If you’re a Nvidia GeForce user, heads up, Nvidia has some sweet updates coming your way. The Geforce Experience is getting a beta update that’s going to be released quite soon which Nvidia says will be a game changer for game streaming. Nvidia’s GeForce Experience program has been around for some time now and Nvidia has continuously updated it and widely recommends it for newcomers to PC gaming for the simple reason that GeForce Experience allows you to fine tune and tweak game settings for overall performance or quality based on your set up.
I found the software to more than capable to give me the settings, but if you’re a PC gamer you’re not going to be satisfied with the system defaults and that’s fine. It does serve as a base template to work on based on the hardware. However GeForce is now going to target another segment of a market that’s making the investment and news all around and that’s live streaming.
Nvidia has added a plethora of features such as GameStream, ShadowPlay, and now the beta for Share and GameStream Co-Op and there’s more from their camp in the months to come. In the beta release that should be able to be downloaded from Nvidia’s serves, GameStream has been updated with 4K capabilities and more specifically towards Shield’s Android TV set up. You can natively remote game at full 4K resolution on TV’s that support it, not just that, plug in your home theater system and you get 5.1 surround sound.
GameStream has been around, albeit limited to 1080p video and 2 channel stereo audio making this update a step up that will really push the GPU to full potential. That said, if you want the full 4K experience, you’re better off picking up either one of Nvidia’s top tier maxwell cards, the GTX 980Ti or the GTX 980 that can reasonably stream with little issues. The GTX 970 series of cards will be limited to 1080p, however an SLI setup will also be able to push it 4K streaming. It’s also worth noting that this is all only possible with the SHIELD Android TV set up and naturally a broadband connection that will support 4K content. Nvidia is also confident that using the GPU has a minimal overhead of 2% power taxation on the card which should make it seamless. Naturally this also raises the stakes from Windows 10’s own recording feature but since GeForce Experience streams direct from the hardware, they claim that the experience is better.
It’s also going to be interesting for shield users to play old school retro games on a joystick configuration which can then be streamed, making you wonder if this was the exact kind of thing that the OUYA aimed to do but failed in implementation.
Where livestreaming is concerned, Geforce Experience gets an overhaul here too. First with Twitch support two years and now it will broadcast to Youtube Live too and it gives you the option to choose which platform you want to stream it to. Not just that, you’re now able to live stream in full 1080p HD at 60fps with software changes allowing them to push with high bit rates to fit on to streaming services, again this is based on how fast your upload speed is and stable upload speeds are a dicey topic here in the middle east. Nvidia’s beta will give early access to in game co-op streaming between friends and you can take over the screen remotely via a chrome extension, this sounds great in theory but it remains to be seen if it will live up to expectations.
Nvidia to push driver updates to GeForce Experience
With GeForce being an accessory software add on to your card, Nvidia is going to change things around by the end of the year. Come December, Nvidia will be distributing all their driver updates first on Geforce Experience rather than update the drivers through their website initially. This is being done based on what Nvidia says that 90% of their drivers updates have been downloaded through GeForce Experience automatically.
It doesn’t seem like a move to coerce users to downloading GeForce experience but it is likely that Nvidia wants to integrate it with all future software updates that will happen over time and are designed to provide bug fixes and performance updates for games on Day 1 of their launch. That is not to say that drivers will not be updated on the website but will probably updated after a GeForce rollout completes for both previous and future titles to come.
We’ve seen Nvidia not just use GeForce Experience as a service for driver updates but it’s trying to push it more from a utility to an actual part of the larger Nvidia ecosystem as a backend that comes with your GPU. You can already login with your email or Google ID and it’s not long before Nvidia set up their own system to get users on board. It’s already done digital distribution by giving game codes when they are bundled on purchase with your GPU.
What we’re seeing here is Nvidia becoming a service that drives gaming experiences, in an era where PC gaming is becoming a lone warrior in the failing battle for PC’s, it looks like Nvidia wants to solidify their position in all factors, be it to the casual consumer or the professional gamer. GPU owners may be wary with how driver updates will be distributed given the latest fallouts from Windows 10’s forced system updates so it would be wise for Nvidia to implement this gradually allowing users to choose their updates rather than lock it. 2016 seems like an interesting year for Nvidia as far as software goes given that they knocked it out of the park last year with hardware.
