GeForce Now is a streaming game service that lets you play titles you couldn't otherwise run, but Nvidia had restricted it to Shield devices. Recognizing that this essentially ignored the entire market, the company announced that GeForce Now will extend its reach to any computer running Windows or macOS.
If you want to stream music, there are services like Spotify. For movies and series, Netflix tops the list. But what about video games? The theory is too good to ignore: a remote server equipped with the best graphics cards on the market sending all the action over the internet, without spending a cent on hardware. Unfortunately, such a service can't avoid some problems, and the most important one is latency. No gamer will be interested in a match that responds to every command 150 or 200 milliseconds later. No matter how calm the game might be, such a delay means almost certain defeat. Some companies have been working on that, but Nvidia needed to fix other things in GeForce Now, starting with its availability.
The Shield hardware requirement is a thing of the past. From now on, GeForce Now works on any computer running Windows or macOS. This new version of the service gives you the equivalent of a remote Windows-based virtual machine. On it, you can access games from other services like Steam and Origin (after installing a small client, and you must own the games), download them from your library, and run them with a GeForce GTX 1060 or 1080. The virtual machine also lets you play special multiplayer titles (World of Tanks was mentioned as an example) and save games so you can continue on another computer.
It sounds great... too great. But it's time to learn the fine print. First, the price: $25 for twenty hours of play on a GTX 1060, or ten hours on a GTX 1080. Second, its connectivity requirements remain just as aggressive (50 megabits per second for a 1080p game, without considering lag). And finally, there will be no international access at first. Nvidia will launch the new version of GeForce Now in the United States during March.
