Nvidia GeForce Now Ultimate vs. Your Own RTX GPU

[godrilla]

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.

That plus maybe add more tier premiums in the future, like 5080 tier at a higher premium mentioned in the article. If Nvidia wants to continue to succeed it would need more localized servers ( urban areas with higher concentration of potential customers makes most business sense) to improve latency ( server to consumer and back)
Just like the other low bearing fruit ( lowest tier subscriptions across the board) Nvidia's free tier getting ads. I don't see them changing the tiers without risking losing customers and ONLIVE/Stadia like failure imo.

 

[loki1944]

If I have to be connected to the internet to play games then for me that is a deal breaker requirement; I want to be able to play games offline with no internet; I can do that to a certain extent with Uplay and Steam and always with GoG games. Being tethered to an online application to play games at all times is a big no-go for me; so I wouldn't touch geforce now with a 10 foot pole.

 

[Graydog]

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.

I don’t think he’s saying the power savings will cover the cost but that it is a valid consideration. I’m playing starfield on a 2010 MacBook Pro running Windows 10 with excellent performance and that is much cheaper to run than my RTX2070 PC. Like someone has already said GFN will run on a potato :0)

 

[NotAnotherGamer]

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!

Also, after 3 years you have a card still worth some 2-300 $...So yes, the price is a bit steep.

 

[godrilla]

Also, after 3 years you have a card still worth some 2-300 $...So yes, the price is a bit steep.

If we extrapolate the 3080 let's say by Asus used on Ebay which is being sold for $450 cheapest for a card that is more than 3 years old. If you paid $10 a month for the 3080 tier x 36 months = $360. Take the original price of the 3080 @ msrp lol with Asus tax $799-$360 and you get to the current market value ($460). While the 3080 owners enjoyed local gaming .

 

[erickmendes]

I've just tried Geforce Now, I live in Brasil. Here it's operated thru a company called Abya. I got the priority day pass just to try it, there's no ultimate downhere.

The max setting is 1080 and I got a 800Mbps connection but my ping is 50ms. Tried Darksiders 2, it was smooth, nice graphics... Till I realized that this game is almost 10 years old and oh the cloud gtx 1060 that was when it struck me.

Down here it's 55$ reais (10$ dollars) a month, in 20 months you pay for a second hand 1660ti. Seems like a better deal because I don't think Abya will provide anything better then a 1060 too soon.

 

[godrilla]

I've just tried Geforce Now, I live in Brasil. Here it's operated thru a company called Abya. I got the priority day pass just to try it, there's no ultimate downhere.

The max setting is 1080 and I got a 800Mbps connection but my ping is 50ms. Tried Darksiders 2, it was smooth, nice graphics... Till I realized that this game is almost 10 years old and oh the cloud gtx 1060 that was when it struck me.

Down here it's 55$ reais (10$ dollars) a month, in 20 months you pay for a second hand 1660ti. Seems like a better deal because I don't think Abya will provide anything better then a 1060 too soon.

I play Vermitide 2 with a few guys from Brazil. I always wanted to get them to try GeForce now, good to know. My ping is 125 ms when playing with them which is perfectly fine vs 50 to 60 ms localized hosts.

 

[jellowiggler]

Nice write up. This is a great evaluation of the current state of GFN. It is nice to see it coming along as a viable option to buying really expensive hardware. As long as what you want to play is available. (I have a good internet feed.)

For $14CAD or $26CAD per month I can basically skip buying a 4080. It's not a bad choice.

I spent $1900CAD for my 4080. (Normally they are $1600, but I needed a white one that fit my case.) That is 73 months of GFN Ultimate. 6 years! This will be something for me to think about before I buy my next GPU.

 

[TrevorD]

Sorry, not a gamer. I just wanted to throw in that the thumbnail for this article on the Techspot front page, is the first time I have seen an obvious use of Adobe's Firefly used in a real world application. Well the first time I have actually noticed at least.

 

[Evrsr]

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!

What about the rest of the PC? You're also not paying for electricity, as you'll be using much less.

As far as value goes, it is not bad, the problem is even the low tier has almost doubled in price in 4 years. The main issues I've had is how long it takes to keep up with game updates and the lack of some games.
The technology itself has worked great for me. Latency seems a non issue because you're mostly moving it to the game instead of the game to the mp server. That would be an important point to test thoroughly though.

What is stranger is some games from Square have been on the platform and then dropped. Capcom is also absent, besides the ones mentioned in the review.

 

[loki1944]

Absolute no-go for me; walled garden.

 

[Jerry in WA]

It's very cool tech but, for me, I don't want everything I do to be dependent on the internet. It's like in my newer cars, they took away CD drives so I play everything on USB/SD rather than tying it to phones/web services.

I also like to build PCs and fix things. The physical interaction with tech components is part of the joy.

Pass.

 

[rmcrys]

Most of you are seeing this cloud vs physical when it’s just an extra option!

People that are more casual players and use laptops and tablets don’t need to change or spend too much to play. The ones which want to play longer and have place should buy the hardware: on the long term it’s cheaper.

 

[nitebird]

Can you do a IQ test of the compression artifacts? It's not going to stream 1080P240 at the same quality as from the GPU to your monitor.

 

[Gars]

With the current prices of the descried cards, ill say - byе AF
the devs must focus on the game play, not on the RTXDLLSSFRSS sht
sry for the ppl that 'play games' to enjoy some stunt in cadence or so called slow mo lol

 

[toooooot]

I was one of those who tested googl's cloud gaming platform.
I think there is a place for this thing.
It is just it lacks at so many areas that seems like its most fitting area is a cheaper gaming service compared to buying full games for personal pcs or consoles.
Now you see how it does not work for most companies who tried it?
They do not want to offer a budget service, they want to make money. Good money.
And therefore they try to create a service comparable to that of consoles experience.
It never worked.
I would not mind paying google 5-8 bucks a month to play a good set of newer and older games on a device that would not run them locally. But it would be, and was, an inferior option requiring it to be cheaper. 20 bucks damn it, it will probably be just another service heading to the grave yard

 

[Subset6]

This is defiantly where the future is headed. Consumer GPU's and even consoles will be a thing of the past, simply because it will be to expensive to sell them.

Unless some new breakthrough technology like organic transistors/semiconductors comes along, bringing Moore's Law back in a big way it's a forgone conclusion.

It will then just be what interface are you using, and that's it. Ironically like the old mini computer days, all real processing will be done offsite and streamed.

 

[user478318]

It's amazing how far we came from playing games on PC's with 32MB of RAM to this amazing thing where you can run latest and greatest games on a tablet & smartphone, but who needs another subscription in life? An having to buy these games too, today it seems like everybody wants a double dipping