GeForce Now launches on Steam Deck, Nvidia promises fast, power-saving gameplay

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Cloud gaming on the go: GeForce Now is finally coming to Valve's popular Steam Deck. Nvidia encourages users to install the new native app on their gaming handhelds, so that they can experience a significant performance and framerate increase while cutting energy consumption at the same time.

Nvidia first announced a native app to access GeForce Now on the Steam Deck during this year's CES trade show in January. Now, the AI giant is officially launching the tool – along with a few additional games to showcase the experience.

According to Nvidia, the GeForce Now app can stream games on any Steam Deck model at up to 4K resolution and 60 frames per second when connected to an external display. The cloud gaming service means to offer all the bells and whistles a "proper" gaming experience on a modern GeForce card should have including HDR10, DLSS 4, and Nvidia Reflex.

Also check out: Nvidia GeForce Now Ultimate vs. Your Own RTX GPU

Nvidia claims GeForce Now delivers graphical fidelity and performance levels far beyond what native Steam Deck gaming can achieve – provided you have a fast and stable internet connection. Additionally, the app can extend battery life by up to 50% compared to running games natively on the device.

Nvidia boasts GeForce Now's ability to achieve the gaming results of owning a tangible, bulky GeForce RTX 4080 GPU at a fraction of the price, on a meager handheld device that won't overheat, for a change.

GeForce Now will also let Steam Deck owners play games that would never be able to run natively on the portable device, including graphically-demanding titles such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, Monster Hunter Wilds and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

The GeForce Now app is available for download from Nvidia's website. The company has also released a step-by-step installation guide. Notably, the app must be installed in Desktop Mode, meaning it cannot be set up through the Steam Deck's built-in web browser.

Finally, Nvidia is adding six new titles to the GeForce Now library: Nice Day for Fishing, Cash Cleaner Simulator, Tokyo Xtreme Racer, The Last Spell, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, and Torque Drift 2.

Nice Day for Fishing is a brand-new Steam release, while Torque Drift 2 comes directly from the Epic Game Store.

Permalink to story:

GeForce Now launches on Steam Deck, Nvidia promises fast, power-saving gameplay

 

[Axeia]

Interesting, would have been even more interesting if they had published it on Steam (it's not just games, think of for example wallpaper engine).
I'd be curious to see if steam would allow an app that somewhat undermines its business model (make it easier to access other store content).

Nice way to unlock some games that are otherwise unplayable and give the Steamdeck a purpose many years into the future though.

 

[NumberNine]

Better Idea: Moonlight

 

[Burty117]

Does Nvidia offer in-home streaming still? I remember a while back you could stream to an Nvidia Shield for example, Nvidia’s implementation was highly recommended for in-home streaming duty’s.

Or has Nvidia got rid of it to force people to pay for GeForce Now?

 

[NumberNine]

Does Nvidia offer in-home streaming still? I remember a while back you could stream to an Nvidia Shield for example, Nvidia’s implementation was highly recommended for in-home streaming duty’s.

Or has Nvidia got rid of it to force people to pay for GeForce Now?

If you set up Sunshine and Moonlight, Nvidia's services become irrelevant.

Sunshine will use Intel, AMD, or Nvidia hardware acceleration.

Sunshine doesn't care if you're at home or on the other side of the world so long as you have a decent upload from home and download from where you are with the correct ports open. There is no subscription fee.

 

[toooooot]

Assuming it would be much lighter on deck's hardware, it would be interesting to see how much of the battery life it would save.

 

[Burty117]

If you set up Sunshine and Moonlight, Nvidia's services become irrelevant.

Sunshine will use Intel, AMD, or Nvidia hardware acceleration.

Sunshine doesn't care if you're at home or on the other side of the world so long as you have a decent upload from home and download from where you are with the correct ports open. There is no subscription fee.

I know, I’ve looked into them before, Steams own in-home streaming is pretty good as well.

I was wondering if Nvidia had given up themselves.

 

[TechSam]

This is great news. The 4K HDR support is the important tech here as you can't use that without Nvidia Shield. Steam deck can officially replace the Shield all together.

I've found GeForce Now and Game Pass very useful to get my partner playing more games.

 

[Eldrach]

Does require you to have a very good internet connection though - which is often not the case when using a mobile gaming device

 

[Stingy McDuck]

Does require you to have a very good internet connection though - which is often not the case when using a mobile gaming device

Of course, you're streaming the game. A fast connection isn't enough, you need low latency to game properly.

 

[dangh]

Does it work on any Linux distribution or they limited it to steam os?