Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service is available on Chromebooks – The Verge

Approved, this presumes you have one thats capable enough to offer a good experience, along with a mouse or gamepad plugged in for great measure considering that Chromebook trackpads usually arent terrific.

I just played Death Stranding on my spouses beat-up Samsung Chromebook Plus. Thats due to the fact that Nvidia just made it possible to do so with its GeForce Now cloud streaming service, which released in beta for Chrome OS today. While gaming natively isnt necessarily a forte of Chrome OS, assistance for Googles Stadia and GeForce Now implies that you can probably access much of the games in your back brochure from the cloud, anywhere you are with your Chromebook. Nvidia is keeping tabs on supported games right here.

Whats cool about the beta is that Nvidia isnt preventing any Chromebook user from going to play.geforcenow.com and providing it a try themselves, although the company does offer some suggested specs that it states guarantee an excellent experience:

( Note: the asterisk represents designs where Nvidia says voice chat isnt advised).

I hung out screening it out the beta on our 2017 Chromebook Plus, which straddles the line in regards to fulfilling the suggested specs. It has a gorgeous 2400 x 1600 resolution 3:2 aspect ratio display that still looks great today, and it satisfies the 4GB RAM requirement. But I was more than a little concerned about its Rockchip OP1 ARM processor, in spite of it being enhanced at the time for Chrome OS, as my coworker Dieter Bohn dug up.

I briefly evaluated out Death Stranding and Rocket League through Steam and Control through the Epic Games Store to see how each ran and looked. I have relatively fast internet (250Mbps down, 25Mbps up), and because Im at home, I was seated pretty near our Wi-Fi router. My experience was much better than I anticipated from our then-$ 350 Chromebook.

Visuals aside, the input lag from my wired Nintendo Switch Pro controller was obvious throughout my time evaluating GeForce Now on Chrome OS. It was less of a concern in Control, where the motions are a little slower, but it was type of a deal-breaker in Rocket League, specifically if youre playing online matches. I should once again keep in mind that I played exclusively over Wi-Fi, which Nvidia doesnt suggest anyone do if theyre attempting to get the finest outcomes. If I d had an Ethernet to USB-C adapter, I likely would have had an even better experience in terms of input lag and visual fidelity.

To that end, it shared a bunch of models that Nvidia has actually tested internally and verify supply a good experience. Its worth noting that some of these do not match its suggested specs in every department:.

Acer Chromebook 15 CB3-532-C4ZZ.
Acer Chromebook 715 * 1.
Acer Chromebook Spin 13.
Asus C101P Flip.
Asus Flip C302CA.
Asus Chromebook Flip C434 *.
Google PixelBook.
Google PixelBook Go.
HP Chromebook x360 *.
Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630.
Samsung Chromebook 3.
Samsung Chromebook Plus *.
Samsung Chromebook XE350XBA (Chromebook 4) *.
HP 15-de0517wm *.

You can sign up with the service free of charge, though each game will take a couple of minutes to boot into, and sessions will be topped at one hour each. Offer it a try and let us know in the comments how your experience was if you have a Chromebook.

That was about as great as it got, and for a momentary “game while Im away from my PC” experience, thats great enough for me. If your Chromebook has a 16:9 element ratio screen (most of them do), you shouldnt need to do any tweaking.

I simply played Death Stranding on my wifes run-down Samsung Chromebook Plus. While gaming natively isnt necessarily a strong match of Chrome OS, support for Googles Stadia and GeForce Now indicates that you can most likely access numerous of the games in your back catalog from the cloud, any place you are with your Chromebook. I spent time testing it out the beta on our 2017 Chromebook Plus, which straddles the line in terms of meeting the advised specs. My experience was better than I anticipated from our then-$ 350 Chromebook.

I d love to test out the service on a more capable machine, like the brand-new Acer Chromebook Spin 713, and a weaker one, like the Samsung Chromebook 3 that released in 2016. It goes without stating that more effective hardware will make for a much better experience, but Im curious just how low you can enter price and still get relatively smooth gameplay.

CPU: Intel Core M3 (seventh gen or later on) or a Core i5, i3, or i7 processor
GPU: Intel HD graphics 600 or greater
RAM: 4GB or greater
Plus a minimum of 15Mbps internet (25Mbps advised).

As soon as I went to the front of the line for a virtual rig and got booted into each game, the performance was excellent. Usually, the video games I checked appeared to swing in between 40 and 50 frames per second. It wasnt a constant, smooth 60 frames per second that I like to see. Still, with a gamepad plugged in and earphones on, I sometimes forgot I was streaming video games over the cloud. Filling times were generally very quick, and the video games themselves looked good on their recommended visual settings.

If your Chromebook has a 16:9 aspect ratio screen (many of them do), you should not require to do any tweaking.

Photography by Cameron Faulkner/ The Verge.