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GeForce Now: A Review

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Re: GeForce Now: A Review

#121

Post by dbttdft »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #37
jb_s wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've unfortunately played way too many twitch shooters on PC and latency is really noticeable to me. To the point where I can't stand using my work-supplied laptop because of slight mouse lag (I think the mouse travels maybe 30-40ms behind my hand) and 60hz screens. This is somewhat annoying coming from 165Hz, gaming peripherals. Then I have to connect to a VM to do development. Absolute hell.

Yeah, it won't match the requirements for very high end competitive gamers. I was just talking empirical results found by Digital Foundry matching consoles. > mouse travels maybe 30-40ms behind my hand That sounds awful. But it reminds me that the chart I posted is tested using a very exacting tool and even the 3090 has a 30ms latency on 120hz and that's about as good as it gets. So you shouldn't take these numbers i…

An extra 40ms is absolutely terrible, and apparent to everyone. Anyone who says otherwise is accustomed to ultra bad games.

> GFN on 120hz is better than a 3060 on native in 60hz

False. 60Hz input lag is subtle and if someone can't notice an extra 40ms, they won't notice this.

Re: GeForce Now: A Review

#123

Post by AlexandrB »

vineyardmike wrote: post #118
PostOnce wrote: post #113

You guys are walking into a trap. This is going to be way worse than movie streaming, and unlike movies, when one of these companies pulls a game you once loved and it's not available, there will be no pirates to save you, because the software is trapped in the cloud. The future may well be streaming-only. Mods will be greatly impacted eventually, with only sanctioned mods allowed to run in the cloud. There'll be no…

This is all true… but GeForce now let’s you bring your own gaming library. If you ever decide you don’t want to stream - you can build a gaming PC like people already do. Those games that come out to $1500 over a decade? Don’t forget that a decade is probably 2x $2000 for building gaming PCs.

> This is all true… but GeForce now let’s you bring your own gaming library.

Some of your gaming library, for example no Blizzard games are playable. Though this is not Nvidia's fault. I think a few publishers realized where this is going and pulled their games by threatening to sue so they could work towards a streaming service of their own.

Re: GeForce Now: A Review

#124

Post by AlexandrB »

kbenson wrote: post #105
Aeolun wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and I bought a license that allows me to play them on any machine that has Steam installed. Whether it’s a machine I bought, or one that I rent from AWS or Google. Why is renting a PC from Nvidea any different?

I find it unlikely that the license agreement and AUP of steam, and in addition of the game you purchased, which might have its own stipulations, is that simple and open. Feel free to supply evidence to the contrary though. I would be happy to be wrong.

At some point we're going to have to stop letting EULAs and other click-through contracts supersede basic consumer rights. For example, when/why did we lose the right to resell stuff we bough?

Re: GeForce Now: A Review

#125

Post by donmcronald »

PostOnce wrote: post #113

You guys are walking into a trap. This is going to be way worse than movie streaming, and unlike movies, when one of these companies pulls a game you once loved and it's not available, there will be no pirates to save you, because the software is trapped in the cloud. The future may well be streaming-only. Mods will be greatly impacted eventually, with only sanctioned mods allowed to run in the cloud. There'll be no…

This is exactly what’ll happen. It’ll start as bring your own library with the odd exclusive, but eventually it’ll evolve into the only way to play AAA games.

The pricing isn’t great either. I tried the 3080 tier for $25 CAD per month. It was really cool, but not realistic for my gaming budget. To me the pricing looks bad even with the hyper inflated, unrealistic prices of GPUs right now. I can buy a 3080 for about 3 years worth of GeForce Now (3080) and after 3 years I still have a half decent card to hand down to someone else.

Personally I’ve always been a mid-range gamer at best, so the priority tier is closer to reality for me. That’s $13 CAD per month. I’m sure they used to advertise it as a 3060. If they hadn’t managed to hyper inflate GPU prices that would be a joke. Even now I paid $290 CAD for an RX6600XT (refurb, but seems brand new) which is less than 2 years of the priority subscription.

My GPU before that was an RX480 for $200 CAD (new). That was a decent entry-mid range card 5 years ago, so the $150-$300 per year as pricing while buying market share makes me think the goal is a massive increase in the cost of gaming. Nvidia is out of touch IMO.

Also factor in that Nvidia probably only needs 1 card per X subscribers and it’s obvious there’s already huge margin. With AMD as the only GPU competitor we’re destined for some serious price gouging. I’m rooting for Intel ARC.

Re: GeForce Now: A Review

#126

Post by PostOnce »

vineyardmike wrote: post #118
PostOnce wrote: post #113

You guys are walking into a trap. This is going to be way worse than movie streaming, and unlike movies, when one of these companies pulls a game you once loved and it's not available, there will be no pirates to save you, because the software is trapped in the cloud. The future may well be streaming-only. Mods will be greatly impacted eventually, with only sanctioned mods allowed to run in the cloud. There'll be no…

This is all true… but GeForce now let’s you bring your own gaming library. If you ever decide you don’t want to stream - you can build a gaming PC like people already do. Those games that come out to $1500 over a decade? Don’t forget that a decade is probably 2x $2000 for building gaming PCs.

They let you bring your own games for now, once they're entrenched, games will be locked in exclusives.

$1500 per subscription service, think, netflix apple disney yadda yadda, it might cost $5000 or more to play the half-dozen major games you like.

Don't be fooled by the temporal marketing, the long term strategy is in place, and it ends with them screwing you out of something you once loved.

Re: GeForce Now: A Review

#127

Post by donmcronald »

tjpnz wrote: post #111

How feasible would it be to put together a DIY solution? Could I for instance spin up a GPU EC2 instance on AWS with SteamOS and get a similar experience? I would love to give Nvidia my money but until rent seeking game publishers stop ruining it for everyone I'm reluctant.

That would probably be fun to try. I looked for pricing and I think it’d be $0.50+ per hour, so not super cost effective unless you only play a few hours a month.

Re: GeForce Now: A Review

#128

Post by izacus »

PostOnce wrote: post #113

You guys are walking into a trap. This is going to be way worse than movie streaming, and unlike movies, when one of these companies pulls a game you once loved and it's not available, there will be no pirates to save you, because the software is trapped in the cloud. The future may well be streaming-only. Mods will be greatly impacted eventually, with only sanctioned mods allowed to run in the cloud. There'll be no…

This is literally already the case with GeForce Now - you're NOT allowed to play your whole library because the publishers sued nVidia for allowing you to play the GAME YOU OWN on the machines YOU PAY FOR in their cloud.

Re: GeForce Now: A Review

#129

Post by izacus »

akkartik wrote: post #76
chatmasta wrote: post #31

GeForce Now is great for simulation games like Factorio or Civilization. Unfortunately 2K Games decided to arbitrarily restrict users of GeForce Now from playing Civilization VI, even with a licensed copy from the Steam store. In the beginning, it worked great. I could play on a giant map with 13 AI civilizations who completed their turns in a few seconds. And my laptop didn’t sound like an airplane. I’m still bitter…

Sounds like they don't need to care what you think :) The only way to influence these companies is to vote with your dollars.

With publisher/content owner IP monopolies, there's no such thing as "voting with your dollars".

Re: GeForce Now: A Review

#130

Post by Shorel »

djbeadle wrote: post #16
WithinReason wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's better if you have Ethernet, that way I get no stutter and the lag is almost unnoticeable (I get 9ms ping which is lower than the duration between 2 monitor refreshes at 60Hz)

More anacedata: GeForce now over Ethernet is significantly better than Wi-Fi 6 in my apartment building.

My only question is how this is even surprising.

Wi-Fi is an arms race between you and your neighbours about who has the most powerful Wi-Fi transmitter, while Ethernet works wonderfully and collision free, in terms of network packets.

We all have at least three Wi-Fi devices, including the smartphone, using some frequency bandwidth.

Yes, people dislike cables, but if you ever play and transmit the game via OBS to Twitch, for example, Wi-Fi is simply not going to cut it any more.

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