Yesterday NVIDIA GeForce made NOW support for Chromebooks an official affair and we’re still testing things out to get our heads over all the awesomeness that AAA titles play that we already have seamlessly on a Chromebook with crowds of other players who ‘ t you expect to see online. Was that a subtle count at Stadia? Sure, but it’s honest. Stadia still has trouble having the games that many users want and the user base online games require. I love the service, but those missing pieces are a difficult maneuver.
In stark contrast, GeForce NOW has more than 650 titles that many users already have and the fact that they stream from a standard PC means the audience is already there and ready for you to sign up and challenge. None of this has been the case for Chromebook users so far, as there has been no official way to use the service on Chrome OS. That all changed yesterday when NVIDIA made browser-based support for GeForce NOW available on Chromebooks. Again, all players and titles in the world would be worthless if the gameplay experience was a waste, but that is fortunately not the case. Not even a bit.
While there’s still a lot we need to test and learn about GeForce NOW on Chrome OS, I can already tell you that it’s pretty awesome. Games like Fortnite, APEX Legends, Hyper Scape or Warface playing directly in the Chrome browser on high and low end Chromebooks has been an absolute treat. Frames are solid, graphics look great, and there were so few moments where the connection had problems that the immersion in games even a few hours at the end with my daughter yesterday made me forget that Fortnite did not run locally on my laptop . Oh, I should also mention that a quick pairing of my XBOX controller to my Chromebook picked me up and turned on with full controller support almost instantly with no need for further setup. It just works!
I should probably give it a little more time before I crown this a victory over Stadia’s browser-based equivalent, but for now it feels very clear that NVIDIA’s Chrome OS-focused iteration of streaming gameplay is better than what Stadia can create. Since Destiny 2 exists on both platforms, we’ll be doing some side-by-side testing, but from what I found yesterday, it feels like NVIDIA’s Chromebook’s only approach to web-based streaming pays dividends in the performance department.
We’ll be doing a full review and a comparison video between GeForce NOW and Stadia in the coming weeks, but you can at least know that GeForce NOW is legit, fun and well worth $ 5 / month (or $ 25 for 6 months thanks to a sign-up special) that the service costs. For Chromebook users, this whole thing is an absolute win over the whole board and, honestly, what I wish Stadia would be all about.
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