GeForce NOW Open for All

[Armenius]

NVIDIA has taken their cloud gaming service out of beta and has opened it to everyone with no waiting lists. GeForce NOW differentiates itself from Stadia by allowing you to stream supported titles you already own on other services like Steam. Unfortunately due to limited resources compared to Stadia at this time free users are limited to 1-hour playing sessions and you may need to wait in a queue. The "premium" subscription is $4.99 US per month for "Founders" who join in 2020 and allows 6-hour playing sessions shorter queues, along with support for ray tracing and other RTX features.
https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2020/02/04/geforce-now-pc-gaming/

 

[Snowdog]

Sounds better than Stadia in nearly every way.
RIP Stadia? Nvidia’s newly launched cloud-gaming service is (mostly) a stunner

Here's what I loved about my pre-release tests of GeForce Now: I could play games I already own on my crappiest devices with incredible performance results. While connected via Ethernet on my home-office connection, rated for 250Mbps down, 10Mbps up, I enjoyed nearly latency-free performance on a majority of my tested games. Fortnite, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, and the 2019 remake of Modern Warfare: I played these on mouse and keyboard via GeForce Now and barely noticed their inherent latency.

Yes, I'm as stunned as you are. And if you don't believe me, you won't want to see the following sentence: I could play the sensational 2017 retro throwback Sonic Mania via GeForce Now without missing a single jump or dash.

FURTHER READING
I played 11 Assassin’s Creed games in 11 years, and Odyssey made them all worth it
What's more, I can go into every supported game's settings menus and tinker to my heart's content, because GeForce Now effectively leases a Windows gaming PC to each of its users. I'm not accessing a game's limited build with a missing options menu. Fine-tuned settings like ambient occlusion, shadow resolution, even v-sync and super-sampling: they're all mine to tweak. This became starkly clear when I loaded Assassin's Creed Odyssey, a notoriously demanding game from 2018 that, up until this week, hadn't received a 60fps option on anything other than locally owned computers.
You cannot run AC:O at 60fps on Google Stadia. Nvidia's GeForce Now, on the other hand, let me downgrade and massage the game's settings to not only reach a 60fps threshold but test it with the game's built-in benchmark (only available on PC). The same tweak-for-60fps awesomeness goes for other PC games on GeForce Now that console owners are stuck playing at 30fps, including Destiny 2 and No Man's Sky.
er.

 

[ChadD]

Sounds better than Stadia in nearly every way.
RIP Stadia? Nvidia’s newly launched cloud-gaming service is (mostly) a stunner

Ya this is what Stadia should have been.... play games from your steam and egs libraries. Might not have everything supported on day one. But lots of promise. Free tier 1 hour limited sessions seems reasonable.

If this catches on it could even be a boon for RTX, as the pay tier get access to capable RTX hardware. (which 2060 is not... and 2070 is sort of)

I may not be a big NV booster... but they seem to have the bones of something here.

 

[Accursed]

I feel like trying it! Sounds like a Stadia Killer.

 

[dandirk]

Mentioned this in some Stadia threads...

GeForce NOW game buys also gave steam keys (previously at least) providing additional value and some protection of your purchase if service goes away.

They previously had local steam support which was pretty cool, the game would run on your pc and stream direct to your geforce box, the cloud version as described is so much better.

Nvidia imo has done about as well as can be expected here making cloud gaming an option.

 

[Kardonxt]

This sounds promising. My existing catalog is what made Stadia a non starter for me as it could never replace owning a gaming PC. It will be interesting to see if it can compete with Microsoft. I'm not sure what is more valuable to users, their existing library or a service that just includes a bunch of free \ current games.

I'm running moonlight now for streaming games from my home rig so I haven't been too interested in cloud gaming. With services like this however it seems very plausible that there may be no need for home gaming rigs 5-10 years from now.

 

[Derangel]

I really like how they handle the plans. Might have to try this out later on my Shield and see how it goes. I have no real hope for it being amazing with my terrible internet but I'm still interested.

 

[GoodBoy]

Free for 1 hour at a time, to basically try it? I got tons of games on Steam. Are there any other requirements? Like do you have to own a GeForce card? I have an account for Geforce experience already if that works.

That you can try it for free is really cool.

 

[Accursed]

I signed up for the Founder edition. Form my Laptop wasn't bad but there was some lag, might be my bluetooth mouse tho. Will be interesting to try it from Shield TV tonight.

 

[Derangel]

Free for 1 hour at a time, to basically try it? I got tons of games on Steam. Are there any other requirements? Like do you have to own a GeForce card? I have an account for Geforce experience already if that works.

That you can try it for free is really cool.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce-now/system-reqs/
Just need a DX11 capable card/igpu on the PC, no Nvidia requirement.

 

[mouacyk]

this gonna drive up the price of GPU no?

 

[Derangel]

this gonna drive up the price of GPU no?

Why would it?

 

[mouacyk]

Why would it?

demand drops. supply drops. prices rise?

 

[kirbyrj]

I had some issues previously in the beta with games that were purchased on Steam but needed another 3rd party launcher to run (Assassin's Creed for example needed uPlay also installed). It wouldn't work.

On a 100Mb connection, I was still having "low bandwidth" issues with the native games like Tomb Raider with my Shield TV.

 

[Derangel]

demand drops. supply drops. prices rise?

What makes you think demand will drop? Do you seriously think people are going to stop buying gaming hardware enmasse because this exists?

 

[SPARTAN VI]

I have a few hours of GFN in Kingdom Come Deliverance and a little under an hour in Stadia (Tomb Raider and Destiny 2). It's visually better than Stadia in every way with marginally worse latency (although more consistent, which is more important). It's basically like renting a remote gaming rig and I find myself recommending it to gamers who are a bit skiddish about the price of jumping into PC gaming feet first.

 

[GoodBoy]

What makes you think demand will drop? Do you seriously think people are going to stop buying gaming hardware enmasse because this exists?

I think it's a cool option. If sales are lost, more likely to be console sales. Some pc sales could slow as well, but I will likely always prefer my own pc. I can't see it being a huge hit to pc hardware enthusiast purchases. Hell, I know most of you have upgraded video cards when your current card still worked just fine. Same can be said for CPU/Mobo.

 

[eclypse]

I'm not interested as my pc covers my needs but for local multiplayer it may be interesting.. but if you need a while orher pc just to use geforce now on the shield.. then what's the point.

 

[kirbyrj]

I'm not interested as my pc covers my needs but for local multiplayer it may be interesting.. but if you need a while orher pc just to use geforce now on the shield.. then what's the point.

Those are two different things. I think you're confusing GameStream with GeForce Now. GeForce Now doesn't require a separate computer.

 

[DooKey]

For those that like to game, but can't really afford a good PC, this could be a winner.

 

[Armenius]

Free for 1 hour at a time, to basically try it? I got tons of games on Steam. Are there any other requirements? Like do you have to own a GeForce card? I have an account for Geforce experience already if that works.

That you can try it for free is really cool.

1-hour sessions. You can start playing again after your session expires, but you possibly need to wait in queue again. You get an unlimited number of sessions. They are doing this to distribute resources fairly.

 

[singe_101]

It chews through gigabytes over a few minutes? Still good to have it. It's not Nvidia's fault there are monthly caps

 

[DrDoU]

Right out of the gate does not support all android devices.

 

[Lakados]

Stadia should have been more like Apple Arcade, work with large first party titles that couldn't/wouldn't be feasible on other platforms, or change their current model to be a sub service that comes with the games... but a sub service you have to purchase the games too and then have them non transferable.... that is just laughably bad.

 

[Lakados]

1-hour sessions. You can start playing again after your session expires, but you possibly need to wait in queue again. You get an unlimited number of sessions. They are doing this to distribute resources fairly.

like the dialup accounts of old....

 

[SPARTAN VI]

demand drops. supply drops. prices rise?

When a substitute enters the market (or an existing one lowers its price), this does indeed cause a leftward "shift" in demand curve (curve D1), which is "movement" along the supply curve. Price will actually decrease with the supply (Q1,P1).

 

[Supercharged_Z06]

No thanks. But I guess this is a great option for those that haven't invested in high end PC gaming hardware, a large 4K screen and are comfortable with 1080 graphics. Just not something I would ever want to pursue - especially since I'm mostly gaming in VR these days.

 

[dgz]

My fear is that, eventually, this model is going to completely replace what we have now. Local play is always going to be better but it's going to be a niche. A very expensive one.

 

[Derangel]

My fear is that, eventually, this model is going to completely replace what we have now. Local play is always going to be better but it's going to be a niche. A very expensive one.

Given the current state of the internet in the US it will be a very long time before something like this is even viable for most people.

 

[dgz]

Given the current state of the internet in the US it will be a very long time before something like this is even viable for most people.

I wasn't aware most people live in the US.

Big companies have plenty of locations around the world.

 

[Supercharged_Z06]

My fear is that, eventually, this model is going to completely replace what we have now. Local play is always going to be better but it's going to be a niche. A very expensive one.

And for those that are niche and have the invested hardware, you won't be able to buy games anymore... you'll have to "rent" them from this service and then install/play them locally under its supervision... Only $1.99 a day per game! Or subscribe to our "elite" rental member option, any 3 games, only $6.99 a week! *shudder*

 

[Derangel]

I wasn't aware most people live in the US.

Big companies have plenty of locations around the world.

The US is the largest consumer market for video games on the planet (outside of China, though that is predominately free-to-play titles).

Edit: And, even ignoring that most of the world isn't even ready. The handful of countries that are ready for something like this are relatively small nations within the EU. Maybe Japan (which might not even go for this in the first place) and the UK as well. I don't even know if larger EU nations like France are up to task, but I I could be completely wrong on that.

 

[Grimlaking]

The US is the largest consumer market for video games on the planet (outside of China, though that is predominately free-to-play titles).

Edit: And, even ignoring that most of the world isn't even ready. The handful of countries that are ready for something like this are relatively small nations within the EU. Maybe Japan (which might not even go for this in the first place) and the UK as well. I don't even know if larger EU nations like France are up to task, but I I could be completely wrong on that.

Can you imagine the latency for an australian user logging into an US Google server to play an FPS or MMO of some sort? Blizzard games on here? Destiny 2... with all of the built in lag of an international under sea connection.

 

[mouacyk]

When a substitute enters the market (or an existing one lowers its price), this does indeed cause a leftward "shift" in demand curve (curve D1), which is "movement" along the supply curve. Price will actually decrease with the supply (Q1,P1).

View attachment 220841

what if the substitute is not a competitor such as in this case?

 

[Grimlaking]

what if the substitute is not a competitor such as in this case?

I would argue that it is a competitor. Just not for the same hardware but for the same audience. Nviida is in essence competing with themselves.

As these are running in a VDI, you are not running on the cloud... remember the 'cloud' in reality is just someone elses computer.

You are running on what are probably rather high GHZ rated multi core Xeon or EPYC CPU's. You are being assigned a number of cores with a priority based on the consumption of resources. These host systems also have many Nvidia cards in them with equal to or north of 32GB of video memory and 4 or more 'CPU's. These are allocated to the guests (the VDI) and in truth are probably rather heavily over allocated meaning more cores are assigned than exist on the system because users are not going to actually consume all of the performance for the number of cores they are allocated to.

The dance is then on the hypervisor to allocate it's cores/memory/video/network resources to the VDI in question based on current use and demand.

So if you can get on a lightly loaded host your performance will be better. A heavier loaded host will see worse performance. Easy math.

So yes you are consuming another line of product with this form of gaming. The cost of the chassis and video solution is probably in the 20k range but that's probably intended to serve... say 200 VDI's with various video allocations.

So yes this means the demand for Product A becomes less, supply will become less because why make as many and now product B is in higher demand = higher prices on already inflated Enterprise product.

In truth Nvidia is probably doing this as a proof of concept so they can sell off their 'cloud gaming' solution once it's viable and focus back on producing products to meet the demands of gamers.

Sorry I got a bit off topic there. Hope that helps understand what you are getting!

 

[SPARTAN VI]

what if the substitute is not a competitor such as in this case?

Then the same Demand curve shift occurs. It's just "cannabalization" instead of a market competitor (e.g. AMD) introducing the new good/service. I dont expect the degree of this impact to be major as a streaming service isn't objectively a perfect substitute to native discreet gaming hardware acceleration.

 

[ChadD]

For those worried about the long term outlook for local hardware. Ya its grim but it was before GFN. This technology is going to work long term... sure there are still things to figure out. Its where GPUs where in 1999. Where they where starting to do things that software wasn't quite yet.

Today this is just a high end gaming PC. In 2-3 years from now... streaming will become big enough that game developers are going to start targeting NV/Google/MS cloud infrastructure on new projects. Instead of what they believe the average gamer is going to be capable of playing when they launch their game 2-4 years down the line. Things like Ray tracing will become more common... developers will start producing larger textures, cause they will know every cloud licenced machine is going to be sitting on 16gb of vram and they don't have to worry about the home gamers that are averaging 6gb.

The best we can hope for is that the big streaming winners are companies like NV that respect store fronts like Steam and EGS so purchases for home or streaming can continue to be used both ways. Their is a very real possibility that in 5-6 years we see AAA games released that don't have anything but ULTRA mode settings, and levels designed that just don't look right without Ray tracing turned on.

So all in all I consider streaming a HUGE boon for those of us that enjoy high end PC gaming. Consoles may still be a bit of an issue as a low end target for the industry. Streaming however should lessen the impact average hardware has on developers. If a AAA game studio can swing for the fences visually and create modern crysis type games that make 99% of home computers bleed... but run very well on the cloud services. Then they have a path to make money on those games. Instead of having to dumb every game down to increase their market potential.

I would guess that 4-5 years from now streaming for sure will be a big part of mid range gaming. And in 10 years... yes only the super rich or very dedicated are going to build rigs that can compete visually with the streaming options.

 

[TheBuzzer]

It was easy to get the beta version, now that it is out of beta that means no more streaming for free for a long time.

 

[Derangel]

It was easy to get the beta version, now that it is out of beta that means no more streaming for free for a long time.

There is a free plan. You don't have to pay a penny to use GFN.

 

[absolute_yed]

For those worried about the long term outlook for local hardware. Ya its grim but it was before GFN. This technology is going to work long term... sure there are still things to figure out. Its where GPUs where in 1999. Where they where starting to do things that software wasn't quite yet.

Today this is just a high end gaming PC. In 2-3 years from now... streaming will become big enough that game developers are going to start targeting NV/Google/MS cloud infrastructure on new projects. Instead of what they believe the average gamer is going to be capable of playing when they launch their game 2-4 years down the line. Things like Ray tracing will become more common... developers will start producing larger textures, cause they will know every cloud licenced machine is going to be sitting on 16gb of vram and they don't have to worry about the home gamers that are averaging 6gb.

The best we can hope for is that the big streaming winners are companies like NV that respect store fronts like Steam and EGS so purchases for home or streaming can continue to be used both ways. Their is a very real possibility that in 5-6 years we see AAA games released that don't have anything but ULTRA mode settings, and levels designed that just don't look right without Ray tracing turned on.

So all in all I consider streaming a HUGE boon for those of us that enjoy high end PC gaming. Consoles may still be a bit of an issue as a low end target for the industry. Streaming however should lessen the impact average hardware has on developers. If a AAA game studio can swing for the fences visually and create modern crysis type games that make 99% of home computers bleed... but run very well on the cloud services. Then they have a path to make money on those games. Instead of having to dumb every game down to increase their market potential.

I would guess that 4-5 years from now streaming for sure will be a big part of mid range gaming. And in 10 years... yes only the super rich or very dedicated are going to build rigs that can compete visually with the streaming options.

compute time on cloud hardware(they own) is much much more expensive than the same compute on hardware that is already paid for(you own). go on aws and start provisioning a server with similar specs to your rig at home. yikes $. now price it for a month. double yikes $$. it get REALLY expensive when you get into renting out GPUs, dont mess with that while amazon has your credit card on file i wouldnt do that to you. so the devs have to eat that cost, and then pass it on to you in the form of subscriptions or more expensive games because before you were responsible for that compute at home and your personal hardware didnt figure into their cost.

the only reason they are pushing this so hard and the only reason it will eventually be the future is ultimate control and DRM of their games.