Just a few months after Google's debut of its Stadia game streaming service, Nvidia may have undercut and outperformed it with its new GeForce Now experience, which promises game streaming without the need to buy games, and with ray tracing enabled.
GeForce Now isn't standalone in the way that Stadia is, but it does operate in a similar manner. It leverages your existing game library to stream games to PCs, smartphones and tablets, running them at 1080p and 60 FPS. That might fall behind Stadia's 4K goals, but Nvidia's option does have ray tracing acceleration, which can add a lot to an experience in the right game.
You'll have more control and information with GeoForce Now too, with Nvidia letting you in on what GPU is running your game, and what kind of frame rate you're targeting with the particular hardware setup you're running.
Tiered pricing gives a free version for those looking to try it out, with a one hour limitation on your session length. Those who pay $5 now for the Founders Edition will get priority server access, extended session length (though it doesn't claim unlimited) and a free three months to try the service out.
Nvidia's service supports multiple stores, so there's a vast swathe of games that you can stream, but there are some titles locked away behind publishing deals and unsupported stores, like EA's catalog of games.
Would you give GeForce Now a go?