GeForce Now Review - Will The Gaming PC Become Obsolete?
We are always wondering how will gaming look like in a couple of years? Will the PC dominate the gaming market and consoles will slowly fade, or is it the other way around? What about cloud-gaming? What about it? It is really a viable solution such that anyone can play their favorite games without investing in next-gen consoles or powerfull gaming PC hardware? Well we took a look over GeForce Now, a cloud based gaming servicethat may retire someday the gaming PC, or at least they are tring to.
What Is Geforce Now?
GeForce Now is a cloud gaming service that differs from the variants created by Google, Sony and Microsoft. Also, we think the great advantage of this service is how it works:
Pay the subscription (or choose the Free option)
Check the list of supported games
Buy or download (if free-to-play) your favorite game
You connect to a virtual PC and play
In short, you don't buy GeForce Now games. You have the freedom to choose your favorite platform. Do you want to stay on Steam and collect Achievements, Badges and other elements specific to the platform from Valve? No problem, just buy the game, activate Steam and you're ready! The same thing is valid for other gaming platforms like Origin or UPlay.
GeForce Now doesn't offer you a platform, it just lets you connect to a powerful computer. Similar to how you get into a friend's PC with Team Viewer. Once you have accessed the virtual PC, you can play your game. The even better part is that your PC should neither be too powerful nor have free space on it. You just have to be able to support a stream at 1080p60 resolution.
Geforce Now System Requirements
As mentioned above, you don't need a very powerfull system configuration to run GeForce Now. The application is designed for people who do not want to buy a new PC just to play a few games, so a subscription is much more profitable for them.
Another good thing is that you can run GeForce Now on macOS too, so you won't have to worry about solutions like Bootcamp or Dual-Boot configurations in order to play.
To run GeForce Now on Windows you need:
Dual-core processor with a minimum frequency of 2GHz
4GB of RAM
A Video card that supports DirectX 11 (something like a NVIDIA GeForce 600, AMD Radeon HD 3000 or Intel HD 2000)
Apple users will need to have at least one of the following models:
iMac 20 ″ Late 2009
iMac 21.5 ″ Late 2009
iMac 27 ″ Late 2012
MacBook 2008
MacBook Air 11 ″ Early 2015
MacBook Air 13 ″ Late 2008
MacBook Pro 13 ″ Early 2015
MacBook Pro 15 ″ Late 2008
MacBook Pro 17 ″ 2009
Mac Pro Late 2013
Also, GeForce Now supports any mouse and keyboard, or for those who want to use a controller, one of the following models:
Sony DualShock 4 (USB or Bluetooth)
Logitech Gamepad F310 / F510 / F710 (Direct Input)
Microsoft Xbox 360 or Xbox One Controller (USB)
How does GeForce Now behave?
To answer this question, we must mention that we used a Founder's Edition subscription account. This gave us the freedom to customize the stream settings (with the limits imposed by the software) and to play up to 6 (six) hours in a single session.
There are two types of subscriptions available:
GeForce Now FREE - With the free GeForce Now subscription you can use the service, but you have limitations. Perhaps the worst part is the one with the state at the tail. This means that if you do not pay, you can play, but only after the server seats have been distributed to paid subscribers. Also, after an hour of play, you will have to leave the session and wait for another queue.
GeForce Now Founder's Edition - At $4.99 per month, the FE subscription from NVIDIA seems like a very good offer. First, you will receive a three-month trial on each new account. Let's say you want to get your subscription now. This means that until April you pay absolutely nothing, after which you will pay for a year for the $4.99 per month. That means 59.88, or the price of a new game. For this amount you get priority on the server, you can play up to 6 hours / session and you will enjoy the best graphics settings, all with Ray Tracing enabled in games that support the new technology.
Is it worth buying GeForce Now instead of making a gaming PC?
This is the kind of question you can answer with another question: What kind of gamer are you? Depending on the answer here, you also answer the first one. If you want to play eSports titles on a semi-professional level or above, such a subscription is not for you.
In the tests we did, all the games showed quite bad symptoms of input lag. This cancels from the beginning the competitive use of GeForce Now. Both in Metro: Exodus and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, we had this problem, and in multiplayer you have no chance against opponents playing on your own PCs.
From our point of view, this subscription is suitable for a casual gamer. We tested The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Two RPG games in which input lag is not an element that spoils the experience. About 5-10 minutes of gameplay you start to forget that you have a slight delay and everything becomes natural. Also, you will not have to buy who knows what PC to run one of these games, otherwise quite difficult to hold Ultra.
Of course, there were also a few hiccups in the sense that sometimes we had a pretty big lag and the game moves badly. This is due to the connection to NVIDIA servers, but it is not very serious and seems to stabilize as you play more.
So is it time to give up gaming PC in favor of Cloud gaming?
We don't think it's time to even ask ourselves this question. The gaming PC (or console for those who prefer it) is still the best option to enjoy your favorite games. The possibility of upgrade, the fact that it is your tangible object and the lack of restrictions, still make the personal PC the best choice.
GeForce Now is a very interesting project. I like that it offers an option for people who can’t afford or do not want to invest in an expensive configuration for gaming, but only want to play a few titles. You will still need to buy your games, and they remain yours even if you choose not to renew your subscription to GeForce Now after you have finished playing what interests you.
