Nvidia’s GeForce Now Cloud Gaming service comes to PC and Mac in March
Nvidia is bringing its GeForce Now video game streaming service, previously exclusive to its own Android-based Shield devices, to PC and Mac. Announced at CES 2017, GeForce Now will deliver full-HD 60fps (frames-per-second) gaming with low latency by connecting your computer to a GTX 1080-equipped gaming PC hosted in the cloud.
During Nvidia’s CES press conference, CEO Jen-Hsun Huang demonstrated its capabilities, using it to play the graphically intensive Rise of the Tomb Raider on an iMac — something the machine would normally not be capable of.
Nvidia GeForce Now has previously existed for Nvidia’s own Shield devices as a subscription service for $8 per month (about Rs. 540), but its PC/Mac iteration is a rather different approach from the graphics card manufacturer.
The idea seems neat, but offloading your gameplay to the cloud isn’t cheap: NVIDIA says it will charge $25(about Rs. 1,700) for 20 hours of play, and that doesn’t include the cost of the games. If you only played One hour a day, you’d spend $456 (about Rs. 31,000) for a year of NVIDIA GeForce Now gaming.
In return, Nvidia is offering you ease of use, it says. “All patching, game configuring and driver updating is handled automatically by the GeForce Now infrastructure,” the company said in a statement. “Even save games, achievements, and other settings are automatically synchronized with digital game platforms, enabling you to instantly pick up from where you stopped.”
You can now register for Nvidia GeForce NOW early access to get into the waiting list. Early access is scheduled for March in the continental United States with full commercial service slated for the Spring. You will need a 25Mbps or better Internet connection to make proper use of it, though.
