Nvidia Geforce Now Review

So last weekend I was finally accepted into the closed beta testing for Nvidia’s Geforce Now.  Geforce Now is a service that allows you to play games on good settings with high fps even if you have a bad computer or if you have a mac and you want to have a good gaming experience.  It does take a while to be accepted I sent in my request at the beginning of last November and was just accepted last weekend. I have tested a good amount of games (Overwatch, Destiny 2, Rust, Batman Arkham Knight, Fortnite, CS:GO) so I have a pretty good idea of how it works.  How it works is that it plays your games from a server center that Nvidia has setup.  So the game actually isn’t running on your computer but it is running on Nvidia’s server and it streams what that server is playing to your computer.  This is still a fairly new thing but as long as you have a good WiFi or Ethernet connection at home it is very playable especially if you aren’t having a good pc gaming experience at home.

When I compared the streaming service to just my normal PC running it the main thing I noticed for most games was screen tear.  So if I would try to flick my mouse or move it quickly the screen would lag behind for a bit and then catch-up right after I would finish the flick.  That really was the only problem I had.  My WiFi at home was above the recommended stats for things like bit rate and ping but the problem was that it was a 2.5 GHz connection not a 5 GHz which is recommended.  The difference between a 2.4 GHz connection and a 5 GHz connection is that a 2.4 GHz connection provides a stronger connection over a larger amount of area and it isn’t as disrupted when going through walls and floors.  But, overall a 5 GHz connection is stronger but only if you are close to it and not too far away.  Also that the preset settings of how you want the game play streamed to your PC bottle-necked your bit rate.

If you do sign up for the program and get accepted it is a great program and is still in beta so it is always going to be getting updates and getting improved.  If you have a 2.4 GHz connection then I suggest trying to use an Ethernet cable but one that doesn’t bottleneck your connection so you don’t only get a fraction of what you should be getting from your router and get everything you can.  Or try to play mostly single-player or PvE games because when playing PvP it takes a lot more resources so it can mess up the experience a bit.  Another thing I recommend is to make custom settings of how you want the game to be streamed to your PC.  Don’t be really extravagant if you don’t need to 1280x720p and 60 fps was pretty smooth also max out the bit rate it can use for a better experience.