Nvidia's GeForce Now app lets players stream games to devices to take advantage of Nvidia's powerful cloud hardware, but Steam Deck users have historically had to jump through some hoops to get it working. Today, Nvidia finally launched a native GeForce Now app for the Steam Deck.
In a press release marking the app's launch, Nvidia highlighted that GeForce Now lets Steam Deck players take advantage of much more powerful hardware and more advanced technical features than can run locally on the handheld. Nvidia also states that GeForce Now lets you play games at up to 4K/60FPS if you connect the Steam Deck to a TV.
Perhaps its most impactful feature is that GeForce Now enables you to play games that are nearly (or completely) impossible to play, either due to performance issues, lack of support, or incompatibilities with Steam Deck's Linux-based operating system. Destiny 2, for instance, is blocked from running locally on Steam Deck (unless you go through the process of installing Windows), but I confirmed that it is now playable through the native GeForce Now app.
Testing done by The Verge suggests that GeForce Now lets you max out the settings on many more games, including particularly resource-intensive titles. Most excitingly for me, as someone who plays most of my PC games on a Steam Deck, The Verge's tests confirm that playing via GeForce Now requires a fraction of the battery power of playing games locally on the handheld, likely due to the fact that the Steam Deck's hardware only has to handle video streaming instead of rendering the entire game.
For those who might be new to the world of games streaming, GeForce Now works by letting you access many of the titles in your PC games libraries from a remote machine running Nvidia hardware. There are different tiers of subscriptions; the cheapest is ad-supported, has longer queues for access, and uses lower-end hardware, while the premium membership uses machines that have Nvidia's 4080 GPUs.
GeForce Now arrives at an interesting time for the Steam Deck, which runs on hardware that is a bit dated. Originally released in early 2022, the Steam Deck has not received any upgrades to its specifications beyond an OLED model that rolled out in late 2023. Despite this, the Steam Deck is still quite popular, and it has influenced other PC hardware companies to release handhelds of their own. Being able to stream more demanding games straight to the Steam Deck through the official GeForce Now app may help revitalize its role in the gaming ecosystem.
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In a press release marking the app's launch, Nvidia highlighted that GeForce Now lets Steam Deck players take advantage of much more powerful hardware and more advanced technical features than can run locally on the handheld. Nvidia also states that GeForce Now lets you play games at up to 4K/60FPS if you connect the Steam Deck to a TV.
Perhaps its most impactful feature is that GeForce Now enables you to play games that are nearly (or completely) impossible to play, either due to performance issues, lack of support, or incompatibilities with Steam Deck's Linux-based operating system. Destiny 2, for instance, is blocked from running locally on Steam Deck (unless you go through the process of installing Windows), but I confirmed that it is now playable through the native GeForce Now app.
Testing done by The Verge suggests that GeForce Now lets you max out the settings on many more games, including particularly resource-intensive titles. Most excitingly for me, as someone who plays most of my PC games on a Steam Deck, The Verge's tests confirm that playing via GeForce Now requires a fraction of the battery power of playing games locally on the handheld, likely due to the fact that the Steam Deck's hardware only has to handle video streaming instead of rendering the entire game.
For those who might be new to the world of games streaming, GeForce Now works by letting you access many of the titles in your PC games libraries from a remote machine running Nvidia hardware. There are different tiers of subscriptions; the cheapest is ad-supported, has longer queues for access, and uses lower-end hardware, while the premium membership uses machines that have Nvidia's 4080 GPUs.
GeForce Now arrives at an interesting time for the Steam Deck, which runs on hardware that is a bit dated. Originally released in early 2022, the Steam Deck has not received any upgrades to its specifications beyond an OLED model that rolled out in late 2023. Despite this, the Steam Deck is still quite popular, and it has influenced other PC hardware companies to release handhelds of their own. Being able to stream more demanding games straight to the Steam Deck through the official GeForce Now app may help revitalize its role in the gaming ecosystem.
Source