GeForce Now... The Death of Desktop Gaming?

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It has been the case since the existence of computers that you must own a high end PC to play new, graphically intensive games. Computers themselves are expensive, and getting a 'decent' gaming PC to run the newest triple A titles is an expense that not everyone can afford.

A mid tier gaming PC these days costs about $800 minimum and also requires assembly and knowledge of the platform prior to construction.

Here is an example of a mid tier gaming PC using common parts. A PC like this could run any modern game at 60FPS (or beyond), but there are occasional games that might not perform at ultra level (such as the Witcher 3). Here are the parts that I picked for this example:

GTX 1060 $360
I5 8600k$240
Budget Z370 Motherboard$160
8gb RAM $100

Obviously there is more to a PC, and that is my point. Just these parts cost over $800, and it isn't even a complete PC. You could cut a few corners and get cheaper, but my point still stands.

By now I am sure you can imagine the problems this creates for people who want to enter the world of PC gaming. The bridge to be able to play PC games isn't cheap, nor easy to bridge. It is getting better these days, but it's still definitely daunting for a newcomer to the scene.

Enter Cloud Gaming

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Honestly I didn't think there was a way around this problem, this bridge. I have tried services like Steam Streaming, and online streaming services, but even with good internet they didn't seem great (and Steam only streams locally too). However NVidia looks to change that, and very soon!

The beta for Geforce Now has already been released on both PC and Mac, and it has great performance from the videos I have seen. The only limitation that might cause a problem for people is the internet speed (which is 50 mbps recommended or 5ghz wifi. To my knowledge most people are still below these internet requirements (keep in mind if you live with others who use the internet you will need more), and a 5ghz router is unnecessary for most people, hence I don't believe it to be common.

This service will allow you to stream any games from the NVidia servers to your local PC that meets these requirements:

Intel i3 with 3.1GHz or faster CPU
4GB of system memory
GPU that at least supports DirectX 9
NVIDIA GeForce 600 series or newer
AMD Radeon HD 3000 series or newer
Intel HD Graphics 2000 series or newer
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As you can see, these requirements are far lower than those of a gaming PC currently needed to play new releases. But there are also far bigger bonuses to GeForce Now:

No need to upgrade your PC. It wont be outdated.

You don't have the problems of a PC (faulty parts, overheating, etc).

Customer support will always be there to help you (unlike with your own PC)

You will always have the latest hardware, games can be run at 120FPS

You will still need to own all the games yourself, and not all games will be supported (to my knowledge only games from the big platforms currently are supported. Steam, Origin, Uplay, etc). So there is still some need to have your own PC, but for the 99% of games GeForce Now will serve you fantastically.

I think that this brings me to the conclusion of the article, why do you still need a high end PC? For gaming, I don't think you will. Unless you are a very niche gamer who plays demanding games which aren't on the platforms listed above, you will no longer need a dedicated gaming PC (provided you also have the internet).

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So who will still need a high end PC? I think that GeForce Now will remove the need for gamers to have strong PC's altogether, meaning that the only people still requiring these PC's will be editors and creators.

I think pricing will be the most important aspect of whether this service is valuable or not. I imagine that you will be able to select from different performance levels/hardware in the future. Right now though..... The price is a ludicrous $25 for 20 hours. That means that you'll be paying $125 for 100 hours of game time... That's too much (on top of the initial price of the game). However I do think this will decrease over time. Also, not everyone needs 1080ti performance, some people are happy with 60fps on a 1050ti. It will be interesting to see how they deal with this problem in the future.

If you are interested in the beta click here