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Nvidia's Free GeForce NOW Beta Lets You Play System Intensive PC Games on Your Mac

69Mustang said:
I think the issue is less can you hit 50+Mbps and low latency with a wireless connection and more can you maintain a consistent 50+Mbps and low latency with a wireless connection. At least that's the problem I've found playing against people who rely on a wireless connection. There are too many variables in the environment that can affect the consistency of their signal. I typically try avoid wireless opponents when gaming. Whether it be on console or gaming rig, I've found a better experience with wired opponents. Never Forza in a lobby with wireless guys unless you want to spend the race watching cars "Aladdin" the entire time.
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Bingo. Wireless is typically too inconsistent for gaming.
 
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SeminalSage said:
I guess question is why would anyone pay month to month when for under $600 you can get a eGPU and an upgradable GPU to run those games? (Assuming you also have a TB3 capable Mac). I know the service runs PC only games too, but (anecdotal) roughly 75% of my Steam games are both Mac and PC.
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Even the eGPU is really not worth it. Gaming on macs is a waste of money. They’re great for everything else. It’s better to use a console or just build a PC for games.
 
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I just downloaded and installed the beta. When I run it, it tells me to copy the app into my Applications folder (which is the first thing I did, you condescending little program), and my only option is to close the dialog, which kills the app.
 
840quadra said:
Interesting to see this. You would think that it would cut into their hardware business. But, then again the trend of pc systems could be moving more to mid to low end laptops and all in one systems.

If anything, this could potentially save pc gaming in some ways.
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And potentially increase it! If the hardware GOU is virtualized then potentially this can expand to iPhones + ATV displayed, iPad’s, MAC Mini (if there is a future), and Nintendo’s new console/portable hybrid as well.

This I think will be the future of complex more intense video games (FPS) of the near future.
 
iReality85 said:
Unless I misread, this service is free, correct?

I’m sure NVIDIA is getting a cut of something on the back end, either from Steam, the game developers, or both when gamers log in with NOW running. I find it hard to believe NVIDIA would provide this for free.

I’m interested in the latency, since the game is essentially being steamed to your PC. This definitely has the potential to completely change the graphics card industry (or the need for one).
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iReality85 said:
Unless I misread, this service is free, correct?

I’m sure NVIDIA is getting a cut of something on the back end, either from Steam, the game developers, or both when gamers log in with NOW running. I find it hard to believe NVIDIA would provide this for free.

I’m interested in the latency, since the game is essentially being steamed to your PC. This definitely has the potential to completely change the graphics card industry (or the need for one).
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Id you had read the entire article you could have realized it’s in BETA .. of course it’s about money
 
69Mustang said:
I think the issue is less can you hit 50+Mbps and low latency with a wireless connection and more can you maintain a consistent 50+Mbps and low latency with a wireless connection. At least that's the problem I've found playing against people who rely on a wireless connection. There are too many variables in the environment that can affect the consistency of their signal. I typically try avoid wireless opponents when gaming. Whether it be on console or gaming rig, I've found a better experience with wired opponents. Never Forza in a lobby with wireless guys unless you want to spend the race watching cars "Aladdin" the entire time.
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But that doesn’t answer my question. What is low latency? Is it 5ms? 8? 10? 15?
 
SeminalSage said:
But that doesn’t answer my question. What is low latency? Is it 5ms? 8? 10? 15?
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Respectfully, it's the wrong question. I'll answer it to satisfy your curiosity though. They are all low latency. Obviously the lower the better. But if you look at that in isolation, then we've simply wasted time. Take that Speedtest that Chromite posted. At first glance, his wifi ticks all the boxes; low latency and more than enough speed. What that Speedtest doesn't show is how close Chromite was to the router, any other devices on the network or going to be on the network while gaming, distance of gaming rig from router as opposed to the phone used to take the Speedtest.

That doesn't even take into consideration the type of game you're playing. The most reliable and consistent gaming connection is, generally speaking, going to be hard wired. If you plan on doing a lot of multiplayer, get wired. Your life will be better and your opponents will appreciate you more.
 
840quadra said:
Interesting to see this. You would think that it would cut into their hardware business. But, then again the trend of pc systems could be moving more to mid to low end laptops and all in one systems.

If anything, this could potentially save pc gaming in some ways.
Click to expand...

I don't think that it's the PC gaming the one that needs saving, though. High-end GPU sales are not on a decline, never were. This is indeed for low-end PCs, but PC gaming was never based on these machines anyway, it's just an addition.

It's the Mac gaming that is on the deathbed for some years now that will benefit more from this (since GPU upgrade is not an option).
 
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OnLive worked like a champ for me on wifi on a 2007 iMac. I was able to play quite timing sensitive games like Arkham Asylum with only the small, necessary and easily compensated for lag time that video encoding requires on the cloud end. Your brain stops even seeing that kind of lag.

NVIDIA’s service has been a steaming turd though and they keep trying to blame it on my network, even when I test on Ethernet with extremely low ping and high bandwidth.
 
This works pretty freaking seamlessly on my 2013 Air over Wi-Fi, but I have gigabit internet and I get about 400+ Mbps over my mesh network. It's obviously not as good as my high end gaming rig, but it's pretty dang nice, regardless. I was not expecting it to work so well. I would have no issues playing this way on my Mac if I didn't have my gaming rig.
 
I've tried out Fallout 4, Skyrim, and even loaded up WoW (yes, I know it's on Mac but wanted to see how it handles) via this app. Pretty sweet with zero issues. Will try Rise of the Tomb Raider and a few others tomorrow. I have Fios wired connection for this iMac while everything else is on Wifi so YMMV. Add in support for Star Wars Battlefront and I'd be sold. I could install Boot Camp but meh, on a 680MX it can barely get through some things plus, I loathe trying to deal with the drivers which tend to cause issues.
 
Cougarcat said:
It's free for the beta, but after that, you'll have to pay. It's not cheap: "Pricing starts at $25 for 20 hours of play on a GTX 1060 PC, or 10 hours of play on a GTX 1080 PC."
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Clever pricing. So on an average of 1.5 hours a day on the 1080...

Per month = $2.5 [per hour] x 1.5 [hours a day] x 30 [days] = $112.50
Per year = $1,350

To buy a comparable gaming PC with KabyLake and a GTX 1080 sets you back around $1,350.

I didn't put much effort in to making these numbers match - it's pretty much going rate for mid-tier hardware. It's a clever pricing structure from nVidia.
 
bladerunner2000 said:
Only an issue if you live in Canada where scumbag companies like Rogers and Bell exist that still have data caps.
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For now. One people start hitting that kind of use the goals posts will shift and the ISPs will either remove unlimited downloads altogether or throttle connections / alter price plans.
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lec0rsaire said:
Even the eGPU is really not worth it. Gaming on macs is a waste of money. They’re great for everything else. It’s better to use a console or just build a PC for games.
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I have to ask myself if I agree with that. Would the cost of a Mac and a good gaming PC not work out more?
 
I see this is US/Canada only. I tried this out manually a couple of years ago using a guide like this: https://nexus.vert.gg/gaming-on-amazon-s-ec2-83b178f47a34

It worked pretty well - I guess it helped on latency that the UK availability zone was in London, where I live. The so-called 'spot' prices were essential though to make it worth doing, otherwise it would be quite expensive.

It was fiddly to setup though, so assuming this has a reasonable price, I can image it doing well.

EDIT - Looks like spot prices for g2. instances have gone in London. Maybe Dublin would still be ok https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/spot/pricing/ . At the time of writing you can get a g2.2xlarge for 40 cents for an hour.

EDIT 2 - Sorry, this has got me interested again. Looks like a service called 'Parsec' has popped up to make this much easier https://faq.parsec.tv/articles/12491-how-does-pricing-work-with-parsec-cloud-machines
 
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