Originally launched on the NVIDIA Shield console back in 2015, and then known as “NVIDIA Grid”, GeForce NOW has evolved immensely since its first iterations. At CES 2017, the company revealed that it was working to bring GeForce NOW to Windows and Mac as well, and 2020 saw the official launch of the game streaming service. In the years that followed, NVIDIA continued to add new features like DLSS, G-Sync, and Reflex, but dramatically increase the raw power behind it.
Now in 2024, GeForce NOW is a much more robust and complete service than it was in 2017 or 2020, and that’s why we thought it would be a good idea to revisit the topic and see what’s new, how the experience has improved over time and whether the past issues that many gamers reported have been resolved or still persist. To make things even more interesting, the test platform we chose is a MacBook Air M1, a laptop that is extremely far from being a gaming machine. But I think we can change that.
Reflex is a game changer!
I’ll start from the beginning with, in my opinion, the most important and impactful change brought to GeForce NOW: support for Reflex and G-Sync. In fact, these two technologies were recently added earlier this year, so it’s a good time to test them and see if they really make a difference. (Spoiler alert: YES!)
All said and done, I linked my Steam account to my GeForce NOW account and had it play one of the most sensitive competitive shooters when it comes to input lag: CS2. Because yes, a few years ago NVIDIA’s game streaming platform had some pretty serious input lag issues. It wasn’t insurmountable for casual or single-player games, where you could get used to the increased latency after 10-15 minutes, but it was really unacceptable for competitive games, where reflexes matter most.
Well, I’m happy to report that now, in 2024 and in combination with Reflex, the input lag in GeForce NOW is almost imperceptible! I swear on my picky gamer word! The first time I went into a deathmatch on Dust II I couldn’t believe the game was running on GeForce NOW and not native. I thought maybe I had rushed and released the game directly on native Steam instead of launching it through NVIDIA’s cloud portal. No problem, it was straight from the cloud with extremely low latency and finally suitable for more competitive activities.
However, I have to make an important mention here. My internet connection was wired, on a very stable 1Gbps network, so I had more or less all the right conditions for maximum performance. If you put a Wi-Fi connection and a lower bandwidth into the equation, your mileage will vary, as the American says. The most important factor in our input lag discussion is ping, the lower the better, and if you’re serious about playing PvP shooters like CS2 or Valorant, you’d be best off connecting to cable net.
But if you can’t do that, how does it work? To test, I removed the cable from the computer and connected to the same network, only via Wi-Fi. Before launching the game I ran the network test built into the GeForce NOW app to see the differences in speed and, more importantly, latency. And as I expected, latency on the service’s servers went from 10ms to 17ms, a 70% difference on paper. It’s worth noting that the network is Wi-Fi 5, not 6 or 6E, so you’ll most likely get better performance if you connect to a network that’s based on a newer standard.
That being said, the CS2 experience on Wi-Fi was ok, but clearly inferior to the wired one. The input lag was a bit higher, and even if you can have fun with friends at a LAN party and on Wi-Fi, my opinion is that playing at a competitive level is out of the question in a setup like this. And it was somewhat predictable given the 70% increase in latency, despite the fact that just 7ms extra doesn’t seem like much. In reality, the difference is big enough that you’ll feel like the cursor lags behind your movements, which is something you don’t want if you’re a serious gamer.
On the other hand, if you want to play casual or single player games on GeForce NOW over Wi-Fi, you will be able to enjoy gaming to the fullest. In such an environment, input lag is no longer such a big problem, and if you also put in a controller that anyway has a small deadzone in the joysticks, you will hardly feel it at all. I’m not even talking about cable anymore, where everything works even better.
To test my theories, I decided to run a favorite of mine, Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. This game originally came out in 2015, but recently received a graphic makeover in all its power, on the occasion of its release on modern consoles like PS5 or Xbox Series. That means the game looks really good, and comes with a lot of ray-tracing, because we’re only playing on an RTX 4080 after all, right?
The game looked gorgeous at maximum detail, as I expected, and input lag in a title like this is not an issue. I played The Witcher 3 for a little over an hour (don’t tell Dan what I do during the program) because I couldn’t help myself, and the whole time the experience was flawless. And that’s on Wi-Fi, not cable. To be rigorous in testing I also switched to Ethernet, where the low latency made the game feel truly one-on-one with a dedicated gaming rig under the desk, high praise.
I also played Dragon’s Dogma 2, the hottest RPG at the time of this writing. It’s a rather difficult title to run, and that’s why I think many of those with more modest PCs could turn to GeForce NOW as a simple and fast solution, so it’s also worth testing in full. In the open-world the situation is very good, with all the benefits and advantages that I have exposed so far.
In the city, however, the framerate drops significantly. I don’t want you to think this is a GeForce NOW problem, not by a long shot. The game has some optimization issues, and even my personal setup with RTX 4070Ti Super and Ryzen 7 7800X3D doesn’t fare any better. Whatever you do to it, no matter what platform you play it on, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is going to do poorly in big cities.
It’s something to consider, because if you were expecting cloud gaming to magically solve this problem, it’s not. GeForce NOW will be a very good service, but it does not work miracles. When the game engine can’t keep up with what’s happening on the screen, even a 5090 PC (when there’s such a thing) isn’t going to handle it properly. But being able to play a AAA RPG released a few days ago in really good conditions on my little MacBook was priceless.
What is GeForce NOW like in 2024?
Now here we come to the point of the title: is it worth playing on GeForce NOW in 2024 or not? Well, the truth is that the PC component market has calmed down recently, and it’s not nearly THAT expensive to build a good gaming PC as it was a couple of years ago when GeForce NOW was setting record after record when it’s about active users.
But another truth is that the experience that this game streaming service offers you has improved massively recently, and it has reached the point where I honestly sit and wonder: is a gaming PC still worth it? Is it still worth pouring thousands of euros into an iron and glass case, if for a small amount you can enjoy most of your favorite titles in conditions that satisfy even a demanding gamer like me?
This is a difficult question, and the answer is increasingly difficult to give. In addition, NVIDIA adds new games every week (we have tons of articles on this topic on the site), so if your favorites aren’t included, there’s a real chance they’ll be added sooner or later. Meanwhile, you can play other games that maybe wouldn’t have run on your old laptop, PC or Mac.
Well, you’re not limited to just these platforms. GeForce NOW is available on both Android and iOS, Chrome OS, LG and Samsung TVs but also on some cars from BYD, Polestar and Hyundai. How cool is that, playing The Witcher 3 and Dragon’s Dogma 2 on your car screen via cloud gaming!
But I have to give a final answer, so that we can all leave here with our hearts at peace. That being said, my opinion is that GeForce NOW is well worth every cent if you don’t want to or can’t afford to build a PC or buy a gaming laptop. If you already have something to play on in ok conditions, you’ll generally get better results running the games on your hardware, but once that hardware ages, there’s little reason to upgrade over GeForce NOW .
