Nvidia's biggest streaming game competition on Google Stadia and Microsoft Project xCloud, GeForce Now, is finally launching today. While Stadia relies on plant-based selection of games, and Pro xxloud relies heavily on the Xbox One-only title, Nvidia GeForce's biggest complaint now is the ability to play just about any PC game you want.
GeForce Now lets you play PC games, with minimal fuss, on any PC, MacOS, or Android. Wanna play The escape on your Samsung phone either Red Redemption 2 on your MacBook Air? The idea is, just sign in and go.
GeForce Now is not a game store. Instead, it is a service that connects to your game store accounts (it supports almost every major PC game store including Steam, Epic, GoG, and Blizzard). So, if a service is constantly dying, you will still have your games – or you could lose your life if you don't have a host enabled for each service.
Compared to Stadia and Project xCloud, both of which have limited game options and require some controllers, GeForce Now feels powerful.
Historically, however, GeForce Now has been … slightly inconsistent. It was first introduced as Nvidia Grid back in 2013. In 2015, GeForce Now was redesigned and beta was available in Nvidia's top box, Nvidia Shield. I've always used it to play Witcher 3, but then the service will crash, or the game will break, or both will crash and I will return to my PC for a reliable (and very good) feeling.
But GeForce is now improving over the years. Besides being on The Shield it is introduced for Android, PC, and MacOS. Now I can play for about four hours Civilization VI with a few hiccups. Since GeForce Now supports almost every major PC game store, I know it, and I've played some things as well. If it's a PC game you can play it with GeForce now. All you have to do is sign in.
Starting today, there will be two types of GeForce account now, both streaming at 1080p max and 60 frames per second. If you do not want to pay whatever you can get free account, which lets you play for an hour at a time and can put you in line behind others on busy days. Collect on top Developer account for $ 5 a month, and up to six hours of gameplay at a time, tracking of these games is streamed on your device, and "access first." That means you are less likely to get caught in the queue.
The problem with GeForce Now, and the reason why my review will come later this week instead of this announcement, is that it feels more inclined to online hiccups than its competitors Google and Microsoft. Nvidia recommends 50Mbps for excellent experience, 30Mbps for 1080p60, and 15Mbps for 720p60. However, when I work, I don't get the results I expect at those speeds. While my games work fine on the Nvidia Shield, when I switch to my MacBook Pro, I get notifications for “internet distances” too much. Those alerts often come with a huge drop in streaming quality too, and they pop up no matter how much internet connection I use. I've received notifications at the office, at home, even when trying to connect to 4G via my smartphone.
More exploration, especially now that the service is being released, feels needed. But if you want to do it yourself check out GeForce Now at this moment.
