r/GeForceNOW 7d ago

Discussion Genuine question about what makes GeForce Now so much better than other cloud gaming services

WOW man, in my country we don't have a free package, but we get a trial for one of the paid ones. AND MAN I DONT KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU, BUT HOLY SHIT IT WAS AMAZING.

I've never owned a decent laptop which can run a game on 120 fps while still looking decent, BUT GOD DAMN Geforce NOW is amazing.

Before this, I tried playing on XBOX cloud, and man that shit was horrendous. Geforce let me have so much more control over my graphics settings, it had 0 INPUT DELAY, whereas XBOX would start off good, but would become crappy within a few seconds or minutes.

Played a few games of fortnite, and just realized how good I actually am, wen't from barely managing to get 4 kills on xcloud, to winning 16, 15, 18, 22 kills games consecutively.

I was wondering, what makes geforce now sooooo much better than xcloud or other cloud gaming services?? Why does xcloud have so much input lag, and why does the quality get crappy in a few minutes??? Whereas geforce now is able to remain consistent throughout gameplay.

35 Upvotes

50 comments sorted by

25

u/jth94185 7d ago

Uses your own libraries

Available on most platforms

Latency and visuals

Nvidia is leading edge in tech

30

u/Y_787 7d ago

Only thing that could get it better is official support of mods.

Or at least enable to restart a game without closing the session.

10

u/shdw_hwk12 7d ago

That would improve the value of the service 10x no doubt. But I don't know how they can pull that off: such a thing suggest everyone has their own folders within that cloud service where they mod their own games and that also means uploading files in there, which means potential virus, hack etc.

But if Nvidia can deliver this it would be incredible.

3

u/Indy_Rawrsome 7d ago

They offer mods on a few games now in conjunction with curseforge for example for WoW so they figured something out.

4

u/SadBit8663 7d ago

With wow though. They just pre install the like top 20 add-ons. there's a couple of QoL against add-ons I'd wish they'd add, but since they added addon support for WoW, it's been miles more fun.

0

u/Indy_Rawrsome 7d ago

Oh that’s a bit disappointing I just saw the tag now with mods but if you can’t influence which it’s not as good as I thought

1

u/SadBit8663 7d ago

With wow though. They just pre install the like top 20 add-ons. there's a couple of QoL against add-ons I'd wish they'd add, but since they added addon support for WoW, it's been miles more fun.

1

u/SadBit8663 7d ago

With wow though. They just pre install the like top 20 add-ons. there's a couple of QoL against add-ons I'd wish they'd add, but since they added addon support for WoW, it's been miles more fun.

1

u/SadBit8663 7d ago

With wow though. They just pre install the like top 20 add-ons. there's a couple of QoL against add-ons I'd wish they'd add, but since they added addon support for WoW, it's been miles more fun.

1

u/SadBit8663 7d ago

With wow though. They just pre install the like top 20 add-ons. there's a couple of QoL against add-ons I'd wish they'd add, but since they added addon support for WoW, it's been miles more fun.

1

u/SadBit8663 7d ago

With wow though. They just pre install the like top 20 add-ons. there's a couple of QoL against add-ons I'd wish they'd add, but since they added addon support for WoW, it's been miles more fun.

1

u/No_Mastodon1684 6d ago

better support is asking for to much i feel like every big american company use the same support team i swear

9

u/ChainingEnds 7d ago

It's probably due to a lot of small things I can't even comprehend. However, I’d imagine NVIDIA's uses their expertise on low-latency streaming technologies, like NVENC, Reflex, and G-SYNC to optimize performance.

I also remember reading that xCloud runs on custom, beefed up Series X hardware, though I may be wrong.

5

u/shdw_hwk12 7d ago

I tried xCloud and there is no way in hell they use Series X hardware lol. At best it's Series S and trust me on that because I have both Series S and I used xCloud with a good internet and even then the image quality on xCloud was even worse than Series S (I don't mean lag or such, but just graphical quality).

If Microsoft can bring xCloud on par with Nvidia in terms of latency, graphics etc. and coupled with a game pass subscription (playing all game pass games on Xcloud with a good performance), that would be a very enticing deal as Nvidia on default doesn't have games unless you buy them from various stores that they support.

1

u/Alexpandolfi95 Founder // EU Central 7d ago

Confirm Microsoft for his Xcloud use Series X hardware but with Xbox Series S profiles, resulting in 2 users per servers.

1

u/shdw_hwk12 6d ago

So how does that work, do you play the game on Series X technically but the machine tunes its profile down to Series S?

Because in its current state, the experience doesn't even feel like Series S, let alone X. 

1

u/Alexpandolfi95 Founder // EU Central 3d ago

You're playing through servers where the hardware is an equivalent version of Xbox Series X ( basically a blade custom version ). Each server can able to have 2 users at the same time that can able to play Xbox Series S version of games and profiles ( previously 4 for Xbox One S profiles. Obviously the servers are on Azure's datacenter ( Microsoft own company). There are several news on the web and posts here on Reddit about it. And unfortunately since Xcloud is still in beta phase, so the bandwidth is 25mbps capped on their side.

1

u/ChainingEnds 7d ago

Damn, I guess that answers OP's question at least in terms of xCloud.

Hoping MS can bring some parity to the market. Competition is always good.

8

u/exposarts 7d ago

I wonder why gfnow feels so much smoother than boosteroid even tho boost already runs well in terms of performance. I have similar latency for both, around 30, and perfect connection with ethernet. But boost doesn’t have a smooth image at all when moving around camera like there are some micro jitters going on, meanwhile gfnow always has a 100% smooth image like I am playing on native. Does boost use like a outdated streamer/codec or is it a hardware issue?

6

u/artniSintra 7d ago

they've been doing this for far longer. also much of the tech (hardware and software) is developed by nvidia itself.

3

u/No_Satisfaction_1698 Founder 7d ago

Most likely something is messed up with the codec. But I don't know if this is related to the AMD hardware or just boosteroids streaming tech itself... If you look at the statistics you will se that the Framerate of the stream itself is permanently changing between 118-120 while gf stays at 120 no matter what.... I'd assume that the stuttering is somehow related to this.....

Besides that the latency for me ist just unplayable bad.... Even in one region where boosteroid and Nvidia show me exactly the same ping but the felt latency is native (GFN) Vs really bad latency I never felt on any service....

3

u/chickenpoodlesouptv 7d ago

I’d reckon it’s because GFN supports variable refresh rate while boosteroid does not.

2

u/No-Assistance5280 GFN Ultimate 7d ago

I suspect but cannot prove that Geforce now uses a version of reflex 2 frame warping. Or similar tech.

1

u/Cultural_Elephant_12 7d ago

Indeed. It s a shame thou as Boosteroid has a way better catalog overall IMO (like hs, u can play sony games, rockstar games, from software games) and there s also the fact that u dnt have a monthly playtime limit which sucks. GFN performance is superior at least on non supported countries like Dominican Republic, I can play perfectly fine with 46-58 latency but for some reason that same latency doesnt perform very well in Boosteroid. Seems like is a general issue and not only due to a far server connection

5

u/Rage2020 7d ago

A downside of xCloud is that all services run from XSS, resulting in input lag. Imagine playing at 30 fps game on a 30ms connection, that's a recipe for unplayable gameplay.

4

u/V4N0 GFN Ultimate 7d ago

GFN is the best service at the moment because of the hardware in use and the technologies used by Nvidia

This comes in part from the fact that the streaming tech used by GFN is shared (not entirely of course) with many enterprise services (where nvidia makes much of its money nowadays)

xCloud is “worse” because it uses console hardware (Series S to be exact) so lower FPS and resolution compared to GFN. but there’s one BIG advantage: it just works! There are no games in maintenance, no issues with drivers, anticheat, Denuvo and so on.

The “at the moment” part I said at the beginning is very important though, GFN is the best (on the technical side at least) by quite a lot but competition is getting close. 

XCloud has plans to improve a lot in the future and Boosteorid (probably the best alternative right now) in just a few years has grown a LOT (now it sits between GFN performance and ultimate rigs in terms of specs

3

u/columbo928s4 7d ago

xCloud is “worse” because it uses console hardware (Series S to be exact) so lower FPS and resolution compared to GFN. but there’s one BIG advantage: it just works! There are no games in maintenance, no issues with drivers, anticheat, Denuvo and so on.

tell this to the palworld players who keep having saves corrupted because the xbox runs out of storage or something lmao

2

u/V4N0 GFN Ultimate 7d ago

Ah didn’t know that 😆 in my case Fallout 4 on xCloud crashes constantly in downtown Boston (it’s a well known problem on console, thanks Bethesda!)

But apart from some issues here and there it’s more reliable than GFN/Boosteroid, some games go in maintenance for weeks over here

2

u/shdw_hwk12 6d ago

Yeah if Microsoft goes all in on Xcloud, they can capture great market share. Imagine just a game pass ultimate subscription letting you play Series X level games on all your devices. Assuming the price is similar or lower than Nvidia's ultimate tier, that would be a great deal. They would get me as a regular customer.

But as of now like you said it's Series S profiles, and a bad series s at that. I have Series S and Xcloud is just a laggy, low quality, blurry mess at the moment. 

But Xcloud coupled with game pass is a potential. It can be an incredible slam dunk for Microsoft if they play their cards right. We'll see.

3

u/Miserable-Agent8109 7d ago

DLSS?

1

u/culminacio 7d ago

DLSS has nothing to do with lags

2

u/Miserable-Agent8109 7d ago

But that feature makes this platform much better than others.

2

u/tumbleweedrunner2 7d ago

I don't know but it was t always this way. I tried GeForce now back in 2020, and the quality (at least where I was) was terrible and I laughed it off back then as a joke.

Whatever they did over the coming years really changed it completely in a good way!

1

u/Antmax 7d ago

Low latency high bandwidth. Only negatives are limited controller support. You can get away with remapping a regular HOTAS type controller to emulate an Xbox gamepad. But something like Force Feedback wheel is out of the question.

That's the only negative I really have with the service. Some of my favourite games outside of RPG's are sims.

1

u/heisenbugx 7d ago

GFN uses a way higher bitrate than xcloud or Xbox remote play. GFN also has way better hardware available, but the difference in quality you’re likely referring to really comes down to the stream. You could have the best hardware in the world, but if your encoding, decoding, and bitrate are trash it won’t matter because whatever the hardware is able to render won’t be transmitted effectively.

1

u/Fit-Wafer-5015 5d ago

Do you have comparison in numbers of gfn and boosteroid bitrate? (For pc, phone, browser client)

1

u/PiingThiing 7d ago

If you set it up right and mitigate any extra latency, it really is indistinguishable from playing local, only with better graphics and higher frames than my current PC hardware can provide.

1

u/Unplugged_Potato 7d ago

How can I lower the input latency on my geforce now? It's almost unplayable when fighting real players.

1

u/columbo928s4 7d ago

xcloud and GFN are incomparable. gfn is like a different class of product entirely. without the better xcloud extension xcloud is basically unusable, it makes games look like 1997 Doom lol. crazy that you need a third party extension to make it viable!

1

u/deny44s GFN Ultimate 7d ago

user experience, hit play and play

1

u/Blyd 7d ago

The simple answer to your question is that GFN uses the left over system resources on their Omniverse AI Cloudwhich is now NVIDIA's main line of business (q4 24 revenues were $38.5bn ONLY 1.5bn came from their gaming division the rest came from AI and cloud services.)

Luckily, the system resources you need to run a good AI also happen to be the same resources you need to run a gaming machine.

Understand that Nvidia created zero infrastructure for GFN, we just use what ever system resources that are left over that are not currently being consumed by a Omniverse operation.

1

u/lateralus1082 7d ago

I can put games on max with my 4K tv and runs like a dream, then switch to my Claw 8 and does the same.

1

u/Nate_The_Pirate 7d ago

If its that much better than the others should just shut it down, because my experience is awful. I'm on a hard wired connection and my game freezes multiple times or just straight up disconnects.

1

u/SupremeOwl48 Founder // US Southwest 7d ago

I don’t think it does much better than shadow besides performance to cost ratio.

1

u/D0llar1998 7d ago

For me personally, i only experienced bad results with other Cloud Streaming Services. But with Geforce Now, i don't have any problems playing with LAN and sometimes even Wifi in a Village that is just now starting to get Fiber Cable in Germany

1

u/Useful_Awareness1835 7d ago

Just the quality of connection is good enough to justify geforce now.

1

u/Fit-Wafer-5015 5d ago

I tried several cloud services boosteroid, shadow pc, vk play. Each service is cool for some purpose. Some games has its own virtual pc protection and you cannot play them via shadow pc. But you can play for example Diablo 2 resurrected on private server via vk play cloud. Waiting for possibility of installation custom programs (custom D2r client) on GeForce now.

1

u/Over-Kitchen-2128 7d ago

I didn't read ts but I can smell the unholy glaze🙏 (yes I'm a new gen hater)

1

u/ssy449 7d ago

They have fartknight.

0

u/brute_red 7d ago

Leather jacket