Hands-On With NVIDIA's GeForce Now Streaming Game Service

[MacRumors]

Back in 2017, NVIDIA announced the launch of its GeForce Now streaming gaming service, which it made available in a beta capacity.

After years of testing, polishing, and refining, the GeForce Now service saw its official launch on February 4, so we thought we'd go hands-on with GeForce Now to see how it works on Apple's Macs.

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GeForce Now is a streaming gaming service that lets you play GPU and CPU intensive games on Macs that might not be able to natively handle the hardware requirements for a particular title.

All rendering and computing is handled by NVIDIA's servers, where the games are installed. Gameplay is then streamed to your computer, so naturally, a robust internet connection is required to make sure there's no lag.

There's a free version of the GeForce Now service, which provides standard access and limits gaming sessions to one hour, but for $4.99 per month, gamers can get priority access, support for NVIDIA's RTX graphics rendering platform, and longer session lengths.

The $4.99 per month cost (or the free service) does NOT include access to games. You still need to purchase games from supported game stores like Steam to be able to play them using GeForce Now, though there are some free ad-supported titles.

Even though GeForce Now has been in beta for three years, the game library is still a little bit lackluster. There are many newer games that are not supported, but games like Fortnite, League of Legends, Witcher 3, and Destiny 2 are available.

NVIDIA recommends a stellar internet connection, but even with 400Mb/s download speeds, we ran into some troubles. On a 12-inch MacBook, which is certainly not powerful enough to play most games, titles would output at 30 frames per second maximum at a resolution of 1200 x 800, which was not a positive gameplay experience. The game was choppy, blurry, and frustrating to play.

Using GeForce Now on an iMac Pro with the same WiFi connection resulted in similar performance issues, but swapping over to an Ethernet cable for a hardwired connection solved all of our issues.

Playing Destiny 2 over GeForce Now with an iMac Pro on the wired connection resulted in no lag, a much higher resolution and frame rate, and no dropped frames. It was a smooth experience that was much like playing the game on a high-end gaming PC.

When trying a wired connection on the 12-inch MacBook, gameplay was also flawless, so NVIDIA is not kidding about the internet requirements. For the best possible experience, connecting over Ethernet is ideal.

GeForce Now is limited to North America and Europe at the current time, and the gaming library is limited, but as new titles are added, this may be a service worth checking out. It's free to try, so long as you own the game you want to play.

Have you tried GeForce Now? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Article Link: Hands-On With NVIDIA's GeForce Now Streaming Game Service

 

[coolfactor]

It's insane that the internet is now able to handle such high-bandwidth applications... and 5G is bringing another huge boost in bandwidth and speed.

 

[FightTheFuture]

It's insane that the internet is now able to handle such high-bandwidth applications... and 5G is bringing another huge boost in bandwidth and speed.

I know a lot of folks dismissed Stadia, but seeing all these streaming gaming options gives me confidence that the concept is here to stay. I love the idea of closing the door on the "Mac's aren't for gaming" lecture too. Game developers don't care about platforms, they just want people to buy and play.

 

[warp9]

Without Blizzard, it's a non-starter for me.

 

[gimmesomemo]

Ive been using GeForceNow throughout Beta on my shield tv (wired) and it has been really amazing. I never bothered with my MacBook, as the whole point was to be able to play on my 55' 4k tv on a sofa with a beer and a controller, from a measly android tv box!
Sure, there were some issues which came and went, some laggy weeks, sever bugs, etc, but overall it was really good.
The big, big problem now, is game developers pulling out of the service.
Seems like they're getting greedy and figured out that if they pull out of Geforce Now and go exclusively on Google Stadia they can get us (suckers) to buy their games twice.
There's no way to justify their behaviour other than greed, and if you look at the companies who are doing it, it makes sense.
It's a real, real shame. Stadia - a) sucks, b) you need to buy all games again, and c) well it's google so I don't trust them as far as I can hold them to account.
Geforce now is really head and shoulders above the rest in functionality and its getting beaten down by industry greed at the cost of us, the consumers.

 

[Millionman112]

Ive been using GeForce Now on a MacBook Pro 15-inch Early 2014 with maxed out specs for 2 Years. Ive always been on a wired connection (160mbps) The experience was great in the start but has become worse and worse. I’ve been playing almost on a daily basis and must say It’s not the best for games like CS:GO, PubG or other first person shooters. The games are playable but theres a lot of lag/Frame drops. Other games do work just fine. I do think this is the future of gaming in some way... but it will take some time for first person shooters to be great in my opinion.

 

[mr_user1]

Just to be clear, if your WiFi is crappy your game streaming experience is going to be crappy.

GeForce NOW has been great for me on a wired connection and on a strong WiFi connection.

It's even better that you can already use the games you own on Steam.

The terrible part is that publishers aren't allowing NVIDIA to make games available via this service even though you already own the games. They want to force you into buying them on services like Stadia where you have to re-buy the game.

You'll never be using this to play twitch shooters or racing games - latency is a real thing - but for lots of games this is an awesome service.

 

[impulse462]

how about we get nvidia GPUs/drivers working on macs again so i can run pytorch/tensorflow without jumping through 100 hoops instead of this useless BS

 

[warp9]

"swapping over to an Ethernet cable for a hardwired connection solved all of our issues."

Playing on a Wifi 6 connection would likely be fine too, due to improved latency and qos. It would be nice to see some test results with it.

 

[star-affinity]

I've tried it over Ethernet only and while it worked better than excepted some games (some more than others suffer) from the ”input lag” that's unavoidable for a game streaming service, i.e. there will be a longer delay between when you do some thing until it's reflected in the game being streamed. This will be less of a problem in some games, but in faced paced games will be a disadvantage, especially in competitive ones where you're playing versus other players online.

Of course all this depends on what you're used to and what you compare it to and what settings you have for a specific game when running it locally: v-sync on or off, variable frame rate if your display can handle it etc.

Conclusion currently: works well for some types of games, not so well for others.

 

[ekko20six]

Jaja. Makes me laugh even more at crappy Oz internet that the government says 40 will be plenty fast enough for everyone’s needs and NBN still isn’t completely rolled out. I need to send this to the minister showing ten times the speed is already needed now for some applications

 

[Freida]

if you can afford to pay monthly for 400mb/s internet + paying for geforceNow surely you can afford better computer. This service makes no sense to me.

 

[ChrisMoBro]

How many people almost fell off their chair with shock/excitement when they saw the words "Nvidia" and "now" and momentarily thought Nvidia drivers had been released?

 

[slvrscoobie]

i have Fios Gigabit, a macbook pro, and less than 1 hour to play, sounds perfect for me!

 

[christophermdia]

I have 300mb/s service and while I haven’t tried GeForce, Stadia runs flawlessly. I’m an Apple junkie but I’ll admit I bought a Pixel Slate for the convenience of tablet and game streaming and it’s been amazing. Yea Google cant be trusted, but I’m willing to bet, as good as games are streaming over WI-FI, that it’ll be around awhile. Games play great on my macs too. Now once iPad support comes and with WI-FI 6 to boot .... it will be hard to beat. Now if only we can get all this on the VR wagon streaming to quest that will be killer.

 

[iapplelove]

I don’t really game anymore, just rockstar games like gta online and RDR2 .

The future of gaming is streaming, especially across multiple devices.

 

[Max48]

I’ce used Steam’s stream from another computer service to run new titles on my 2008 17 inch mbp. Quality isn’t stellar but still very awesome.

 

[omenatarhuri]

Been using it for Rocket League and Civ 6 and I think it’s been quite solid.

 

[benroberts3]

I wonder if the internet service type makes a difference. 400 mbps on cable from Spectrum is not going to be as fast or powerful as 400 mbps on fiber from AT&T or Google Fiber. I have to imagine that upload and ping speeds also matter quite a bit.

 

[SRLMJ23]

Just to be clear, if your WiFi is crappy your game streaming experience is going to be crappy.

GeForce NOW has been great for me on a wired connection and on a strong WiFi connection.

It's even better that you can already use the games you own on Steam.

The terrible part is that publishers aren't allowing NVIDIA to make games available via this service even though you already own the games. They want to force you into buying them on services like Stadia where you have to re-buy the game.

You'll never be using this to play twitch shooters or racing games - latency is a real thing - but for lots of games this is an awesome service.

Very true about the WiFi.

I have been using GeForce NOW since late-2018 (could have been very early 2019...cannot exactly remember) when I got in the beta. I have always played over WiFi (except on my custom built gaming rig - which uses ethernet) on my MacBook Pro's (usually my 2015 MBP) and never had any major issues, except for when the Nvidia's servers, or the app in general were having issues and everyone was effected. Now, do not get me wrong, I definitely have had lag at times, or dropping frames etc., but nothing at any major level or for extended periods of time. With lag, it usually sorted itself out in about 20-30 seconds.

Cloud gaming is the future, however, for us Mac users that like/love to game it is a lifesaver, because now we Mac users can game without having to one: Use bootcamp to run Windows, which still is not the best option, or two: Have a Windows PC that is basically dedicated to gaming, but with the prices of Macs, how many people can or want to go out and buy a PC (not a specifically designed gaming PC, like AlienWare etc.) that is decently capable of gaming, just to have a PC to game on for the most part?

Now, I get that a lot of people like to build their own computers just as I do: For the love of it, gaming, hackintoshes, to get around PC vendors locking down their systems via firmware (etc.) or for everything I listed and even more. I love my current build, and it is great for gaming but again, how many average users can custom build their own gaming rig, or hackintosh, and for the latter, figure out how to actually get a hackintosh up and running?

I have a 500/50 cable internet plan, and I bought my own modem/router since the cable ISP's modems are generally old and/or junk. Obviously there are exceptions I would imagine, as some cable providers are probably rolling out newer modems, but still, they are generally locked down with custom firmware that you cannot fully customize...usually just being able to customize very, very specific options that are not that consequential when it comes to fully optimizing your modem/router for the best possible settings to get and maintain the best speed you can get. Also, most users do not even know how to login to their modem/router, let alone what settings to change to optimize the connection/speed.

*And yes, I know you can get the master password for ISP issued modems so the firmware is fully accessible and not locked down, however, again...how many average users would even know that existed, let alone how to find the master password and the fact it changes every few months. Just wanted to mention that before someone attacked me saying you can get full firmware access to ISP issued modems/routers.

***Also, I know I have gotten WAY off topic and I apologize for that!***

Quick Edit: I tested this service on my 13" 2015, 15" 2018, and 15" 2019 MacBook Pro's. I sold my 2018 MBP so I could put the money toward my 16" MacBook Pro, which I have not used GeForce NOW on yet.

Also...12" MacBook Pro???

 

[Yamcha]

I've tried the beta, and it wasn't too bad, but it does eat up bandwidth quickly. It might be worth it if the bandwidth you have is enough, but maybe not so much if you've got to pay like $50 extra per month for a faster connection or more bandwidth. You're probably better off getting an eGPU if the streaming service forces you to upgrade to a more expensive internet plan. Also, the higher settings uses more bandwidth.

 

[SeanG1027]

12 inch MacBook Pro?

 

[firewood]

Streaming a video game requires a lot higher bandwidth than streaming a movie, and a lot less network latency variability for high frame rate games.

Apple's WiFi system architecture (choice of chips and antennas) can't do this. They multiplex the WiFi amplifier and antenna(s) between Bluetooth and proprietary RF protocols too often, which messes with latency variation, and so won't work for anything needing better performance than the minimum needed for AirPlay.

So only use a wired connection for this kind of streaming.

Same with an iPad or iPhone. Use a Lightning to ethernet dongle for workable results. Not Apple's WiFi.

Hopefully, WiFi 6 could possibly fix this.

 

[Solomani]

I haven't touched my old Cat5 cables for..... years... tho I never threw them away. Now I know why the may still be useful.

 

[spartan1967]

Two critical metrics missed in this review.

1. What was your download speed via WiFi?
2. What resolution did you get to play with a hard wired connection?