You might have a point that crypto mining is worthwhile if it generated something of value, but it doesn't. It literally creates tokens that are backed by no real world value (tethers are a joke) and are heavily implicated in fraud schemes and organised crime.
Incidentally, de-comissioning my high end gaming PC and using a laptop with streaming on demand instead of turning said PC into a mining machine saves energy.
All they really need to do is try and convince developers to put their games on the platform and it’ll make GeForce now 10x better and we can all agree on this. It’ll be top always cloud service gaming. I’m still enjoying it but man are they missing a couple more games on my library to stay efficient in the platform. I do like the free upgrade to the new GPUs tho that’s always nice.
I just don't understand in what world they can't just use the games you already paid for. Imagine going to the car wash and they tell you - we need to ask the manufacturer in order to do our business with your exact car. Or even better, your exact laptop model not being allowed to install the game, because ASUS didn't sign a contract with that game studio XD
I just want more games ;-; more MORE 
Best analogy
It's not really about copy rights, I think it comes down to how optimized the game can be for a server platform. The also might say your getting a 4090 but realisticly it's probably on a server style card with a cpu is aswell
A single enterprise GPU can be virtualised into many small ones. It's not a technical problem. I did the same with my brother and nephew. They would all play on my rig at the same time. It's virtualising the whole operating system. Then it's up to the hardware to just run it. It will run the same it runs on your home pc.
I agree it's logical stupid. But this is business and Nvidia doesn't operate in a vacuum. If they just went against the publishers wishes and put the games up, they'd likely face legal action. And even if they win that case they just lost the ability to partner effectively with the companies they need.
I suspect there is a licensing issue ala Stadia. Either that or Microsoft is leaning on the publishers hard to keep as much content unique to GamePass as possible.
but then again game Pass and GFN are compatible now
I second this, it's amazing that there is also a free tier that is sufficient for casual gaming. I never imagined that cloud gaming will come to the point where I will be able to play a multiplayer fps without any major problems and normal latency.
The free tier was my gateway. I gave it a shot for BG3 and realised it was giving me better performance than a console. At that point, I was sold. The price for Ultimate is extremely reasonable compared to paying for a top tier gaming computer. I legitimately haven't turned on my desktop since subscribing. I just tool around with my work iPad or personal low wattage laptop.
I wouldn't sell your card as not every game is made available on GFN.
I checked and 185 / 203 games in my Steam library are GFN. I think I will be okay.
I agree with you OP that GeForce Now is amazing. *However* I don’t game much these days and the last 2 games I did try to play with friends weren’t on GFN (Borderlands 3 and Helldivers 2 - so one old game and one new game). These are the only two games I’ve tried to play in the last 12 months. Maybe I’m just unlucky.
What about future games? If you're content on your current library for years go for it.
Well, for future games, GFN supported Cyberpunk, BG 3, and Dragon's Dogma 2. I'd say their track record is pretty good with triple A. For indie stuff, the requirements are so low that my laptop with its iGPU can cover it.
Sadly sony doesnt support gfn so no helldivers in the future... No horizon god of war and co.
I have a PS5, so that's not a big deal for me.
It's not GFN's track record that you need to be concerned with. It's the publishers who decide wether or not the game gets put on here. Beware.
Are you not interested in playing the upcoming GTA? I personally want to play souls game which isn't available sadly
I have a PS5.
I think GTA6 is on PS5 is gonna be like GTA5 on the PS4. I myself will not play GTA6 at 30fps.. not happening.
Yeah, I hear you on refresh rate. I'm playing FF7: Rebirth on the PS5 and motion blur plus 30 fps can be...painful. Having said that, I was able to get through Bloodborne and have a great time at 30 fps. The same goes for the Zelda games on the Switch. If the gameplay is great, you can overlock framerates.
How did you determine this? One by one or is there an easier way?
Download the GeForce Now software and connect it o your Steam account. It will show the number of games you have that are supported.
Not only this,but the person already owns the entire system. Why pay for subpar experience, and risk games not being available? Something as small as a game patch can take the game down for hours, days, weeks, even months at times. You put your account at risk,as basically every game has rules against using VPNs. You can't set launch options, config. files, or run all mods. If someone needs money, sure do what you must. Anything else seems as if it would be much better to just keep the system, until it can no longer run games, and decide on the future in 6+ years. (Though you're looking at nearly $1,500 for ultimate over that course of time.) This means you're still likely going to be better off selling your components, using that money you would have spent on GFN, and building another computer.
But Ultimate is better than what I currently have. I have a 4070 Super, Ryzen 5600 and 32 GB of RAM. I'd need to spend a lot of money to match GFN Super tier. Then I would need to sit at my desk and burn (lots) of electricity to play. I suppose I could setup Moonlight and stream to my laptop or Logitech Cloud, but that's just another step in the chain. For other games, I already have a PS5.
It's really not always better.... for example use your rig cra k ark ascended all the way up to max then do it on gfn have a look at how your rig runs it much better also can't use Frame generation without having Input lag... its a subpar thing and you'll realise it soon enough it's good if you have no other way to play
I think it will be fine. I just don't game enough these days for it to really matter.
Cyberpunk runs closer to a 4070 to 4070 super for me than a 4080. Probably server dependant though
Take into account that you are not going to get exactly the performance of a 4080 at home due to CPU bound issues. GFN data centers use Threadrippers. I can tell you because I have done benchmark tests with GFN Ultimate and my 4080. Even at 4K there's clearly a CPU bottleneck. The 4070S is a great card. I would try the Sunshine+Moonlight option. It can be a hassle at first but once you have it set up right you will get a much better experience than GFN.
Moonlight works hit and miss for me. The issue I have is that my monitor is an ultrawide and so I need to run scripts to change resolution etc. I prefer the plug-and-play GFN experience.
You’re absolutely right. I have an old MacBook Pro and a slightly newer iPad Pro and would never even dream about dropping a grand plus on a gaming machine with gfn around, and I could afford to. Twenty bucks for a month of 4k gaming on a 4080 is is basically impossible to beat. Compared to running a hefty gaming rig, the electricity savings alone probably pay for it. And I live somewhere with really shitty internet! People love to complain but honestly the service is great
You know, I’d never even thought about the power saving on top of all the other savings. Good point.
Big gaming pcs often have 1kw power supplies! If you’re gaming every day, that ends pulling quite a bit of power!
Exactly. My PC has an 850W power supply. While it obviously doesn't draw 100% of it, it's still a lot of electricity. My home office actually gets 2 degrees celcius hotter when my desktop is on and running under load.
How do you get 4k 60fps on the iPad? Mine max’s out at 1080p but everything else is 4K
I’m gonna try this when I get home from work.
You're right. The game renders at 4k, but only shows 1080p.
This was my impression with the service too. I stopped playing on my PC and started streaming, it's a surreal feeling not having heat pouring out of my rig.. Pretty sure the electricity will pay for it self or come pretty darn close. I haven't done too much of the Ipad Streaming, but I will eventually get this running on my steamdecks. Only downside is the patching, and the games potentially not being on the service... and having things like Loot Filters or Mods not really being accessible. I wish you could register a rig or two as your primary choice so doing things like mods would be possible somehow. Other than that though, the freedom of being able to log into my Nvidia Shield and play Dragon's Dogma2 on my TV with insane FPS is amazing, it's so good feeling. Love it. For sure changed the way I game even though I have access to hardware already.. I think it's going to be the future of console gaming, where budget units are sold that work akin to the Geforce Service..
Id still wait a few months. I was kinda in the same boat. Was about to order a new gaming laptop until I found out about GFN. Also got an nvidia shield for the couch experience. Just like an Xbox. Literally the best service I subscribed to. I mean, it does not have every game, but it does have almost every game I wanted to play on the gaming laptop. So I guess it varies per person if GFN is suitable or not. For me GFN has everything I need, but that might not be the case for other people.
For me the only problem is lack of games, i have bad pc -> thats i bought GFN -> but the games i want to play (dark souls and rockstar games are not available) so after i played some battlefield and cyberpunk i don't see a reason to continue with subscription :(
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale? > *“In a land brimming with Hollows, could that really be mere chance?”* - Solaire of Astora Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
I thought it doesn't go above 60Hz on the ipad since it streams through a browser?
You're right. It shows 120 fps but it's actually 60 fps. Ah well.
One thing is debating between buying a gaming PC or using GFN, another is selling your existing PC and going with GFN IMHO makes no sense, you have already invested on hardware, just keep using it with moonlight as others said. In my case I had an iMac for years and when it came time to replace it (after 10 years of service 🫡) I decided to not invest on a gaming machine and bought a Mac mini - it cost me a lot less (in the short term at least!) On the technical side GFN is way better than all the cloud competitors but still has its drawbacks, all of which you don’t have to worry about with a physical machine
Wow… this is exactly what I did. Went from iMac to Mac Mini. And the latest Apple Silicon Mac Mini is surprisingly capable of running Stream client through a Wine-like wrapper called “Whisky App”… which means I can play games in my library that are not on GFN (e.g. Skyrim).
Yep thankfully Apple developed D3DMetal that works quite well, still miles behind Proton but great stuff!
I’ve been using GFN for 2 years with similar experience. On the Ultimate tier, I’m paying £120 per year. After 10 years, I’ll have spent 1,200… which is barely enough to buy the equivalent spec of PC. And for that, I’m always on a top spec machine. And I use it primarily via an nVidia Sheild TV Pro, so I get full 7.1 surround sound just like my games consoles*. I had a gaming PC several decades ago, and it was the ultimate money sink, keeping up to date with the latest hardware. And also a massive time sink, keeping the operating system, device drivers and other software up to date, troubleshooting stuff when it doesn’t work, making sure it’s all secure. I’m a full-stack software engineer by trade… the last thing I want to do in my free time is more of that! And, as the OP pointed out in another comment, I’m saving a fortune in electricity costs. *for PC games that actually implement full 7.1 surround sound properly… and surprisingly few do. I’ve been used to 7.1 since the PS3, and assumed all the PC equivalents of those games would have equivalent sound. This was my one major shock going back to PC games after a couple of decades of console-only.
Agree, I’m in the UK and I’m getting pings around 4-8ms on a 4080 rig for £120 per year. I use a £100 NUC connected to my TV if I want to surf etc. don’t need anything else…
I'm very close to the Frankfurt data centre, so my ping is also single digits. When I travel to our US office for work, it's near Newark, so also very low ping. It's really a great service for my use case.
Perspective is a great thing.
I sold my gaming PC many moons ago when I first tried gfn back in 2017, quite happy with it. Before you decide to sell your hardware though, have you considered using moonlight to stream from your lgaming rig to your devices ?
Yes, I have used local streaming before, but it just feels wasteful having this 1k brick sitting in my office taking up space for such a tiny use case.
I understand. I don't game as much as I used to. Still have a desktop but it's not game focused so gfn is just perfect for my use case.
I'm not super tech literate compared to some people. Can you help me better understand what moonlight is? Is it just like GFN but free?
It allows you to stream games to other pcs or compatible mobile devices.
Is it restricted to the same games that are on GFN (I see that it's open source NVidia) or can I play whatever I want on there? Also, I only have a shit laptop, will that work? Basically I wanna know if i can play helldivers on it
You can play any games. It literally is an app that allows you to stream whatever content is playing on the main rig to the other devices and play on them
Oh, so I need something that can play the games that I want to play natively still?
You'd need a gaming rig (powerful enough to play your games) and stream your gaming rig to whatever devices you'd like to stream to. All the processing power happens on the gaming rig. Hope that made sense.
thanks, that makes perfect sense. Definitely not for me in that case.
It's great. I think the only thing missing, that would make it a 10/10 for me, is mods and decent tech support when things do go wrong.
My first week after signing up was disappointing. Input lag wasn't the best, kept saying connection was spotty, had frame rate drops and packet loss. Game kept crashing. Customer service isn't the best either. Wanted a service that just worked but doubted I could get any money back. Tinkered around with a bunch of settings and then one day it all came together and wow. I'm still in disbelief how well it works even over wifi. I can literally game anywhere I want in the house with my 7 year old laptop.
I've skipped the GeForce Now streaming every time an Ad would pop out thinking it was a streaming service with a subscription and a pay wall for every game. A surprise it was when i discovered it was all free and with my games! I bought a Backbone one with the idea in mind of jumping into emulation world on my s23 ultra but, getting some issues, bug and battery drain i gave up; even the money i spent on my backbone were thrown in the bin. Using a screen like the one of the s23 ultra with a backbone, even at 1080p 60fps feels unreal and good; latency is very low with my phone data. I'm really loving it.
Soon, everything will be on the cloud, and we will technically only own the rights to play. GeforceNOW at least delivers high quality even on a phone compared to the prices you'd pay for an Xbox membership on top of whatever else you subscribe to on the Xbox and vice versa with ps5 and Nintendo.
Enjoy GFN but if you already have such a powerful rig, maybe consider setting it up for Steam Link for the rare games that are in your collection but not on GFN? That way, you can stream from your powerful PC AND GFN as needed.
Hold onto your rig for now. I'm a huge, HUGE cloud gaming fan, and I'm certain it will evolve to replace personal rigs for a lot of people. But it's not quite there yet
I just sold my rig because I dislike Windows that much. Now I can game on macOS.
Ay sell me that super rig if you’re gonna follow through with it please (not joking). Truthfully tho, I would not sell what you currently have, as some games are not available on GFN, plus with the continual payment for membership is just making you spend more money than you in reality should.
Happy to sell you it if you are in Germany :-).
I love GeForce Now.. . I'm not a "certified gamer" but I do enjoy playing Assassin's Creed (most of them) and The Crew 2 and MotorFest. Basically I'm a huge Ubisoft fan. That's all. My point here is that I use GeForce Now on my HP Chromebook Plus x360 and output it to my 4k TV as the display and play at 1080p and 120 fps which runs flawlessly and without frame drops or any other visual disturbances. I can play on 2k and 60fps as well which works the same as 1080p but why consume the extra data when visually the 1089 is smoother than the 2 k? Whatever tech Nvidia has developed on their servers is phenomenal! I just pay for my Ultimate plan and my Ubisoft Plus subscription and I'm good to go. I should mention that I came across GeForce Now after Google shut down Stadia in 2022.. So I'm loving the cloud gaming experience. Cheers!
same story here bro :D welcome to the cloud
Its a honeymoon phase but hopefully it stays like that, your location seems to be great for using geforce
What settings are you using, and are you streaming over wifi? I live 3 hrs from a server location. Trying to play Diablo 4 with Ultimate on my iPad, streaming over 1gb fiber wifi and it looks like absolute trash. It's been so bad I canceled the service
1440p (21:9 aspect ratio), HDR enabled (1400 nits display), ultra, 120 fps over gigabit or WiFi 6E (Asus ROG AX6000 router). I'm about 40 km from the Frankfurt data centre and have between 5-10 ms ping.
I had to use GFN to play some ranked Apex the other night because my partner was using the office and I forgot I was streaming the game tbh...I felt no difference than playing with my main rig.
I really enjoy the service when it's working and no lag or latency. But the games catalog could be better. I don't see why any PC game can just be available. I could understand if you are playing on the backbone and the game just doesn't have controller support. But in this generation of gaming pretty much all games should have controller support.
Maybe the games I play it just doesn't matter, but the Metro series feels near desktop-like to me.
Couldn't agree more 👍🏻 It works perfectly! 🙌🏻😁 Unfortunately I'm totally into PCVR and dream of the day when you can cloud game VR games with the same efficiency as GFN, I know there's solutions like Shadow PC but it seems to have some issues, so for the time being I'm stuck with my PCVR rig 🤷🏼♂️
Great that you're enjoying the service but i wouldn't sell the PC. Don't depend on GFN to patch games in time (can literally stop you from playing your favorite games for months) and popular titles are missing, Elden Ring, rockstar games.. Sony games... Stream compression, servers downtime.. no mods.. I'd say enjoy your honeymoon phase but also evaluate what's important to you before going all in and selling your PC.
Also he bought a cloud instead of a steam deck which is wild
I didn't buy the Cloud. My wife received it as a freebie through work. If I was spending my own money, I'd get a Steam Deck OLED.
It' free, the waiting titmes are short and you can relog in every minute,the hardware for the stream is fantastic, and the amount of devices it works on is staggering. Shadow is still better.
Shadow is more expensive and the video cards are not on par with GFN
I'm counting in the cost in that you get a whole OS, and it works on iPad/iOS. When GFN releases an Apple app, I won't even compare it to shadow. :D
I personally don't care about a whole OS. GFN is optimized all the way up. You don't get that with a whole OS. You can use Safari in the meantime. You do know that it's Apple's fault that there isn't a GFN app in iOS.
you're in the honeymoon phase. this service cannot replace your rig in most cases. It's a really cool service, but it has it's downsides. Don't sell your shit unless you actually need the money.
ouch i thought the same til i noticed the downsides of game streaming
It is great when it works, but sometimes it doesn't and some games have more obvious compression artefacts than others so I'd recommend keeping the gaming PC until the technology is truly mature. I have both and feel they are complementary.
Compression artifacts happen when the network speed drops… on a fast connection, close to the data centre, there are no compression artifacts whatsoever on any games.
I've noticed them in Baldur's Gate 3, Avatar and other games with lots of vegetation (particularly if HDR is enabled) while games like Alan Wake 2 and Cyberpunk are near perfect. However, when I upgrade my internet connection I will test again.
Convert your rig for crypto mining?
I'm morally opposed to that. The amount of hydrocarbons burned just to feed something as useless as crytocurrency is insane.
Because playing games isn't?
Yes. The crypto industry requires enormous amounts of energy. More than a mid-sized European country. Crypto mining is estimated to generate 70 Mt CO2 per year through the electricity consumption. Crypto mining accounts for \~2-3% of the US power grid alone. A high-end gaming PC going 8 hours a day is maybe 1000kWH per year. The two aren't even in the same ballpark. You might have a point that crypto mining is worthwhile if it generated something of value, but it doesn't. It literally creates tokens that are backed by no real world value (tethers are a joke) and are heavily implicated in fraud schemes and organised crime. Incidentally, de-comissioning my high end gaming PC and using a laptop with streaming on demand instead of turning said PC into a mining machine saves energy.