APRIL 2 020 T3 63Game streaming showdown
Here, we’ve got the Nvidia Shield TV (which can do AI-based upscaling to 4K)
with the Shield controller, but you can use a huge range of controllers
vidia’s been working the cloud gaming market
for a few years now, and those years of
experimentation have paid off. GeForce Now,
originally working on an all-you-can-play
subscription model, went back to the drawing board for a
lengthy beta testing phase. Launching officially in
February 2020, it’s now in the best shape it’s ever been in.
What sets GeForce Now apart today is its openness.
Nvidia has partnered with a selection of top PC gaming
download stores to allow you to play hundreds of their
games through its cloud service. So, if you buy a game
through Valve’s Steam, Blizzard’s BattleNet, Ubisoft’s
Uplay or a growing list of Epic Games Store titles, that one
purchase can be tied to your GeForce Now games list, too- all you do is pay the reasonable £4.99 subscription cost
to stream them in from Nvidia’s cloud-based network.
The point of cloud gaming of course is that you don’t
need the high-powered hardware to enjoy top-notch
games, and Nvidia duly delivers. GeForce Now can let you
play high end PC games, not only on a low-powered PC,
but also on a Mac, Android phone and Nvidia’s Shield TV
Android set-top box (our preferred option). Nvidia
N
Nvidia delivers a very
stable, good-looking
stream, even at 60fps
auto-patches the games in the cloud so, while there’s rare
occasions where you may have to queue for a spot on its
servers, usually you’re right back into your games –
download free – within moments.
While Nvidia’s recommended broadband speed is high,
it delivers a very stable, good-looking stream, even at
60fps. Dip below the recommended speed and Nvidia will
scale the visuals well, doing all it can to maintain your
stream, and you can throttle more demanding settings
like resolution and framerate to ensure a good experience.
The only drawback is resolution – though it doesn’t yet
do 4K it’s still a respectable 1080p. Even with that slight
restriction, there’s a free tier of play too with GeForce
Now, letting you give the service a try, Spotify-style,
before committing to a fee. It does however cut access to
the more impressive RTX-enabled graphical features, and
limits play sessions to an hour long (though you can fire
up as many sessions as you like). It’s much more generous
than the competition in that regard, making for the most
comprehensive streaming service out there.NVIDIA
GEFORCE
NOW
PRODUCT 03:
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stable streaming and top game optionsNVIDIA GEFORCE NOW