So today, we have another challenger entering the game streaming ring – sort of. NVIDIA was actually one of the 1st ones out but was stuck in a form of buggy beta for years. Good news is that today, they’re officially out of beta and ready for those of you willing to play. Welcome to NVIDIA’s GeForce Now.
Now this has some great advantages of the competition like Stadia & xCloud. However, there are more than a few caveats to go along w/ it as well. Let’s dive into all that you need to know about it.
So let’s start things off w/ the ISP requirements. For starters, you’ll need to use a hardwired Ethernet connection into a modem/router or utilize a 5GHz wireless router. NVIDIA says you’ll need a minimum of 15Mbps, 30Mbps for 1080@60fps, and 50Mbps for the best experience. Keep in mind that at the current time, 4K or 1080@120fps aren’t available options as of yet. Now its out of beta but won’t be available everywhere globally yet. You’ll have to live within the range of NVIDIA’s data centers. There are 9 here in the US but you’ll be able to play out in parts of Western Europe, Russia, Japan, and Korea.
Now instead of having to buy hardware or games, you’ll be able to play games streamed from a cloud-based PC. Currently, the service supports Android, Mac, Windows, their own NVIDIA Shield products, and Chromebook support coming later this year. You’ll be able to access games you own from stores like Steam & UPlay to name a few. GeForce Now currently supports over 400 titles within their library w/ new games being added regularly. So you can rock out to titles like Fortnite, DOTA 2, Overwatch, PUBG, Destiny 2, Rainbow Six Siege, & more. There are some popular games missing like GTA V and Red Dead Redemption though.
And last but not least: the pricing. So you got a free tier and Founders tier to choose from. The free option will allow up to 1 hour of gameplay w/ having to be put on a waitlist to play. While the Founders option will be $5 per month and allows for 6 hours of gameplay at a time w/ NVIDIA’s RTX and priority access.
So there you have it. Lots of cool things but lots of not so cool things. So unless you’re an avid PC gamer, this may not be the game streaming service for you – at least not in its current form. Everyone else should look into Microsoft’s xCloud service.
