Nvidia’s long-awaited GeForce Now arrived on Chromebooks Tuesday morning, giving players the flexibility to play their recreation libraries on Google’s laptops.
Plans for GeForce Now streamed gaming on Chrome OS have been within the works since 2017. The service, already standard on Windows and MacOS, lets players stream their current Steam, Epic, and different recreation libraries to lower-end {hardware}.
GeForce Now’s launch on ChromeOS comes on the heels of Google’s announcement that its personal Stadia gaming service would be free for Chromebooks for three months. One benefit GeForce Now enjoys is that many video games in players’ current libraries will be streamed, whereas Stadia requires shopping for the sport.
Both companies provide free video games, however Nvidia appears to have the sting right here over Stadia, which has struggled to draw gamers. GeForce Now prices $5 per 30 days for Founders Edition standing, which will get ray tracing help and prolonged gaming periods. Those on a funds can play with out ray tracing help for as much as an hour free of charge. After that hour you are booted off, however you may reconnect and proceed to recreation.
(shhh, don’t inform your dad and mom you may run Rocket League from a Chromebook now.)
Minimum specs for GeForce Now on Chromebooks
As GeForce Now is a streamed service, it doesn’t require a beefy graphics card or CPU to allow you to play video games. There are official minimal necessities:
CPU: Intel Core M3 (Seventh-gen and later) Core i3, Core i5, Core i7
Graphics: HD graphics 600 or higher
RAM: 4GB or greater
OS: Chrome 77 and better
Bandwidth: 15Mbps for 720p
If you have a look at that checklist, you’d suppose it wouldn’t run on any Chromebook costing underneath $500. But the necessities aren’t fairly that strict. Nvidia mentioned the first burden on a Chromebook is the decoding of the video stream, which depends upon how properly it helps the open-source WebRTC framework that makes it doable for streaming to happen with out coping with specialised plugins. You’ll want a bit of extra efficiency to run voice chat as properly.
Nvidia’s personal checklist of examined Chromebooks really contains some fashions under its official minimal spec. We’ve taken Nvidia’s permitted checklist and added info on what we expect are the specs of every. An asterisk after the identify point out a mannequin for which Nvidia does not advocate operating simultaneous voice chat:
- Acer Chromebook 15 CB3-532-C4ZZ (Intel Celeron N3060, HD, 2GB)
- Acer Chromebook 715* (Intel Pentium 4417U, UHD 610, 8GB)
- Acer Chromebook Spin 13 (Intel Core i3-8130U, UHD620, 4GB)
- Asus C101P Flip (Rockchip OP1, 4GB)
- Asus Flip C302CA (Intel Pentium 4405Y, HD515, 4GB)
- Asus Chromebook Flip C434* (Intel Core M3-8100Y, UHD615, 4GB)
- Google PixelGuide (Intel Core i5-7Y57, HD515, 8GB)
- Google Pixelbook Go (Intel Core i5-8200Y, UHD612, 8GB)
- HP Chromebook x360* (Intel Celeron N4020, UHD600, 4GB)
- Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630 (Intel Core i5-8250U, UHD620, 8GB)
- Samsung Chromebook 3 (Intel Celeron N3060, HD400, 4GB)
- Samsung Chromebook Plus* (Rockchip OP1, 4GB)
- Samsung Chromebook XE350XBA* (Intel Celeron N4000, UHD600 4GB)
- HP 15-de0517wm* (Intel Core i3-8130U, UHD620, 4GB)
Many of these laptops fall under Nvidia’s official minimal spec for GeForce Now. Surprisingly, just a few of the laptops Nvidia doesn’t advocate for voice chat (denoted by the asterisk) are higher-end Core-class Chromebooks. There are additionally fairly just a few “Atom-based” Celeron N Chromebooks formally permitted.
Nvidia officers added that, as with GeForce Now’s launch on MacOS, the official checklist of supported computer systems begins off brief. As the corporate is ready to take a look at extra Chromebooks, it expects so as to add laptops operating AMD and different CPUs to its permitted checklist as properly.
IDGThe streamed gaming efficiency of GeForce Now taking part in Rocket League on a Chromebook is about 100 occasions higher than taking part in 99.9 p.c of web-based video games.
Hands on with GeForce Now on ChromeOS
We tried a pre-release of GeForce Now on two present Chromebooks, a non-approved Acer Chromebook 14 with a Celeron N3160 CPU, and a Google Pixelbook Go. We additionally tried two out of date fashions: An unique 2013-era Google Chromebook Pixel, and the unique 2010-era Google CR-48.
While GeForce Now will run on surprisingly sparse {hardware}, what is going to cease you in your tracks is the Chrome OS model. Nvidia’s official minimal spec is OS construct 77. Anything older than that didn’t work for us. That means the CR-48 and the unique high-end Chromebook Pixel, each gone their support periods, have been useless within the water.
GeForce Now runs fairly properly on the Google Pixelbook Go with its Core i5-8200Y CPU and 8GB of RAM. That’s no shock for a $650 Chromebook, however we additionally noticed superb outcomes with the $269 Acer Chromebook 14 with its Celeron N3160. We performed Rocket League with it for just a few rounds and felt the efficiency was very satisfying.
IDGWe “ran” Control with ray tracing set to excessive on an Acer Chromebook with a Celeron N3160 CPU.
Ray tracing on a Chromebook? Yes.
As we now have a GeForce Founder Account, we ran the Direct X Ray tracing recreation Control and cranked it as much as excessive on the sport. You can see proof of ray tracing under (decision was restricted to 720p, although.)
The outcome, once more, was surprisingly good. Obviously, all of the work is being carried out on the server. But to have the ability to play a recreation corresponding to Control, which makes even $1,500 gaming laptops sweat, ought to make most players joyful.
IDGWith GeForce Now on a Chromebook, you may play Control with DXR on and get entry to the very best janitors on this planet.
Nvidia permits you set the stream high quality in addition to choose the server location for GeForce Now. “Balanced” and “auto” are most likely the very best settings, as they let the consumer and server optimize all of it.
IDGYou can manually set streaming high quality and set your server location for GeForce Now.
GeForce Now bandwidth wants
Nvidia mentioned it recommends a minimal of 15Mbps of obtain pace for GeForce Now on Chromebooks. It additionally recommends (however would not require) a 5GHz Wi-Fi connection. Those specs are additionally for a 720p stream. If you wish to stream 1080p/60-fps video games, you’ll want a 30Mbps connection pace. Nvidia mentioned a 50Mbps connection minimal with a low-latency community will yield the very best outcomes.
IDGWe have been undoubtedly at a latency drawback whereas operating GeForce Now on a Chromebook.
All our gaming was carried out over a 5GHz Wi-Fi frequency. Our broadband DSL connection has 20Mbps add and 100Mbps obtain. Playing with the Acer Chromebook 14 set to auto and balanced, we noticed a lot of the burden on the obtain pace.
IDGWe noticed about 15Mbps to 17Mbps on the obtain facet whereas taking part in GeForce Now on a Chromebook.
We have two remaining ideas for operating GeForce Now on a Chromebook. First, shut out extra tabs within the browser. Chrome OS is wise sufficient that it often pushes memory-heavy tabs to storage, however we expect it helps a bit to shut ad- and media-heavy tabs whereas gaming.
Second, should you’re taking part in a recreation and discover that the perform keys in your Chromebook don’t work whereas taking part in, press the Search button after which press the perform key you wish to entry.
IDGAlthough ChromeOS handles it pretty properly, we advocate closing different open tabs in your Chromebook whereas taking part in GeForce Now.