Nvidia GeForce Now – Gaming in a cargo bike through Amsterdam
You probably know the GeForce RTX line of graphics cards from Nvidia. However, the company also wants to get more involved in the provision of gaming services. The flagship for that matter is Nvidia GeForce Now. Through this service you can stream more than 1000 games via the cloud. That is why you no longer suffer from download times, updates and insufficient registration. Nvidia makes sure that the service works perfectly via a 5G connection. Are games streaming via 5G really the future?
To test the stability and power of GeForce Nu, we were invited for a unique outing. I took a seat in a cargo bike dressed with gaming gear to be transported through Amsterdam and at the same time test the cloud functionalities of GeForce Now through the use of mobile data. I couldn’t say no to that.
During the ride, the cargo bike, equipped with a tablet and iPhone connected to the 5G network, was driven through the busy streets of the capital. For the first half of the ride, Cyberpunk 2077 was played on an iPad. In the second half it was Fortnite’s turn on the iPhone. A police chase in Cyberpunk has never felt more real with the cargo bike bouncing through the city. The Victory Royale in Fortnite was not in it, but a thirteenth place with seven kills!
It was immediately noticeable that there was almost no delay between the input and implementation of the actions. For the most part, the performance of the games was stable for the most part. The only other way the ride was noticeable was when the link switched to a denser cell tower. The appearance of the games is also often discussed when you talk about cloud gaming. Although the details were clearly less sharp than on a console and PC, the image was clear. There was also no trace of the visual glitches that now sometimes occur with a 4G connection.
Geforce Now is part of a competitive market. It competes against such as Google Stadia, Amazon Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming. In giving you access to 1000+ games and your own game library from Steam, Epic Games, GOG and more. GeForce Now is also heavily committed to constant updates. For example, there will be new games every Thursday, including major AAA titles that will be available via the cloud on day one. Not unimportant is that these games all run on performance with the power of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 video card.
The cargo bike ride shows a nice glimpse of the future when cloud gaming via 5G will become more widespread. Graphically, the games played were fine. Especially the delays in the controller that you still often notice during cloud gaming, was virtually non-existent in this case. Although the chance is small that you will end up in a cargo bike while gaming, GeForce still seems to be a particularly valid option for gaming in the back seat of the car or on public transport.
GeForce Now is currently available on PC, mobile, Android TV and LG TV. If you buy the streaming media player Nvidia Shield, you can use television as a cloud gaming platform. More information about the service and the different prices can be found on the Geforce Now website.