How is GeForce Now with Steam? I have a Steam link but find it to be a pain in the rear. It's also difficult / clumsy to use for non Steam games. Does GeForce Now solve this or is it just ... different?
GeForce Now can be used with Steam quite seamlessly. In fact, GeForce Now's value is to play the games you already own on various platforms on their hardware. They're not trying to be another games store.
I thought GeForce now was a “bring your own library” service? I think they can auth with steam directly and you can play most games available on the steam store.
GeForce now is a pretty poor user experience compared with Stadia, IMHO - it is definitely not universally more approachable at all. And only PC gamers with existing steam libraries have existing content to play on GF Now. But the thing is... I'm not likely to already own a game in steam, that I can't play on my own hardware. So the fact that my existing library is available to play, isn't much of a draw, in and of itself. I keep looking for excuses to play one of my games on GF now, but I keep finding I have no reason to prefer it over my PC.
Have you ever used Steam on Geforce Now? There is absolutely no friction. You do not even have to know Steam exists. You just search for the game you want, and do one more sign-up.
Every time I've tried Steam Play, even over hardwired gigabit, it's been laggy, buggy, and crash prone. There was always display switching problems, controllers and keyboards not being detected correctly, graphical issues, etc. Just a PITA.
GeForce Now works much better and doesn't require you to have your own GPU. Do need fast internet though.
You can just sign up for Geforce NOW beta, it's free for now, you automatically get all the games you have on Steam, it works and it probably won't go away anytime soon.
Which have you tried? I had similar problems as you with steamlink, but geforce experience+moonlight has been a godsend. Works incredibly well (if you have a Nvidia GPU)
GeForce now has too much friction to launch a game right now. It has to spawn this weird stripped down windows shell, where you then have to log in to steam (my steam password is cumbersome to type, because I use strong passwords and a password manager, and copy/paste doesn't seem to work between my desktop and the vm), and then you have to launch your game. This whole process takes about 5 minutes.
This. You don't need a PC at all, I don't have one, just a TV and a Shield, and GeForce Now works great for me. I just buy Steam games through their website and it works perfectly.
You're not making any sense to me. Steam is just an app store. A "gaming PC" is just a regular PC with more powerful hardware in it, using software on it does not take any special skills specific to gaming PCs.
And as the other commenter points out, playing steam games via geforce now doesn't even require installing the steam app anyway, it's just an account link.
I've always disliked Steam cause I view it as just an extra DRM/adware/forced-update step to run Steam-exclusive games, but don't see how it's gotten worse over time. It's gotten a little more stable if anything.
GeForce Now gives you a Windows box with Steam on it, and you log into your Steam account on it. They pair it with a super fast cache of the Steam Depot so your first install is speedy. That way, there's no integration necessary, and Nvidia doesn't have to reinvent the achievement/launcher/licensing wheel.
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