How GeForce NOW works
The future of video games could be unrelated to hardware. Of course, at the moment it is difficult to imagine a gaming experience linked solely to streaming services, but cloud gaming is increasingly a reality and services like NVIDIA GeForce NOW prove it.
NVIDIA GeForce is a service offered by NVIDIA, a company famous above all for its graphics cards, which allows you to play over the Internet from any computer, smartphone, tablet and even other devices by exploiting the “brute force” of its remote servers. This means that it is possible to play even the latest generation titles at the highest quality without having a gaming PC or a latest generation console; you just need a good internet connection.
How do you say? Have you already spotted the service in question and, knowing among other things that it is possible to try it for free, would you like to know more about how it works? No sooner said than done. In fact, below you will find explained in detail how GeForce NOW works and how to take advantage of its offer on all compatible devices. I assure you it is really very simple. Having said that, there is nothing left for me to do, except wish you good reading and, above all, have fun!
Index
- Preliminary information
- Compatible devices and requirements
- NVIDIA GeForce NOW offering and pricing
- How GeForce NOW works
- How to register for GeForce NOW
- How to use GeForce NOW on a computer
- How to use GeForce NOW on mobile devices
- How to use GeForce NOW on Xbox
Preliminary information
Before going into the details of the procedure on how GeForce NOW works , I think it may interest you to know more about this service. Below, therefore, you can find all the details of the case on compatible devices, requirements, offer and prices.
Compatible devices and requirements
NVIDIA GeForce NOW is a cloud gaming service that – without getting too technical – through the use of a good Internet connection allows you to take advantage of the performance of powerful gaming PCs from computers, smartphones and tablets. But not only.
Put simply, the user interacts with his device (which doesn’t have to have advanced technical specifications), but all game processing work is done by NVIDIA’s remote servers. The servers – that is NVIDIA’s computers – send the video stream of the game to the user’s device, which receives the input entered by the user via pad / keyboard and sends it back to the servers with more than good latency times (always at pact to use a good connection).
As for the requirements , the most important is clearly the one related to the Internet connection : NVIDIA states that at least 15 Mbps in download are required to play at 720p resolution at 60 fps , while at least 25 Mbps are required for 1080p at 60 fps . In addition, the use of a wired connection (via Ethernet cable) is strongly recommended . Alternatively, the use of a 5 GHz Wi-Fi network is recommended . If you do not meet the requirements, there may be visual artifacts, high latency and other aspects that could compromise the gaming experience.
For more details on how to check if what you have available complies with the aforementioned requirements, I suggest you consult my tutorials on how to see the speed of the Internet connection and how to see the GHz of Wi-Fi .
Otherwise, the requirements reported by NVIDIA state that you must have a Windows PC with Windows 7 64-bit or higher operating system, 2.0 GHz or higher X86 dual-core processor , at least 4GB of RAM and a video card with support for DirectX 11 (GeForce 600 series onwards, AMD Radeon HD 3000 series or later or Intel HD Graphics 2000 series onwards). In the Mac environment , a computer produced from 2008 onwards with macOS 10.10 or higher is required .
As for the mobile sector , you need a smartphone or tablet with Android 5.0 or higher , at least 2GB of RAM and support for OpenGL ES3.2 or higher ; The iPhone must be updated at least IOS 14.2 , the iPad to iPadOS 14 . Finally, there is support for devices such as the NVIDIA Shield TV Android TV Box and for consoles that allow you to use the service from a web browser (but I’ll talk more about this later ).
The controllers compatible with the service are also different, including Sony’s DualShock 4 and the Xbox controller . Find the complete list of specifications on the official website .
NVIDIA GeForce NOW offering and pricing
Now that you are aware of the requirements to access GeForce NOW, I would say that it is time to take a look at what NVIDIA’s service offers.
Well, GeForce NOW offers the user a vast catalog of compatible games (including triple A titles), which is constantly expanding (generally, support is added to new titles on a weekly basis). You can see the full list here .
Now you are surely wondering at what price you can access this service. In this case, you should know that the games are purchased individually and are not included in the subscription as, for example, in Microsoft’s Game Pass . Indeed, GeForce NOW provides the “brute force” of its infrastructure, but then it is necessary to connect the Steam , Epic Games and / or Uplay accounts to access the games purchased on the aforementioned platforms.
This is very interesting, as it allows you to play, for example, the last triple AAA of the moment by paying only the cost of the game. In fact, NVIDIA GeForce NOW has a free plan that allows you to play without paying anything, but there is a limit of up to an hour for a single session and advanced features such as Ray Tracing are missing . You may also have to wait your turn to play , as you won’t have priority access to servers .
If, on the other hand, you want the latter, you intend to carry out prolonged gaming sessions and want to have access to visual impact features such as RTX, you can subscribe to the Priority subscription at a price of 9.99 euros per month or 99, 99 euros per year .
How GeForce NOW works
After giving you all the preliminary information of the case, I would say that it is time to take action and start using GeForce NOW. Below you can find all the relevant information, ranging from account registration to the use of various devices, passing through the connection of profiles relating to the main digital video game stores.
How to register for GeForce NOW
To start using the service offered by NVIDIA, you need to register for a special account . Don’t worry – this procedure takes little time.
In fact, you just need to connect to the official GeForce NOW portal , choose the plan you want to subscribe and press the appropriate PARTICIPATE button . You will then be prompted to log in with your account. To log in quickly, you might think about proceeding with one of your profiles between Google , Facebook and Apple .
To register with your email address instead, just click on the Create account link . You will then be prompted to fill in a form requesting your email address , display name , password , password confirmation and date of birth .
You will also need to check the I accept terms and conditions box and complete the “test” I am a human being . Once this is done, all you have to do is press the CREATE ACCOUNT button and follow the instructions to complete everything (usually the classic confirmation e-mail is sent).
Once logged in, you may be asked to set some options, for example, to personalized advice , the sharing of information in order to bug fixes and receipt via e-mail offers and more. In this case, just check the boxes you deem appropriate and press the SEND button to continue.
At this point, if you have chosen the free subscription , the portal will welcome you and show on the screen the links to download the official application for the various platforms. In the case of the Priority subscription , however, at a certain point it will be necessary to set up a valid payment method , such as card or PayPal , and continue with the transaction.
How to use GeForce NOW on a computer
If you are planning to use GeForce NOW from Windows or macOS , this part of the guide is for you.
Starting from Windows , just connect to the download page of the GeForce NOW client and press the DOWNLOAD button . Once the download is complete, open the .exe file obtained, answer affirmatively to the User Account Control request and wait a few seconds: the program will start by itself.
As for macOS , once you have pressed the DOWNLOAD button of the site, wait for the download to finish, open the .dmg file obtained and drag the NVIDIA GeForce NOW icon into the Applications folder of the Mac. At the first start, you will be asked to authorize the application to start.
Once the program has started, regardless of the operating system used, press the ACCEPT AND CONTINUE button and the client will show you the main features of GeForce NOW, showing you where the menu is and how to find the games. Press the NEXT and OK buttons to end the tutorial.
At this point, click on the LOGIN button , located at the top right: the browser window will appear on the screen with a login page. Press the NVIDIA button and log in with the account you created earlier.
Once the message You have logged in appears on the screen , you can close the browser window and you will see that the login has been completed. At this point, I advise you to click on the Sync your games box , in order to link your accounts to the NVIDIA profile.
Next, click on the Synchronize icon , present at the top right of the box linked to Steam , to link this type of account. A browser window will appear on the screen, asking you to log in with your Steam account. In some cases, the NVIDIA GeForce NOW client may ask you to change some options related to your account’s game details.
Next, click on the ☰ icon on the top left and select the Games option , so that you will return to the main screen. This will take you to the My Library section , which includes all the GeForce NOW compatible games you have on Steam.
At this point, you are rightly wondering how to connect other accounts, for example Epic Games and Uplay , since there is no specific option in the settings, unlike what happens for Steam.
In this case, you should know that you will be prompted to log in when you first log into a game. Put simply, you don’t have to worry: you will see that you will be able to connect without too much trouble.
In this regard, to start testing GeForce NOW, I suggest you try to start the first game, perhaps by choosing Fortnite (which is free to play ). Press, therefore, on the search bar at the top, type “fortnite” (or the name of another game) and select the most relevant result .
You can also add the title to your library , by pressing the appropriate button, in order to find it immediately next time. For the rest, in the case of titles linked for example to Epic Games , the program will warn you that you will need to log in with the appropriate account to play. Simply press the CONTINUE button to proceed.
Then the network analysis will start and the system will give you a response that will help you understand if you can actually get a good gaming experience, also providing you with tips to improve it (for example, switching to a 5 GHz Wi-Fi network and so on).
In any case, just click the CONTINUE / CONTINUE ANYWAY button to start testing the service. If you have the Priority membership , the game will essentially start instantly . Alternatively, the number of users in front of you in the queue will appear on the screen .
So you just have to wait your turn to be able to start playing. In the case of the first launch of Fortnite, you will be prompted to log in to your Epic Games account (a browser will open inside the computer offered by NVIDIA, the history and other features are obviously disabled so other players will not be able to access to your data).
Once logged in, you can start playing. As for the input methods , I remind you that, net of the differences between the various titles, you can generally use both mouse and keyboard and compatible controllers . For more details in this regard, you can refer to the preliminary chapter . In any case, in my experience, it was enough for me to connect an Xbox-like controller to the PC and I was able to start playing this way.
For the rest, once your session is over (which, I remind you, has a maximum duration of 1 hour for the free plan), you can return to the initial GeForce NOW menu by simply exiting the game as you usually would.
If you want to take a look at the options offered by the client program, you can do so by clicking on the ☰ icon in the top left and clicking on the SETTINGS tab . From here you can best configure your gaming experience.
More precisely, you can select the location of the server (I recommend you leave Auto ), as well as test your connection by pressing the TEST NETWORK button . Furthermore, you can manage the type of your subscription , whether Free or Priority, activate any promotional codes , enable or disable the indications relating to the status of the network during the game and choose the keyboard layout .
There is also the possibility to choose whether to show others what you are playing through GeForce Now on Discord , as well as choose the quality of the streaming . There are four options: Balanced , Data Saving , Competitive and Custom . Upon choice, the program also returns an indication of how much data is “consumed” per hour of play.
As for the Custom setting , you can choose various interesting options, from maximum speed to resolution, passing through fps and V-Sync . In short, the possibilities of choice are certainly not lacking.
For completeness of information, you must finally know that it is possible to use, for the moment in beta mode , GeForce Now also directly from the Google Chrome browser . If you want to test the service in this way, the link to follow is this .
How to use GeForce NOW on mobile devices
If you intend to use GeForce NOW from mobile devices , the procedure varies depending on the system you want to use.
The official GeForce NOW application is available on Android . To download the latter, just open the Play Store , type “geforce now” , tap on the app icon and press the corresponding Install button .
The use of the service is particularly simple and immediate. In fact, you just need to log in with the account you created earlier and then everything is very similar to what I explained in the chapter on the computer .
The differences with the PC version are really minimal. To be clear, on Android, after pressing the SIGN IN button and logging in , the synchronization with Steam can be done by pressing on the gear icon , present at the top right, and selecting the Synchronization games option .
Once synchronized, the games will appear in the My Catalog section . At the top there is also a search bar to search for titles, while to start the latter just press on the appropriate box . Essentially that’s all, since the application does not allow you to make particular settings.
In any case, then during the game it will be possible to use the input methods provided by the individual titles, but the differences in terms of ease of use are really minimal with the PC variant. In any case, the advice is to use a controller . For the rest, the pages of the individual games refer to the required input method , so you shouldn’t have any problems with that.
As for iPhone and iPad , everything happens directly from the Safari browser . Due to the rules imposed by Apple on its store, in fact, an official GeForce NOW app is not available. To use the service you must therefore act through the official website . There is nothing too difficult even in this case: once you have reached the appropriate web page that I showed you previously from Safari, just tap on the ACCEPT AND CONTINUE button and press the account icon at the top on the right to login .
Once logged in, press the Finish button , present at the top left, and you can start using the service just as if you were on a PC. For example, you can press the ☰ icon, present at the top left, and access the Settings tab to adjust all game parameters.
If you want some advice, add a quick access icon to the GeForce NOW site on the Home screen: to do this, once logged in, just press the share icon (the square with the arrow) at the bottom and select the Add to Home screen option from the menu that opens, confirming everything by pressing the Add button . Convenient, right?
How to use GeForce NOW on Xbox
How do you say? Have you heard that you can also use GeForce NOW directly from the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X , which are Microsoft’s ninth generation consoles? I know, it seems a bit absurd to be able to access this service, which also allows you to access PC games, from consoles, but they didn’t lie to you: I’ll tell you how to do it right away!
In this case, you need to go through Microsoft Edge , a browser pre-installed on the aforementioned Xboxes. In any case, I would like to clarify that at the moment it is an “unofficial” feature , discovered by fans following the arrival of Edge in Chromium version for those who have access to the trial stages related to Xbox .
If you are interested, to access this feature you need to connect from Edge Chromium on Xbox to this specific link . However, to have this browser variant available, you must currently be part of the Alpha Skip-Ahead program for Insiders .
This means that you must be invited by Microsoft to test the new features to access this possibility. For more details regarding the Insider program , I recommend that you take a look at the official guidelines .