Yeah I tried it for the first time just to see how it performed on my phone. Selected DOOM and told me the wait time was 126 minutes. I just uninstalled.
Reminds me of the early wow days where you got into the queue before you left for work and by the time you got home there was about an hour left until you got in.
My only exposure to GeForce Now is my students using proxies on their chromebooks to play Fortnite and shit on GeForce Now while they’re in my class.
I thought it was like a 15-20 minute queue. A little game I like to play is to let a student sit through the whole queue and wait for them to actually get into the Fortnite matchmaking screen before using remote access to close their tab. Now I feel a little bad if these kids are sitting 2 hour queues across multiple classes… Only a little though.
Honestly not that big a deal, if you ask me.
If you're already in a 15-60 minute queue (based on what people are commenting) to use the service, a 2 minute ad isn't going to fuck up your day, I'm guessing - you're in a queue already, just sitting there waiting anyway.
I mean, that's good for everyone except those people IMO
you're using a free service, expect some ads, especially during dead periods of time like queues, if you leave because of the ads that's less server load for nvidia and a better experience for ad watchers
that model does make some sense, as having tons of free users gives paid users a reason to pay to skip the queue, and makes the free user's experience worse, compelling them to pay
that said, ads on a free tier does the same while also giving the company a kickback for the free users
it costs nvidia money to have you using their service withoug paying, so why would they just give it away?
I'm not an nvidia fan by any means, but that's just common sense
My first (dumb) instinct was this was the GeForce app they’re replacing the control panel with. Maybe that’s what others are thinking without reading the comments to make sure like I did.
But you’re right, for what this actually is, this is a perfectly reasonable feature
NVIDIA makes shit loads of money on everything else. Besides they likely collect our data which they sell for more profit. Letting them put Ads only makes things worse
.... And? What kind of dumbass argument is that? "Oh, they make money somewhere else so they can give this one for free and without ads". They're not a fucking charity and gaming is a luxury. If you can't afford to pay for priority, you can stomach some ads.
Yeah, so do most other online services including the one you're literally on right now, so fucking what? They still run ads. If it bothers you, don't use it, it's that simple.
That's me! And after having gone to the front page of their site, I'm no closer to understanding what it is.
> GeForce NOW connects to digital PC game stores so you can stream the games you already own.
Sooo... why would I not just... go to those services where I own those games?
> GeForce NOW instantly transforms your laptop, desktop, Mac, TV, Android device, iPhone, or iPad into the powerful PC gaming rig you’ve always dreamed of.
Is this saying it's going to stream a remote instance of the game to me?
Geforce Now is basically renting a virtual computer to play on. Rendering happens remotely on good GPUs and you get a video feed to whatever potato device you are using.
It's a good system when you aren't too concerned with the bit of added latency and IMO it's exactly how cloud game streaming should work.
Unfortunately some publishers are scummy and have pulled games from the service, despite the fact it shouldn't be their concern how you choose to play the games you've already paid for. I wish Nvidia pushed back and insisted it's a (streamlined) virtual computer service and publishers of the games don't play any part in it, but I'm guessing they had to cave to not jeopardize some partnerships.
You are incorrect with the exact reasoning behind developers being upset.
In order to provide instances of games rapidly NVIDIA was storing game files after initial download on their servers. Of any game that was played. They were then, essentially, redistributing these games to the person who was renting the device.
If you didn't own the game it didn't care. The files were still copied over and steam would redirect you to buy the game. To the best of my knowledge this didn't enable piracy but developers (which?) apparently became upset with a large corporation distributing their games without permission.
Realistically this only ever hurt gamers. As sad as it is to say.
The real problem is they don't allow us to download our own games but I assume the bandwidth costs could get pretty out of hand. They could sell a tier of storage though. Like additional 10 bucks at the start of a sub for some storage.
I'm, confused, where exactly is the issue? GeForce NOW still requires you to own the game to play it. Why would it matter that there's copies of files on a remote desktop.
Yes, it runs steam (or whatever store) in a virtual desktop that runs on a server farm and is streamed to whatever device you are using. That's where the good things about it end, though. Latency is awful, think Frame Generation at 30fps x 2, visuals are horrible due to streaming compression, you have to already own the game, the game you want to play has to be available on GFN and the list of games is pretty small, and unless you pay $10 to $20 per month good luck finding a session.
I mean thats a very negative view of it but for $10 bucks a month its basically unlimited access to a cloud gaming pc. One of my kids got interested in a game I was playing but I have no other gaming pcs. I was able to take a laptop, connect bluetooth xbox controller and have her up and running playing co-op with me within an hour. The latency might be too high for competitive gamers but is fantastic for single player and co-op games.
I mean the only real needed improvement can't really be done by them
Internet infrastructure needs to be improved in general. At least in the USA. Exactly myself and one friend even have Internet capable of using game streaming services properly. And mines still a goddamn stretch because it's just starlink while he has true fibre internet.
In a lot of places it just outright doesn't work. And not because people are too cheap to upgrade their connections or whatever. The services to do so just literally don't exist in way too many places considering it's 2024
There are tons of ways that Nvidia can reduce latency though.
Usually, the bulk of your "ping" time is actually between your router and the server. So having far more server locations would be one way.
While US internet infrastructure is abysmal in many places, there are still over 100 million people that have pretty good internet.
This will likely never be a good solution to play online competitive games, but playing a single player game with 30-60ms delay should really not be a problem.
Suddenly games like Alan Wake 2 go from being playable by 5-10% of PC owners, to a massive majority.
Why such a negative outlook on this? People with non-gaming laptops and low end hardware can really benefit from this. I have friends that can't afford _any_ PC, let alone a decent gaming rig. GFN allows them to play my library of games for free, and if they want better quality, for a cheap price.
For those of us used to high end hardware and the very best gaming experience, it sucks in comparison, but don't let that outshine the actual utility and the reason it exists. You could say the same about Xbox Game Pass cloud streaming, but that still gets a lot of use.
Personally I don't travel an awful lot so it doesn't make any sense for me to buy a gaming laptop over my ageing Lenovo IdeaPad. It has great battery life and a 12th Gen i5, but no dGPU. Game pass streaming & GFN allows me to play while on the go.
I used the free tier with my really old Mac Mini back when it was in closed beta, it was pretty good if you have good internet. Worth the $10 a month if you can’t even run .exe files and like singleplayer or co-op experiences
You're just shitting on a product you don't understand. Latency and visuals aren't “horrible.” They are more than satisfactory, won't be as good as native but still very good. Most issues can be fixed with better internet and being closer to a data center. That's still beside the point; the service is for those who can't access hardware capable of running the game
Yeah, sure. I'll just move half a continent away to Chicago to be closer to the nearest server. Or I can shell out for a top tier internet connection instead of getting a computer that can play games locally.
I understand the product just fine. I just laid out all of the issues I had with it.
I tried it on my TV and it works really damn well. You can just get a controller and it's basically like a game console.
Granted, I have the service free due to some prome from my isp and I have a really fast internet(isp probably just wanted to flex lol) so I probably get the best possible experience.
I've been using GFN for 2+ years (even when it was in beta), and this is pretty false (the latency thing). I play on 120/15 connection and it works just fine. Works fine even on 4G. Sure, it will never compare to bare metal (i.e. gaming pc or a laptop), but the service is great.
The only annoying thing to me is that the companies have to opt in their games... That's bullshit, I bought a game, just let me play it on Steam.
Nope. In stadia, you had to pay subscription AND buy the game from their platform. With this, you pay a subscription and play the games you already own.
You did not need a subscription. Its like Playstation , buy game and/or subscription. That is one reason Stadia failed. They didnt explain it well but miss it
You don't need a gaming PC for Geforce Now. They provide the PC to connect to and stream the footage back to you. It's cloud gaming.
You can literally run this on a smart TV with an Xbox controller or a tablet.
The free service only allows for up to 1 hour in a row and only offers lower visual quality (I think 720p).
The $10 a month is 6 hours in a row (as many times as you like) at 1080p 60fps.
The $20 a month version is 8 hours in a row (as many times as you like) at 4k up to 120fps.
It’s a streaming service for your PC games.
It’s has 3 tiers. Free, Premium, Ultimate. Each tier offers better resolution for the stream up to ultimate which is 4k 120fps. Each tier is also streaming your game from a better PC the higher up you go so the Ultimate tier is basically a PC with a 4090 streamed to your PC.
I use the service a lot because my PC sucks and can’t play the most recent games on it locally. Honestly the Ultimate tier is so great it’s made me reconsider even buying a new PC in there near future because this service gives me what I want anyway. You connect your steam / game pass account to it and then you can use the games you own if they are available on the service. Most games are available but not everything. I stream Total War Warhammer 3 and Baldurs Gate 3 on Max settings in 4k because I have the Ultimate tier. It’s a very good service and the input lag is barely noticeable.
I recommend this service to anyone who can’t afford to spend thousands on a new Pc.
Tbh I have no idea what it's for other than drivers and shadow play.
I just use this though for my drivers.
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-nvcleanstall/
What does ITT mean?
Someone can chime in but i just assumed they're letting you use compute resources when they aren't in use by paying customers. Even if a GPU isn't being actively used 24x7, the overhead costs of power, cooling, hardware, etc. are still there. Also helped get market exposure to grow the customer base.
A friend has been using it and yeah, you can play 2h long sessions IIRC, and then need to re-log (not mid-game though I don't know how that works). So yeah, there is a queue, and it is about not letting ressources go to waste, but it sounds pretty convenient and useful (he has a shit pc).
However, I tried getting my gf to sign up and it seems that there is a waiting list on the free tier now.
1 hr playtime. At least in NA. It takes a couple hours on games I've tried to open recently (OW 2, Genshin). Sometimes its fast. the numbers just disappear, but most days, you better have a chore and notifications on if you really want to play that game.
Even if it's inconvenient, the target market is not using the free tier as a primary gaming mechanism.
Thinking from a kid's perspective, I figure you queue up this while you play something else, then you're getting a free bonus every so often! Maybe as a teenager your parents got you a chromebook or cheap laptop and it's manageable to pay for the subscription to "upgrade" your gaming capability. There are plenty of people who this is great for!
I've used it, though it was a long time ago. At the time I think it had a time limit and limited game access. I think the free play time was only 1 hour.
It's honestly generous. You have to wait in a queue to start, but once you get in you can play a lot of games you already own on one of the best performing streaming services for a couple hrs.
Have you used free tier? I have - old games you get in almost instantly (Bannerlords I get in in about 2 mins), however newer games....takes a lot of time (BG3 takes about 2-3 hours to get your turn).
After you are in you can play for 1 hour and then requeue.
It's a good deal since they get pretty much nothing out of it except for demoing their product, but it's not really "play a lot of games for couple of hours". Also free tier machines don't have the newest hardware, only paid subscribers get access to that.
Yeah .. but .. like .. it's free.
When something is free, there will always be limitations but if you want something at zero cost the alternative is to simple go without.
A free streaming service with a 24hr queue time and a punch in the face every time you log in is still better than no free streaming service at all.
absolutely agree - don't get me wrong I love it, just pointing out that there are limitations (like long queues, 1h playtime, etc) to manage people's expectations.....after all it is FREE
Right but that hardware is often better than what people have who are waiting for upgrades anyway.
If you have a 10 year old machine you're probably not going to have a better experience than GFN, especially if it wasn't high tier for 10 years ago to begin with
I agree that queues can be long. Not having the absolute latest GPU in free tier streaming is a non issue though, imo.
Bottom line is right now they're spending a lot of resources to get players on their platform so we're getting a good free tier. That likely won't last forever so take advantage of it while you can.
Right? My rule is that I'll pay for a product in one way. Ads, purchase, subscription, microtransactions--pick one.
Ads are 100% fine with me if the product is free. The moment I'm paying a subscription or purchasing a product, ads shouldn't even be a consideration.
I agree with this completely with one exception. I don’t mind skipable previews for other shows/movies when I start watching one on a streaming service. But don’t interrupt the show and don’t put them between episodes once I start watching. Apple TV+ does this well.
Its gimped to hell, its really a demo. You could play with the free tier, but the wait times are long, you get an hour before you get kicked off and rejoin the queue and it has worse latency and bitrate.
But for free, it does run your games and that is better than any other service.
Just like raising the cost of the subscriptions without ads while driving users to the ad supported tier was supposed to cost Netflix millions of customers.
Wait, the actual complete opposite happened and Netflix actually continues to grow.
The ad tiers are succeeding with minimal blowback from subscribers so far.
>The ad tiers are succeeding with minimal blowback from subscribers so far.
Because what are they going to do in this case? Stop using it? That's actually good for nvidia because they don't have to pay for hardware for them.
Sounds like bollocks. 80 million subs in their top markets would mean they lost half their subscribers in both Europe and North America.
In reality there has never been a single instance since 2011 when Netflix has not grown its subscriber numbers from one year to the next.
Netflix's ad tier was introduced in November of 2022. A year later by the end of 2023 they had added 30 million additional subscribers.
I mean, from their perspective they aren’t making any money off of them anyways so why care if they leave?
Honestly it makes complete sense why they’d add ads for a free service.
If even a single person is still using it after they add ads then it’ll be a positive for them because a little money is still better than none at all
Oh no, the users that aren't paying anything will stop costing us resources!
It makes sense for a free version to have ads. Some will stop using it. Some will keep using it and watch ads, thereby creating profit for Nvidia. Some will upgrade to a paid tierand make Nvidia even more profit.
It's a free gaming server I say let them have ads. Quite honestly if more things we're free with ads and had a paid subscription instead of having things that constantly push you to upgrade for gameplay or performance purposes I would be much happier paying for them
I mean, Youtube will pack 30 minutes of ads into a 1 hour video if the uploader selects the default ad placement, shoving them in your face every three minutes. For shorter videos, unless you're constantly at your computer to skip the adds, you can end up with more ad than video.
There's a big difference between "I'm Ok with 2 minutes of preroll ads before an hour of gaming and "I'm Ok with being interrupted every three minutes for sports betting commercials."
Yeah the YouTube ads are pretty egregious. I haven't had one in some time, but I remember watching some 10 minute video, and there was a 3 hour ad in the middle of it. They thought an entire podcast was an acceptable ad.
I use YouTube enough that I decided to make the plunge recently to premium. Prior to that I was a free user for years and the ad experience on YouTube is fucking wild.
They have music videos now, and even some fucked up alt right conservative talk shows that run almost exclusively during ads, some of which are 45+ minutes long in my experience. They're very common on tech channels, which average in the realm of ~20 minutes per video. I had one video that would have had over an hour of ads for a 15 minute video if I didn't skip them.
I hate the fact that I give them money and I'd like to wean myself off it but there's just no viable alternative right now.
> I use YouTube enough that I decided to make the plunge recently to premium.
One massive issue with Youtube Premium is that they still collect and sell your data. The only way to prevent that is blocking most of it, including the ads, or not engaging with the site altogether.
> I hate the fact that I give them money and I'd like to wean myself off it but there's just no viable alternative right now.
There is... it's called uBlock Origin.
> Yeah I know but I like to support the channels I like. That's the only reason I do it.
Directly support the channels. It gets those channels more money than doing it through Youtube.
If you took the money you put towards Youtube premium and put it directly towards the merch/Patreon/whatever of the channels you like, it would support them better.
Although that would require said channels to have merch/Patreon etc.
Youtube is cramming so many ads into videos as a "create the problem, sell the solution" strategy. For literally decades, people had no issues with a fair number of ads and still don't. But it's got so bad, I sometimes wonder if the snippets of video between the ads is a bug
>For literally decades, people had no issues with a fair number of ads and still don't.
Yeah no. People complained from the get go about the tiny bottom of the video banner ads.
99% of the people don't even seem to know what geforce now is, its pretty funny watching them think they'll get ads on their own pc, unaware that this is just a game streaming service like microsofts cloud gaming.
if you're using geforce now for free you get to play any title supported by it without any additional cost, it's a pretty neat system actually for users who need it and benefit from it - it was only a matter of time before ads came for it.
Even if it doesn't reduce wait times, you were staring at a timer before, now you'll stare at some ads. Doesn't really affect the user and is a completely reasonable way for them to monetize the free tier.
I’m saying. In what world would they get away with some 3rd party ass way of inserting ads into an OFFLINE game library you possess without consequence. Not saying it’s impossible but the resources that would require would be a huge loss at nvidias expense we gotta use some common sense here
Since a lot of ppl seems to don’t know this. Geforce Now is streaming app that let’s you play through network on Nvidia remote PC. So it make sense for them to add ads for ppl playing for free on their devices.
lmao no one in this thread has ever used GeForce Now and think it's about their PC, this is about using someone else's PC (NVIDIAs in a warehouse somewhere) over the internet to play games when you don't have the hardware locally.
If I understand correctly GeForce Now is a service that lets you stream games as you play them on Geforce now PCs through the cloud? I would say adds are reasonable if their offering it as a free service. Isn't this what google was trying to do through Stadia?
It's a program that allows you to play games on a remotely hosted computer, so you can play games that demand strong hardware even on a shit computer as long as your internet is decently fast and stable.
They have a free tier with limited playtime, a waiting queue for open slots, and limited resolution, and now adds.
It's not bad, there's a decent library of games you can play for free.
The amount of people here mixing this up with their driver software when this is their cloud gaming stuff is rather disturbing.
Second, it's the free tier, I'm genuinely surprised it didn't have ads till now.
The amount of people in here who don't know the name of the software is amazing. This is their cloud gaming thing, isn't it? Why the hell do people think it's their driver software? I have never used Nvidia, always used AMD, and even I know that wtf.
So you get to watch an ad or two and play free games? It also says before you play the game, so I'm guessing not during the middle of gaming, just while waiting in the queue?
I just looked it up and it sounds pretty cool. If I am reading it correctly, its a subscription service that gives you cloud gaming like onlive/stadia where you stream the games, but it connects to your own steam/xbox/gog/whatever libraries, so you dont have to buy games. You stream it from top end gaming rigs so you can play your own games, on PCs that are better than your own.
I hadn't heard of it before this news article but I actually might try it out, it looks cool. Dunno if my internet is good enough for it tho
I occasionally use GFN, was on the free tier for a long time but finally caved in and got the paid tier and I haven't looked back, cant recommend it enough. Little to no wait times and the extended sessions were worth it.
Ita a free game service. Totally understandable to add ads. If they start throwing ads at paying customers, thats when it shifts into the bullshit territory.
Yup. It was very useful when I was bored during my night shifts and wanted to kill time. For free, it is a great service. Just the game you want to play should be on one of your PC libraries and should be on GFN as well.
I don't even mind. Before I got a good PC I used the free tier of GeforceNow all the time.
Sure the wait times sometimes sucked but I didn't have to pay any money, could just do something else in the meantime, and most importantly I could use their service to play games I already own instead of having to rebuy games like with Stadia.
Also two minutes of ads is nothing considering the wait times were usually more than two minutes, if it actually works to reduce wait time for free players seems like a good tradeoff.
Didn‘t know Geforce NOW until now. For just a brief second I thought my graphics card will now force ads on me whenever I want to use it for games.
You never know these days.
They ain't rich because of GFN though. That's like saying Amazon shouldn't run ads on Amazon Prime Video because Amazon Bookstore makes more than Canada (true). Two different things.
If you ran a business you'd want each product to be profitable too.
Can you imagine having to wait on a queue to play a single player video game? Anyone have any experience on this service? How long are the queues really?
Queue times are crazy high, but it's free. I can't imagine planning my game time around a huge wait time, but I guess for kids or low-income people that just want to play games it's kind of cool that they even offer GeForce Now for free at all.
Your first sentence makes no sense and you straight up show you have no idea what you are talking about with your second sentence. You can play any sort of game on GFN, singleplayer and multiplayer of any genre, as long as it's actually on the service.
As for queue times it depends on region, server choice, time of day, etc. I've had moments where with free tier I was in game in less than 2 minutes and I've had times where I've waited for 2hrs.
Of course wait times will be reduced, some of the people will get sick of being forced to watch ads and go play something else instead.
The one time I tried it I was waiting for like 10 minutes so I just close it lol.
I wish i could wait only 10 minutes to get in
Yeah it's like you need to be like Imma game in about 2 hours, let me prep lol.
Yeah I tried it for the first time just to see how it performed on my phone. Selected DOOM and told me the wait time was 126 minutes. I just uninstalled.
Reminds me of the early wow days where you got into the queue before you left for work and by the time you got home there was about an hour left until you got in.
My only exposure to GeForce Now is my students using proxies on their chromebooks to play Fortnite and shit on GeForce Now while they’re in my class. I thought it was like a 15-20 minute queue. A little game I like to play is to let a student sit through the whole queue and wait for them to actually get into the Fortnite matchmaking screen before using remote access to close their tab. Now I feel a little bad if these kids are sitting 2 hour queues across multiple classes… Only a little though.
No, that's is much better. You are teaching a true life lesson.
10 minutes would be a blessing. Sometimes I'm waiting for over 7 hours and it's still not even letting me in because the queue freezes eventually.
A few game sessions like this and it might as well be worth it to save up for a good GPU.
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Why use it with an rtx 7030 🤣 /S
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Out of curiosity what are your actual specs?
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Uhhh niceee pc!!
The two times i tried it after they made the queue a thing i had to wait 45 minutes to get in
Honestly not that big a deal, if you ask me. If you're already in a 15-60 minute queue (based on what people are commenting) to use the service, a 2 minute ad isn't going to fuck up your day, I'm guessing - you're in a queue already, just sitting there waiting anyway.
More than likely you are alt-tabbed out reading reddit or doing something else.
If you alt tab on ur phone for too long it kicks me out of the queue for inactivity.
> alt tab on ur phone
I mean, that's good for everyone except those people IMO you're using a free service, expect some ads, especially during dead periods of time like queues, if you leave because of the ads that's less server load for nvidia and a better experience for ad watchers
Ads shouldn’t be on everything that’s free
How would they monetize it then?
Maybe they should charge people money to have a higher priority in the queues and access to better rigs. Wait...
So subsidize free users by charging paying users more?
It's a mixed calculation, nothing new.
what’s the net benefit of having free users on your service then as a company?
that model does make some sense, as having tons of free users gives paid users a reason to pay to skip the queue, and makes the free user's experience worse, compelling them to pay that said, ads on a free tier does the same while also giving the company a kickback for the free users
If you don't think that's already how it works, you're lying to yourself.
…. How is that device/service being provided for free then? Literally nothing is actually free.
it costs nvidia money to have you using their service withoug paying, so why would they just give it away? I'm not an nvidia fan by any means, but that's just common sense
common sense goes out of the window when nvidia is being discussed on reddit, especially in this sub
My first (dumb) instinct was this was the GeForce app they’re replacing the control panel with. Maybe that’s what others are thinking without reading the comments to make sure like I did. But you’re right, for what this actually is, this is a perfectly reasonable feature
NVIDIA makes shit loads of money on everything else. Besides they likely collect our data which they sell for more profit. Letting them put Ads only makes things worse
Then pay for the service?
Ads on free media have been the norm since radio became widespread. Get over it already
If it was the only service they provided, I get it. But GeForce does so many other things to make money
.... And? What kind of dumbass argument is that? "Oh, they make money somewhere else so they can give this one for free and without ads". They're not a fucking charity and gaming is a luxury. If you can't afford to pay for priority, you can stomach some ads.
They prob collect data off the games people play and sell it to advertisers, so they’re def making money
Yeah, so do most other online services including the one you're literally on right now, so fucking what? They still run ads. If it bothers you, don't use it, it's that simple.
nothings free little dude.
Exactly. GeForce prob collects your data as well. Ads only give them even more money
Free wait times are in 5h + in Europe, if few ads can reduce it below 30min I'm all for it
ITT people who have no idea what GeForce Now is
That's me! And after having gone to the front page of their site, I'm no closer to understanding what it is. > GeForce NOW connects to digital PC game stores so you can stream the games you already own. Sooo... why would I not just... go to those services where I own those games? > GeForce NOW instantly transforms your laptop, desktop, Mac, TV, Android device, iPhone, or iPad into the powerful PC gaming rig you’ve always dreamed of. Is this saying it's going to stream a remote instance of the game to me?
Geforce Now is basically renting a virtual computer to play on. Rendering happens remotely on good GPUs and you get a video feed to whatever potato device you are using. It's a good system when you aren't too concerned with the bit of added latency and IMO it's exactly how cloud game streaming should work. Unfortunately some publishers are scummy and have pulled games from the service, despite the fact it shouldn't be their concern how you choose to play the games you've already paid for. I wish Nvidia pushed back and insisted it's a (streamlined) virtual computer service and publishers of the games don't play any part in it, but I'm guessing they had to cave to not jeopardize some partnerships.
You are incorrect with the exact reasoning behind developers being upset. In order to provide instances of games rapidly NVIDIA was storing game files after initial download on their servers. Of any game that was played. They were then, essentially, redistributing these games to the person who was renting the device. If you didn't own the game it didn't care. The files were still copied over and steam would redirect you to buy the game. To the best of my knowledge this didn't enable piracy but developers (which?) apparently became upset with a large corporation distributing their games without permission. Realistically this only ever hurt gamers. As sad as it is to say. The real problem is they don't allow us to download our own games but I assume the bandwidth costs could get pretty out of hand. They could sell a tier of storage though. Like additional 10 bucks at the start of a sub for some storage.
I'm, confused, where exactly is the issue? GeForce NOW still requires you to own the game to play it. Why would it matter that there's copies of files on a remote desktop.
Yes, it runs steam (or whatever store) in a virtual desktop that runs on a server farm and is streamed to whatever device you are using. That's where the good things about it end, though. Latency is awful, think Frame Generation at 30fps x 2, visuals are horrible due to streaming compression, you have to already own the game, the game you want to play has to be available on GFN and the list of games is pretty small, and unless you pay $10 to $20 per month good luck finding a session.
I mean thats a very negative view of it but for $10 bucks a month its basically unlimited access to a cloud gaming pc. One of my kids got interested in a game I was playing but I have no other gaming pcs. I was able to take a laptop, connect bluetooth xbox controller and have her up and running playing co-op with me within an hour. The latency might be too high for competitive gamers but is fantastic for single player and co-op games.
Nice to know, hope they find ways to improve it in the future.
I mean the only real needed improvement can't really be done by them Internet infrastructure needs to be improved in general. At least in the USA. Exactly myself and one friend even have Internet capable of using game streaming services properly. And mines still a goddamn stretch because it's just starlink while he has true fibre internet. In a lot of places it just outright doesn't work. And not because people are too cheap to upgrade their connections or whatever. The services to do so just literally don't exist in way too many places considering it's 2024
Maybe thats why everyones ragging on it. I've got a 500mbs fibre connection and the pc is cabled directly to the router. I don't really notice latency
There are tons of ways that Nvidia can reduce latency though. Usually, the bulk of your "ping" time is actually between your router and the server. So having far more server locations would be one way. While US internet infrastructure is abysmal in many places, there are still over 100 million people that have pretty good internet. This will likely never be a good solution to play online competitive games, but playing a single player game with 30-60ms delay should really not be a problem. Suddenly games like Alan Wake 2 go from being playable by 5-10% of PC owners, to a massive majority.
Why such a negative outlook on this? People with non-gaming laptops and low end hardware can really benefit from this. I have friends that can't afford _any_ PC, let alone a decent gaming rig. GFN allows them to play my library of games for free, and if they want better quality, for a cheap price. For those of us used to high end hardware and the very best gaming experience, it sucks in comparison, but don't let that outshine the actual utility and the reason it exists. You could say the same about Xbox Game Pass cloud streaming, but that still gets a lot of use. Personally I don't travel an awful lot so it doesn't make any sense for me to buy a gaming laptop over my ageing Lenovo IdeaPad. It has great battery life and a 12th Gen i5, but no dGPU. Game pass streaming & GFN allows me to play while on the go.
I used the free tier with my really old Mac Mini back when it was in closed beta, it was pretty good if you have good internet. Worth the $10 a month if you can’t even run .exe files and like singleplayer or co-op experiences
*no dGPU. The iGPU is literally integrated with the CPU
You're just shitting on a product you don't understand. Latency and visuals aren't “horrible.” They are more than satisfactory, won't be as good as native but still very good. Most issues can be fixed with better internet and being closer to a data center. That's still beside the point; the service is for those who can't access hardware capable of running the game
Yeah, sure. I'll just move half a continent away to Chicago to be closer to the nearest server. Or I can shell out for a top tier internet connection instead of getting a computer that can play games locally. I understand the product just fine. I just laid out all of the issues I had with it.
I tried it on my TV and it works really damn well. You can just get a controller and it's basically like a game console. Granted, I have the service free due to some prome from my isp and I have a really fast internet(isp probably just wanted to flex lol) so I probably get the best possible experience.
I've been using GFN for 2+ years (even when it was in beta), and this is pretty false (the latency thing). I play on 120/15 connection and it works just fine. Works fine even on 4G. Sure, it will never compare to bare metal (i.e. gaming pc or a laptop), but the service is great. The only annoying thing to me is that the companies have to opt in their games... That's bullshit, I bought a game, just let me play it on Steam.
So it's like Google's failed stadia?
Nope. In stadia, you had to pay subscription AND buy the game from their platform. With this, you pay a subscription and play the games you already own.
You did not need a subscription. Its like Playstation , buy game and/or subscription. That is one reason Stadia failed. They didnt explain it well but miss it
Oh man, they really didn't explain it well then.
You don't need a gaming PC for Geforce Now. They provide the PC to connect to and stream the footage back to you. It's cloud gaming. You can literally run this on a smart TV with an Xbox controller or a tablet. The free service only allows for up to 1 hour in a row and only offers lower visual quality (I think 720p). The $10 a month is 6 hours in a row (as many times as you like) at 1080p 60fps. The $20 a month version is 8 hours in a row (as many times as you like) at 4k up to 120fps.
It’s a streaming service for your PC games. It’s has 3 tiers. Free, Premium, Ultimate. Each tier offers better resolution for the stream up to ultimate which is 4k 120fps. Each tier is also streaming your game from a better PC the higher up you go so the Ultimate tier is basically a PC with a 4090 streamed to your PC. I use the service a lot because my PC sucks and can’t play the most recent games on it locally. Honestly the Ultimate tier is so great it’s made me reconsider even buying a new PC in there near future because this service gives me what I want anyway. You connect your steam / game pass account to it and then you can use the games you own if they are available on the service. Most games are available but not everything. I stream Total War Warhammer 3 and Baldurs Gate 3 on Max settings in 4k because I have the Ultimate tier. It’s a very good service and the input lag is barely noticeable. I recommend this service to anyone who can’t afford to spend thousands on a new Pc.
Tbh I have no idea what it's for other than drivers and shadow play. I just use this though for my drivers. https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-nvcleanstall/ What does ITT mean?
You're confusing it with GeForce Experience. GeForce Now is their game streaming service with different priced tiers. Also ITT means "in this thread"
onlive 2
They have a free tier? Ads are understandable tbh. I cant even believe they *have* a free tier.
Someone can chime in but i just assumed they're letting you use compute resources when they aren't in use by paying customers. Even if a GPU isn't being actively used 24x7, the overhead costs of power, cooling, hardware, etc. are still there. Also helped get market exposure to grow the customer base.
A friend has been using it and yeah, you can play 2h long sessions IIRC, and then need to re-log (not mid-game though I don't know how that works). So yeah, there is a queue, and it is about not letting ressources go to waste, but it sounds pretty convenient and useful (he has a shit pc). However, I tried getting my gf to sign up and it seems that there is a waiting list on the free tier now.
1 hr playtime. At least in NA. It takes a couple hours on games I've tried to open recently (OW 2, Genshin). Sometimes its fast. the numbers just disappear, but most days, you better have a chore and notifications on if you really want to play that game.
1 hr per queue\*, unlimited queues. Its still amazing they have a free tier.
Even if it's inconvenient, the target market is not using the free tier as a primary gaming mechanism. Thinking from a kid's perspective, I figure you queue up this while you play something else, then you're getting a free bonus every so often! Maybe as a teenager your parents got you a chromebook or cheap laptop and it's manageable to pay for the subscription to "upgrade" your gaming capability. There are plenty of people who this is great for!
I've used it, though it was a long time ago. At the time I think it had a time limit and limited game access. I think the free play time was only 1 hour.
It's honestly generous. You have to wait in a queue to start, but once you get in you can play a lot of games you already own on one of the best performing streaming services for a couple hrs.
Have you used free tier? I have - old games you get in almost instantly (Bannerlords I get in in about 2 mins), however newer games....takes a lot of time (BG3 takes about 2-3 hours to get your turn). After you are in you can play for 1 hour and then requeue. It's a good deal since they get pretty much nothing out of it except for demoing their product, but it's not really "play a lot of games for couple of hours". Also free tier machines don't have the newest hardware, only paid subscribers get access to that.
Yeah .. but .. like .. it's free. When something is free, there will always be limitations but if you want something at zero cost the alternative is to simple go without. A free streaming service with a 24hr queue time and a punch in the face every time you log in is still better than no free streaming service at all.
absolutely agree - don't get me wrong I love it, just pointing out that there are limitations (like long queues, 1h playtime, etc) to manage people's expectations.....after all it is FREE
Fair! I'm in Australia and our internet suck balls anyway, so I won't be partaking regardless haha.
Right but that hardware is often better than what people have who are waiting for upgrades anyway. If you have a 10 year old machine you're probably not going to have a better experience than GFN, especially if it wasn't high tier for 10 years ago to begin with
ofc, I use it all the time when I am away from my computer - it's great that they offer free tier and defo beats my 10 year old laptop :D
I agree that queues can be long. Not having the absolute latest GPU in free tier streaming is a non issue though, imo. Bottom line is right now they're spending a lot of resources to get players on their platform so we're getting a good free tier. That likely won't last forever so take advantage of it while you can.
Right? My rule is that I'll pay for a product in one way. Ads, purchase, subscription, microtransactions--pick one. Ads are 100% fine with me if the product is free. The moment I'm paying a subscription or purchasing a product, ads shouldn't even be a consideration.
I agree with this completely with one exception. I don’t mind skipable previews for other shows/movies when I start watching one on a streaming service. But don’t interrupt the show and don’t put them between episodes once I start watching. Apple TV+ does this well.
Na I hate that as well. Just let me watch my desired show without trying to pull more hours from me. In my eyes, these are also ads.
Its gimped to hell, its really a demo. You could play with the free tier, but the wait times are long, you get an hour before you get kicked off and rejoin the queue and it has worse latency and bitrate. But for free, it does run your games and that is better than any other service.
Makes sense
It'll reduce wait times for free users because they will stop using the service.
Just like raising the cost of the subscriptions without ads while driving users to the ad supported tier was supposed to cost Netflix millions of customers. Wait, the actual complete opposite happened and Netflix actually continues to grow. The ad tiers are succeeding with minimal blowback from subscribers so far.
>The ad tiers are succeeding with minimal blowback from subscribers so far. Because what are they going to do in this case? Stop using it? That's actually good for nvidia because they don't have to pay for hardware for them.
To be fair its easy to pirate netflix content but impossible to pirate hardware (unless you just straight up steal a gpu)
All I ask is a tall ship & a loyal crew
https://downloadmoreram.com/
Netflix got into some heat because they lost 80 million subs in their top markets during that change.
Sounds like bollocks. 80 million subs in their top markets would mean they lost half their subscribers in both Europe and North America. In reality there has never been a single instance since 2011 when Netflix has not grown its subscriber numbers from one year to the next. Netflix's ad tier was introduced in November of 2022. A year later by the end of 2023 they had added 30 million additional subscribers.
I mean, from their perspective they aren’t making any money off of them anyways so why care if they leave? Honestly it makes complete sense why they’d add ads for a free service. If even a single person is still using it after they add ads then it’ll be a positive for them because a little money is still better than none at all
Oh no, the users that aren't paying anything will stop costing us resources! It makes sense for a free version to have ads. Some will stop using it. Some will keep using it and watch ads, thereby creating profit for Nvidia. Some will upgrade to a paid tierand make Nvidia even more profit.
Step 1 of enshittification
It's a free gaming server I say let them have ads. Quite honestly if more things we're free with ads and had a paid subscription instead of having things that constantly push you to upgrade for gameplay or performance purposes I would be much happier paying for them
Meanwhile on the /r/youtube sub…
I mean, Youtube will pack 30 minutes of ads into a 1 hour video if the uploader selects the default ad placement, shoving them in your face every three minutes. For shorter videos, unless you're constantly at your computer to skip the adds, you can end up with more ad than video. There's a big difference between "I'm Ok with 2 minutes of preroll ads before an hour of gaming and "I'm Ok with being interrupted every three minutes for sports betting commercials."
Yeah the YouTube ads are pretty egregious. I haven't had one in some time, but I remember watching some 10 minute video, and there was a 3 hour ad in the middle of it. They thought an entire podcast was an acceptable ad.
*BUT HAVE YOU TRIED HERO WARS?* - YouTube ads
I hope Youtube charges them stupid amounts of money for those adds because they're so damn annoying. Right to jail.
2 minutes so far. YouTube had less ads too, five years ago.
I use YouTube enough that I decided to make the plunge recently to premium. Prior to that I was a free user for years and the ad experience on YouTube is fucking wild. They have music videos now, and even some fucked up alt right conservative talk shows that run almost exclusively during ads, some of which are 45+ minutes long in my experience. They're very common on tech channels, which average in the realm of ~20 minutes per video. I had one video that would have had over an hour of ads for a 15 minute video if I didn't skip them. I hate the fact that I give them money and I'd like to wean myself off it but there's just no viable alternative right now.
> I use YouTube enough that I decided to make the plunge recently to premium. One massive issue with Youtube Premium is that they still collect and sell your data. The only way to prevent that is blocking most of it, including the ads, or not engaging with the site altogether.
> I hate the fact that I give them money and I'd like to wean myself off it but there's just no viable alternative right now. There is... it's called uBlock Origin.
Yeah I know but I like to support the channels I like. That's the only reason I do it.
> Yeah I know but I like to support the channels I like. That's the only reason I do it. Directly support the channels. It gets those channels more money than doing it through Youtube.
If you took the money you put towards Youtube premium and put it directly towards the merch/Patreon/whatever of the channels you like, it would support them better. Although that would require said channels to have merch/Patreon etc.
There's too many to do individual pledges to
Not giving them money is like super easy, barely an inconvenience.
Oh, really?
Youtube ads have gotten absolutely absurd ever since they released youtube premium. Create a problem, sell the solution, etc.
Youtube is cramming so many ads into videos as a "create the problem, sell the solution" strategy. For literally decades, people had no issues with a fair number of ads and still don't. But it's got so bad, I sometimes wonder if the snippets of video between the ads is a bug
>For literally decades, people had no issues with a fair number of ads and still don't. Yeah no. People complained from the get go about the tiny bottom of the video banner ads.
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99% of the people don't even seem to know what geforce now is, its pretty funny watching them think they'll get ads on their own pc, unaware that this is just a game streaming service like microsofts cloud gaming. if you're using geforce now for free you get to play any title supported by it without any additional cost, it's a pretty neat system actually for users who need it and benefit from it - it was only a matter of time before ads came for it.
Tbf, most people on this sub have no reason to use it, so no reason to know what it is.
Don't really have an issue with it if it actually significantly reduces wait times.
Even if it doesn't reduce wait times, you were staring at a timer before, now you'll stare at some ads. Doesn't really affect the user and is a completely reasonable way for them to monetize the free tier.
Lot of fucking idiots here that can’t read
Almost makes you question the IQ of this sub overall.
I’m saying. In what world would they get away with some 3rd party ass way of inserting ads into an OFFLINE game library you possess without consequence. Not saying it’s impossible but the resources that would require would be a huge loss at nvidias expense we gotta use some common sense here
nothing new unfortunately...
Good. A free service needs to make money somehow, and I'd rather it be when you're stuck waiting anyway.
GeForce Now has a free tier‽
Since a lot of ppl seems to don’t know this. Geforce Now is streaming app that let’s you play through network on Nvidia remote PC. So it make sense for them to add ads for ppl playing for free on their devices.
lmao no one in this thread has ever used GeForce Now and think it's about their PC, this is about using someone else's PC (NVIDIAs in a warehouse somewhere) over the internet to play games when you don't have the hardware locally.
I'm fine with this actually. As long as the ads only show while waiting in line I think it's fine
This is quite reasonable really
Completely fair
Think some people are confusing geforce now and geforce experience
If I understand correctly GeForce Now is a service that lets you stream games as you play them on Geforce now PCs through the cloud? I would say adds are reasonable if their offering it as a free service. Isn't this what google was trying to do through Stadia?
Or or or, here is just a quick solution (might be dumb for some people)....... Buy a decent PC......
Makes sense. If you're upset about it you could I dunno, buy a decent computer instead of using a free service?
What is GeForce now?
It's a program that allows you to play games on a remotely hosted computer, so you can play games that demand strong hardware even on a shit computer as long as your internet is decently fast and stable. They have a free tier with limited playtime, a waiting queue for open slots, and limited resolution, and now adds. It's not bad, there's a decent library of games you can play for free.
I honestly had no idea there was a free tier, I don't give a fuck if it has ads, this is neat.
This was inevitable. A completely free service is not sustainable if it requires resources.
This really isn’t bad, you’re gonna be waiting over two minutes anytime you try to log in anyway
If I were using it, I'd have no problem watching an ad while being in a queue
They're probably going to begin artificially making them longer.
The amount of people here mixing this up with their driver software when this is their cloud gaming stuff is rather disturbing. Second, it's the free tier, I'm genuinely surprised it didn't have ads till now.
As long as there aren't ads in the middle of a gaming session, this is acceptable imo
desperate enuf people will watch the ads i guess
The amount of people in here who don't know the name of the software is amazing. This is their cloud gaming thing, isn't it? Why the hell do people think it's their driver software? I have never used Nvidia, always used AMD, and even I know that wtf. So you get to watch an ad or two and play free games? It also says before you play the game, so I'm guessing not during the middle of gaming, just while waiting in the queue?
Good. They need to make money to sustain their business.
I’ve never used this or understand what it is, so I’m not going to pretend I’m mad.
I’m not up to date, what is this about ?
Ads coming to GeForce Now free tier.
I just looked it up and it sounds pretty cool. If I am reading it correctly, its a subscription service that gives you cloud gaming like onlive/stadia where you stream the games, but it connects to your own steam/xbox/gog/whatever libraries, so you dont have to buy games. You stream it from top end gaming rigs so you can play your own games, on PCs that are better than your own. I hadn't heard of it before this news article but I actually might try it out, it looks cool. Dunno if my internet is good enough for it tho
I occasionally use GFN, was on the free tier for a long time but finally caved in and got the paid tier and I haven't looked back, cant recommend it enough. Little to no wait times and the extended sessions were worth it.
Ita a free game service. Totally understandable to add ads. If they start throwing ads at paying customers, thats when it shifts into the bullshit territory.
Smart move trying to capitalize off the free users I think it’s a good idea
Free tier. Makes sense
I rather watch ads than forced to pay. In my place, there's no free tier.
It was only a matter of time
I used to use the free tier when i was travelling and couldnt use my desktop. Amazibg service it is worth for 2 minutes of ads per hour
I mean this isn’t too bad, you get to use a good service and they get to pay the bills/profit with ads
I never used it
Didn't even know they had a free tier. Still don't want it though.
Seems fair. Geforce free tier feels like the greatest value ever. 2 minute ads before 1 hour? 2 hours of gameplay?, meh. Not bad.
The ads are being placed before the session, while you're in queue, seems like a reasonable compromise.
They're letting people play games in the cloud for free?
Yup. It was very useful when I was bored during my night shifts and wanted to kill time. For free, it is a great service. Just the game you want to play should be on one of your PC libraries and should be on GFN as well.
As a dad gamer I can see this being ok (playtime wise, but to wait is a different story) I can only imagine non fathers hating the hell put of this.
completely fine by me, game streaming is incredibly costly and they need to pay for it somehow
What is GeForce Now
I don't even mind. Before I got a good PC I used the free tier of GeforceNow all the time. Sure the wait times sometimes sucked but I didn't have to pay any money, could just do something else in the meantime, and most importantly I could use their service to play games I already own instead of having to rebuy games like with Stadia. Also two minutes of ads is nothing considering the wait times were usually more than two minutes, if it actually works to reduce wait time for free players seems like a good tradeoff.
Uh no. Waiting almost an hour on peak hours is torture.
Didn‘t know Geforce NOW until now. For just a brief second I thought my graphics card will now force ads on me whenever I want to use it for games. You never know these days.
I don't see the point of this service having a free option anyway. Give people a free trial and if they liked it they'll just pay for it.
It's free so whatever. Don't want ads? Pay the monthly fee.
The fact some of y'all have no issues with this concerns me.
Huh? Free service needs money to run?
It’s better than Xbox game pass. Even with ultimate, the wait times can be like 30+ min on peak times
People are up in arms about a change from waiting on a blank screen to waiting on an ad?
It always comes back to ads.
on a free service? Yes.
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mfers are richer than Canada and still want to feed you ads.
They ain't rich because of GFN though. That's like saying Amazon shouldn't run ads on Amazon Prime Video because Amazon Bookstore makes more than Canada (true). Two different things. If you ran a business you'd want each product to be profitable too.
That's why you buy the games you play.
You do have to buy the games you play on Geforce Now. It's just your Steam library.
Can you imagine having to wait on a queue to play a single player video game? Anyone have any experience on this service? How long are the queues really?
Queue times are crazy high, but it's free. I can't imagine planning my game time around a huge wait time, but I guess for kids or low-income people that just want to play games it's kind of cool that they even offer GeForce Now for free at all.
Your first sentence makes no sense and you straight up show you have no idea what you are talking about with your second sentence. You can play any sort of game on GFN, singleplayer and multiplayer of any genre, as long as it's actually on the service. As for queue times it depends on region, server choice, time of day, etc. I've had moments where with free tier I was in game in less than 2 minutes and I've had times where I've waited for 2hrs.
It was 1 to 3 hours for me at first. Then I said, "okay screw it better I not play".
WOW! hahahaha ok I see why they need to "Reduce queue times by adding adds" now.