Nvidia's GeForce Now has changed a lot in the year since we asked the question: which is better, a new graphics card or a subscription to GeForce Now's Ultimate tier?
Nvidia GeForce Now Ultimate vs. Your Own RTX GPU
- Thread starter midian182
- Start date
Yep. No cloud gaming service even comes close. Yet as a high fps and high refresh rate gamer, its going to be a solid no thanks.
Theinsanegamer
Posts: 5,448 +10,227
Short of them breaking the laws of physics, latency will always be notably higher on cloud gaming services. On top of that, you own nothing, can mod nothing, and are at the mercy of service providers.
Not just no, but hell no! Besides, at $20 per month, that's $720 for 3 years. You can buy a NICE GPU for $720 every 3 years. It saves you nothing!
Not just no, but hell no! Besides, at $20 per month, that's $720 for 3 years. You can buy a NICE GPU for $720 every 3 years. It saves you nothing!
Burty117
Posts: 5,110 +3,690
I'll give credit where credit is due, Nvidia's streaming service is the best one out there.
It's still a no from me though, no modding, access to older titles and even new titles is limited. At the mercy of the service being up and performing well, Plus the main reason they want you to use streaming is because they do make more money from you, remember GPU prices for us mere mortals will be over 50% higher than it costs Nvidia to get these GPU's in their own streaming service.
Also, what's to stop them from removing games like other streaming services? Rockstar add their library, Nvidia and Rockstar have a falling out for whatever reason, now you cannot stream GTA 6?
It's still a no from me though, no modding, access to older titles and even new titles is limited. At the mercy of the service being up and performing well, Plus the main reason they want you to use streaming is because they do make more money from you, remember GPU prices for us mere mortals will be over 50% higher than it costs Nvidia to get these GPU's in their own streaming service.
Also, what's to stop them from removing games like other streaming services? Rockstar add their library, Nvidia and Rockstar have a falling out for whatever reason, now you cannot stream GTA 6?
Burty117
Posts: 5,110 +3,690
Even at those prices, you would need to max out a 4080 for 8 hours a day, everyday, and you'd still only be spending €15~ a month.
Thatsdisgusting
Posts: 231 +286
Wanna see that one after huang rolls out smallest, all-around bottle-necked stuttering cloud-gaming-like GPU for 1099$...
That assumes the cloud hardware doesn’t upgrade more frequently than 3 years. You’re not going to have the latest and greatest for $720 every 3 years.
erickmendes
Posts: 1,136 +629
I thought GeForce now was too good to be true back in 2020 when I needed to get a new gaming PC but couldn't afford it. It's actually that good. There is no noticeable delay whatsoever in response time while playing the variety of BR FPS games I play nowadays, and I am very picky. It's the most important subscription I have at this point.
EDIT - of course it's not as good as a traditional PC. I've found the "are you still playing?" countdown that kicks you out of your game if you are away for too long (in order to free up resources for other players) can be disruptive. I would prefer to leave my game running if I am getting up for 5-15 minutes. I am not sure how long it is exactly before I get booted, seems around the 15 minute mark, which is fair, but still annoying.
I've been playing Warzone recently (thankful they finally added it after several years of not getting to play!), and the issue with that is you generally have to preload shaders every time you start the game, due to the fact that you get assigned to a random virtual machine every time you start a session. This process can take several minutes, and if you walk away to let it install the shaders, sometimes you will return only to find that you have been kicked for inactivity. Again, this is a minor headache I am willing to put up with that is only an issue on this BR game. The others are automatically updated and no loading occurs within the game itself like it does in COD.
Also, there is the price that others are charged. It would be a significantly harder pill to swallow if the service cost $10 a month. However, since I was an early adopter, I have a Founder's account, so I am only charged $5 each month. If that ever changed to $10 for any reason, I would probably still pay, but would be constantly wondering if I should save up and replace my PC.
EDIT - of course it's not as good as a traditional PC. I've found the "are you still playing?" countdown that kicks you out of your game if you are away for too long (in order to free up resources for other players) can be disruptive. I would prefer to leave my game running if I am getting up for 5-15 minutes. I am not sure how long it is exactly before I get booted, seems around the 15 minute mark, which is fair, but still annoying.
I've been playing Warzone recently (thankful they finally added it after several years of not getting to play!), and the issue with that is you generally have to preload shaders every time you start the game, due to the fact that you get assigned to a random virtual machine every time you start a session. This process can take several minutes, and if you walk away to let it install the shaders, sometimes you will return only to find that you have been kicked for inactivity. Again, this is a minor headache I am willing to put up with that is only an issue on this BR game. The others are automatically updated and no loading occurs within the game itself like it does in COD.
Also, there is the price that others are charged. It would be a significantly harder pill to swallow if the service cost $10 a month. However, since I was an early adopter, I have a Founder's account, so I am only charged $5 each month. If that ever changed to $10 for any reason, I would probably still pay, but would be constantly wondering if I should save up and replace my PC.
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720 dollars if you live in your mothers basement, power not included
Besides, you need other parts for your GPU to work, Geforce Now runs on a potato
The cons are just like consoles, they can mod nothing either, owns nothing (if they buy digital which most does today)
When all is said and done, Geforce Now is the best cloud gaming service and no-one is even close. Subs are climbing month for month. I know casual gamers that sold off their GPU to just use this. You might not be interrested. Neither am I, but many people are.
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One more thing to consider: There is some noticeable compression occasionally, but I'd say 95% of the time it's totally smooth and uncompressed looking. All in all, the service is extremely impressive.
I have worked over remote desktops/virtual desktops, basically "streaming" a computer to my work computer, and it's garbage. Even when it's fast, it still has a crippling delay to everything you do that drives you slowly insane and the graphics are grainy and fuzzy and bleh.
Somehow NVIDIA pulled this off.
Yes it is obviously very impressive - no one even comes close.
Most people here have not tried it at all.
I can see the appeal of these services, and GeForce now is clearly technologically good but it is obviously reliant on a solid internet connection. And that's a problem in a lot of the world.
It actually ran fa
I had a VERY poor local provider for the first couple of years, and it actually still ran fine, despite often times being warned that my download and upload speeds were not going to be enough and I would experience stutter in game. I think the recommended is 30MB up 30MB down, and no higher than 40 ms ping? I have fiber now, so it's not an issue.
Believe me or not, but I think Nvidia wants this to be the long term future. Where you don't buy hardware, but pay ever increasing subscription fees. For them it's a continuous flow of income ('gamer mining'), cutting out the middle man (card makers), and having more control over the content and the hardware evolution. Will a game studio leave out a new Nvidia feature if the game will then not be taken up in the library of the online service?
godrilla
Posts: 1,365 +893
Nvidia has a gateway to PC gaming. Interesting how they succeeded where OnLive and Stadia failed.
with 0% CC x21 payments.
The 7800xt @ $24/month.
the 4070 @$ 25/month
The 4070ti fell to $669 with 0% interest CC @ 21 months comes at a rate of $32/month.
7900xt fell to $699 @ rate of $33 month.
7900xtx @ $43/month
4080super @ $47 monthly x21 before full payoff.
FYi
with 0% CC x21 payments.
The 7800xt @ $24/month.
the 4070 @$ 25/month
The 4070ti fell to $669 with 0% interest CC @ 21 months comes at a rate of $32/month.
7900xt fell to $699 @ rate of $33 month.
7900xtx @ $43/month
4080super @ $47 monthly x21 before full payoff.
FYi
erickmendes
Posts: 1,136 +629
Theinsanegamer
Posts: 5,448 +10,227
I have no issue pushing 60+ FPS, with much lower latency, out of the newest games 3 years after purchasing such a GPU. Maybe not 4k144HDR, but you're not getting that from geforce now either!
The qualifiers you put on my statement do not change the price. Living in your own house does not make the GPU more expensive.
Those other parts facilitate work outside of playing games, which Geforce NOW does not do. CPUs/motherboards have very long lifespans, using a platform for a decade is not hard.
Consoles have nothing to do with this.
That doesnt make it a good value, nor does it fix its obvious issues. There's lots of trash that sells well. McDonalds, cheap plastic kitchen appliances, cheap polyester clothing, ece.
The increasing subscriber count is likely attributed to the free tier. If you have no money, why not? Make all the accounts minimum $20 a month and you'd see that number crater.
40ms.....30 FPS is 33ms latency. So not counting any latency from your controller to your PC to the Now servers and back, any processing time, ece, you were getting a worse framerate then consoles get, even today.
Hey, if you like it, good for you, but many people how play on Pc will not enjoy the "cinematic" 24 FPS.
techstrike
Posts: 26 +24
Pros:
Playing your games on the go with a good internet connection.
Start playing from day one in any device (games you own).
Not waiting each time you start you game to update your software.
If you play like 1-2 hours a day or less is a great option, don't wasting your money to keep a PC up-to-date.
Cons:
Not all the games are available, like Warcraft, Starcraft2, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War III, Resident Evil 4, GTA V. Nobody knows if they ever be available.
It is not made for competitive games like Counter Strike or even Fortnite sometimes.
You cannot go to the toilet and come back, you will lose your session.
The resolution settings you apply are not identical with the resolution you would have on your physical machine, it seems to do some smart up-scaling.
If you are not a NVIDIA fan you can stick with your AMD hardware, it's cheaper.
Playing your games on the go with a good internet connection.
Start playing from day one in any device (games you own).
Not waiting each time you start you game to update your software.
If you play like 1-2 hours a day or less is a great option, don't wasting your money to keep a PC up-to-date.
Cons:
Not all the games are available, like Warcraft, Starcraft2, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War III, Resident Evil 4, GTA V. Nobody knows if they ever be available.
It is not made for competitive games like Counter Strike or even Fortnite sometimes.
You cannot go to the toilet and come back, you will lose your session.
The resolution settings you apply are not identical with the resolution you would have on your physical machine, it seems to do some smart up-scaling.
If you are not a NVIDIA fan you can stick with your AMD hardware, it's cheaper.
ScottSoapbox
Posts: 1,048 +1,824
I lost interest in this article when he kept turning on fake frames.
letsgoiowa
Posts: 198 +355
Why make this article without objective measurements of latency and image quality? Those are the most important things lol
To some gamers this will be very important. And some people won't care about the numbers, as long as it's an enjoyable experience.
godrilla
Posts: 1,365 +893
Usually the subjective enjoyment part is improved by objective data. As latency goes down subjective acceptance improves directly proportional.
LetTheWookieWin
Posts: 157 +339
This would not surprise me at all. Nor would it surprise me to see that monthly pricing skyrocket after the proverbial hook has been set just like every other streaming service.
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