Image Quality and Gameplay
Image Quality and Frame Rate
First, a caveat: at the PC Perspective offices we have a Gigabit fiber Internet connection that can push the full 1000 mbps downstream and 250 mbps upstream, so our testing conditions are a “best case” to say the least. When I did a speed test to the GeForce NOW servers we returned a ping of just 29 ms and a jitter rate of only 16 ms. Clearly, if anyone is going to have a good experience with GeForce NOW…it’s going to be us.
With that, I must say I was impressed with the image quality that GeForce NOW provided while playing through about 10 different games in the last 2 days. I started out with Trine 3, a stunning platform adventure game that has always had aesthetics as one of its key selling points. Playing the game over NVIDIA’s streaming service resulted in the same amazing visual quality with bright colors, sharp edges and detailed textures. Our bandwidth levels were clearly able to push the 1920×1080 60 FPS maximum quality settings of GeForce NOW and you could see that clearly even though I was playing just a few feet away from our 42-in Sony TV used on the studio set. I am still quite sure that if I was able to take side by side screenshots from the same levels and positions on the PC version of the game, the local variant would be sharper and more detailed, but I walked away impressed from my experience with Trine 3.
The Witcher 3 also looked great running at 1080p and streaming at 60 FPS. The colors did look a little more washed out than I am used to seeing on our gaming test bed but it is hard for me to tell is that was a result of the streaming compression, the TV / HDMI port settings on the screen or maybe even in-game setting differences between the configurations. I played some LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and felt the same reaction – this isn’t perfect but it looks damn good for a streamed game! Considering the solid colors and flat shading that the LEGO games utilize, this is another win for NVIDIA’s service.
Obviously we’ll have to see how others fare with lower end networking connections. NVIDIA claims that anything over 50 mbps downstream should be able to provide the best image quality – anything less than that and you’ll drop down to 720p60 or lower settings.
Gameplay
Here’s where things get complicated. Let’s start with the positive first. There are some games that you can easily adjust to the added latency of a streaming gaming scenario. For example, with Trine 3, having not played it locally on a PC before, I never once felt that the controls were lagging or holding me back. The game felt a little “swimmy” in the way that many platforms (Little Big Planet, etc.) feel but I was able to play through several levels with different characters and have a lot of fun while doing so.
The same can be said of my time with the two different LEGO games I played – the experience seemed perfectly fine for me and the game didn’t require any kind of timing precision where my eyes and hands noticed any kind of latency or delay on the SHIELD controller to the cloud and back. And honestly, there are lot of games on that list above that fit into this category: the Batman games, Darksiders, most of the racing titles like DiRT 3, Red Faction, etc.
But then there are other games to consider, like Metro 2033, Ultra Street Fighter IV and even Borderlands. I have had lot of game time with these on other platforms, whether it be a gaming PC or a console, and I could still feel the difference in the controls when playing these titles. Take Street Fighter for example – here is a game that not only expects but REQUIRES perfect timing for things like combos and breaks if you want to play at increased difficulty or get into anything regarding multiplayer. Both Metro 2033 and Borderlands are first person shooters that require accuracy of aim and movement to be fun and it was more difficult to do that when playing via GeForce NOW. As I played the games for longer sessions I could feel myself adapting to the differences – letting go of the rotation stick a bit earlier when looking down my gun sight – but it still wasn’t enough for me to WANT to come back to it; at least on these specific games.
This isn’t unexpected of course. Despite all of NVIDIA claims that it has integrated technology to lower latency, and I have no doubt that is true, there are fundamental laws of physics that have not been overcome when it comes to interactive streaming services. Watching Netflix with 60-80 ms of roundtrip latency? No issues. Getting a headshot with that same 60-80ms roundtrip? A tough sell. I think of the different services I have used, OnLive and PlayStation Now among them, GeForce NOW provides the best overall gaming experience, but that doesn’t mean I would recommend it for all games or for all gamers.
Closing Thoughts
With a price tag of just $7.99/mo. for GeForce NOW, I do think that NVIDIA has the best streaming gaming service available anywhere, on any platform or hardware. It offers the best image quality I have seen for streaming games as well as better than expected latency that enabled more games to be playable than ever before. It doesn’t make EVERY game playable in my opinion, but for many it will be a low-cost, fast and easy way to get some game time in every day.
As I said yesterday, I still think the biggest detractor for GeForce NOW isn’t the product itself but the platform that it is on exclusively: NVIDIA SHIELD. I actually really like my SHIELD Android TV box and find it to be a fantastic connected device for streaming media of all kinds. But just because I like it doesn’t mean millions of people own it. Because you can only run and play GeForce NOW games on SHIELD today, it will definitely limit the audience the service has and that’s a shame – because I think NVIDIA could appeal to the mainstream and cost conscious crowd of gamers that see the value in the fast loading, on-demand nature of GeForce NOW.
Personally, I’ll be keeping an eye on what titles are added (or removed) from these game lists on GeForce NOW to see how the product changes. If NVIDIA starts adding more AAA purchase and play titles that include both the streaming game as well as a downloadable game key (which some of the current 7 do today) it might make GeForce NOW a value over just buying the game alone. For today though, GeForce NOW is an inexpensive streaming game solution for consumers that already own a SHIELD Android TV device and hopefully the service can grow in the directions necessary to push forward to a larger audience.
I believe it will be great
I believe it will be great vehicle to get people back into gaming.
Bad for people who like to
Bad for people who like to own things instead of “as a service”.
For those of us with Data
For those of us with Data Caps, how much data were you using per hour for example?
It can only pull data as fast
It can only pull data as fast as your downstream limit (up to 50 Mbit), but up to that point, it would be as long as you could max your connection before hitting your data cap (streaming or not). 50 Mbit workout to roughly 1/2 TB per day.
For those of us on a capped
For those of us on a capped connection, how much gigabytes does it take to stream a game for an hour?
According to Wolfram Alpha
According to Wolfram Alpha says 40 mbps for an hour is 18 gigabytes.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=40+mbps+for+an+hour
You can only play 13 hrs on a
You can only play 13 hrs on a 250gb cap.
You can just Google “40
You can just Google “40 megabits per second in gigabytes per hour” for the same result.
Ummm, can one of the editors
Ummm, can one of the editors re-read the story please, right on the front page is this gem:
“Play a game is as simple and selecting title from the grid list and hitting play.”
Maybe it’ll someday grow into
Maybe it’ll someday grow into a primary method of game distribution, but with titles like these, it’s merely a fine supplemental solution to a gamer’s inventory. It is priced accordingly, however. The ability to stream your games might be worth the price of admission. I mean, at this point, It seems like an i3-6100 and a 950 at the monitor, and a Shield on the living room TV is the everyman’s way to game.
I’m transitioning off last-gen consoles and just need more productivity from my technological dollar than they can provide. I’m not a power user but I’d still like to further transition into a VR shell, my flesh become a dormant vessel, bridged into a supplicant universe through copper and silicon while the waking world molts like an outgrown husk by Q3 2017.
The next i5 and a $300 Pascal something-or-other ti seem to be the upgrade path to achieve it.
Would be interesting if any
Would be interesting if any of you guys could test this under a “normal” internet connection. Maybe say 20mb to 50mb down?? I am not sure what is the typical speed from the ISP, but certainly most people does not have Google Fiber.
Average US internet speed is
Average US internet speed is 12Mbit, so this review wasn’t really at all realistic. Even South Korea is at “only” 25Mbit on average.
That said, we do get unlimited 300Mbit 4G LTE for $50 here in Finland 😀
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Excellent review Ryan.
Excellent review Ryan.
I’m very surprised they
I’m very surprised they haven’t contacted the indie community almost at all. Yes, Trine 3 and PixelJunk are indie games, but that’s pretty much it, from what I can tell.
You’d think this would be perfect for small indie games that don’t require very low ping or massive bandwidth.