Is PC Cloud Gaming Any Good? A GeForce NOW Review

I have ALWAYS prefered doing everything locally, and with wires. Need internet? I use an Ethernet cable. Listening to music? Get my wired Sennheiser headphones. Playing games? OF COURSE I'm going to play that with my own hardware, right?

Well, I recently decided to test out the GeForce NOW cloud gaming platform and I was genuinely surprised at it. It has some really neat features and the graphics were AMAZING - much better than what my own 12 core PC could muster.

Of course, there WERE some issues along with way - so I discuss all this (and more) in this video.

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The individual timestamps for this video are:
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00:00 Cloud Gaming... SRSLY?!
00:30 GeForce NOW Overview
02:18 GeForce NOW 'Free Tier' Is Pointless
03:27 Initial Thoughts & Graphics
05:32 PROPER 4K Streaming
07:42 Weird Bugs And Glitches
08:56 Some BIG Downsides Of GeForce NOW
10:14 When/Where I WOULD Use Cloud Gaming

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Credits
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Thanks to the following resources (sounds, images etc):

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#GeForceNow #PCGaming #CloudGaming

[TechOverwrite]

Hey everyone, have you considered cloud gaming? I was pleasantly surprised by it actually, even though I have a perfectly good gaming PC (with a 5900X and RX 6700XT GPU). 😊

[jjayala]

Been using it a few years. The improvements along the way are crazy. Im just a dude who got sober at 31 and fell in love with games again. Crazy job, crazy kids, its nice to be able to just bring my tablet, or retro handheld out and stream cyberpunk, or just try out something like the last descendant with no download wait. I love physical hardware and gaming set ups but i am often on the go or gaming in bed or while watching the kids. I love it.

[redrunn]

This is hands down the best review i've seen on Geforce now. Not only do you test different setups but also make the information easy to understand and straight to the point. Thx man subbed for sure.

[scvete]

I was always curious about this service, thanks for the summary.

[kurthirsch]

Hey great review! Thanks for being comprehensive and not just an advertisement.

[hvdiv]

its like renting a $2000 pc for $240 a year in 2 years that will be $480 and by that time it mite update to a rtx 5080.

if you have the internet connection and dont want to pay the $2k for the pc isnt a bad option.

[belizarius_]

Mac user here. I started my Geforce Now paid subscription at the Cyberpunk launch because this game was unplayable on my PS4. I changed my subscription to Founders and have been paying for it since. My Geforce Now pros: 1. Four quid (yes, 4GBP) per month for RTX class gaming rig with the option to upgrade to 4080 any time I want or downgrade the rig or cancel my sub whenever I want 2. I can play huge AAA titles on my Mac so no need for a fully-fledged gaming PC. 3. Steam\Gamepass compatible so games stay in my library and no need to repurchase them should I decide to go back to Windows. 4. No need to install huge games on my computer, everything runs from the cloud. Three things NVIDIA could improve: 1. Mouse glitch in some games - yes seriously, four years in - it is still unresolved! 2. Multiple login screens just to get into the game - absolutely infuriating! 3. A lot of games, esp. from smaller publishers are missing. I don't know the tech requirements behind it, but the world of gaming no longer revolves around AAA titles. In short: yes, it's worth it if you play big, popular resource-heavy titles. If you like smaller publishers and/or indie games my advice would be to stay away.

[christophperktold]

Great vid! I got lots of info! It was very informative! I love your soothing voice!

[MJ-mkjg]

I enjoy building my retro pc's but this is tempting should I ever find a new game that I want to play.

[Mermete]

No modding, VR or emulation support so it's not for all use cases. But for flatscreen AAA PC gaming on an old laptop or a 4K TV it's great

[MichaelPiraino]

Great review. You should do a history of cloud gaming, specifically highlighting what had been the most successful service that was unfortunately way ahead of its time, Onlive. The internet infrastructure just wasn't there like it is today. I wonder if Geforce Now will ever take any of its cool features, like watching other people play on the service. Would also be great if GeForce Now rented out a "cloud hard drive" for mods and local game saves. I was thinking of getting it for stellaris, but not having access to my vast number of custom empires to populate my galaxies would be a huge let down.

[caseball-uk]

Cloud gaming is THE future of gaming .. Boosteroid Ultra and GFN Ultimate are lightyears ahead of the game.

[bugoiclaudiu]

finished a ton if games on GFN ultimate, have the service since day one

[Joe-ijof]

how is playing multiplayer games online? MMOs? Twitchy/competitive like CS2? RTS? I'd be interested in playing AOE4 over it, but it's networking/syncing protocol ALREADY introduces a lag... my hope is that nvidia servers would reduce this lag and offset the slight increase in lag between my kb/mouse and the nvidia server... so maybe it's okay?

[adrian_veidt]

Maybe they can hire other people with beefy setup so you can hook up to it via cloud. Reducing the waiting time

[adaptivehackerkhan]

So you basically rent a cloud computer and need to get your games as you normally would?

[Asadc]

Hey there fellow cloud gaming brother. I have the priority tier. I would rather imo pay netflix prices playing over time newer titles without burning a fortune. But i clearly remember it 4 years ago vs now were it has become alot more stable. One of the biggest misconceptions about cloud gaming is that it is always ones own internet connection that is the main issue. Not always sometimes it is from the server data center end the problem is. As you mention ethernet wired connection 7:27 as i tried other cloud gaming platforms boosteroid wired connection were it was alot laggy sometimes almost like a diasshow. Other times on wifi just fine. The same with geforce now sometimes 5g tethering on my old laptop with my 5g phone very stable. Even though it was lower speed connection 135mbps

[xrkdino]

If my monitor isn’t 4k would the display be 4k? And is it the same with fps

[TommeeKnocker]

I have 150mb speed on tablet and free tier running great but suddenly it will freeze for a second or in the case of a driving game freeze then fast forward, I wonder if paid will help these freezes?

[JuanSinMiedo]

GFN + Game Pass on Steam Deck is a nightmare 😢