For many years the Nvidia GeForce Now streaming service has been a free beta service offering various levels of support for streaming PC games but now it has finally been launched as a full paid for platform.
The timing comes as little surprise with Google’s Stadia taking all the headlines, not always for the best reasons. GeForce Now has a proven track record already and those who signed up to its long running beta will know that it provides a simple and effective way to stream some of the top PC games to a TV, Android tablet or lower powered PC.
The service aims to undercut Stadia with its Founders pack for £4.99, offering streaming access to your own game library as well as a growing list (currently 30) of curated games for 6 hours at a time (at which time you will need to reconnect), RTX features switched on and priority access to the service.
A free tier is also available with the same library but no RTX features and limited to 1 hour stints. It’s a great way to try the latest version of the service, though, without paying a fee.
While Stadia is still reliant on the founders pack and initial layout for the hardware, Nvidia seems to have swooped in and provided a much easier and cheaper way to get going with game streaming. The years of beta tests have given them plenty of opportunity to hone the system and so far the results look pretty good.
Nvidia Shield owners have been among the first to try the initial service and it’s still the easiest way to run it on a TV until Chomebook and Chromecast support arrives. All Shield devices, from the older Shield TV to to the brand new ones can run GeForce Now by default and have a dedicated section in the OS layout for it.
But those with a Surface Go or other lower powered laptop, Apple Mac, Android (with 2GB or more of memory and Android 5.0 (L) or later) or Windows Tablets can also use the service by downloading the GeForce Now app. If you own a GeForce graphics card it may well already be installed.
It’s still early days so it will be interesting to see how well it copes with the potential influx of traffic, but it’s looking good for Nvidia so far.
You can sign up to the service now on Nvidia’s GeForce Now site.
