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The Steam Deck, nay Linux, is crying out for an official GeForce Now app

https://www.pcgamer.com/geforce-now-linux-app-steam-deck/

You can jury-rig your own GeForce Now app on Deck, but a native Linux app would be such an easy win.

The Steam Deck, nay Linux, is crying out for an official GeForce Now app

"There is not a native app on Steam deck today," said Andrew Fear, GFN boss, back in January. "Use a Chromium browser to make it work. I would say that both Nvidia and Valve, I think we're both interested in making [GeForce Now on Steam Deck] better. But we don't have any announcements on a native app coming to Steam."

55 comments

PHLAK

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No, it isn't.

EDIT: After reading other comments I realize I mistook GeForce Now for GeForce Experience. While I still disagree that SD/Linux is "crying out for it" I actually think bringing GeForce Now to Linux would be a good move.

AttackPanda

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I just play the games locally on the deck and that includes CP2077 which works good enough for me. I have the option to play off my desktop via the Steam remote play thing but I’ve never tried it. From what I understand, it should be the same (or similar experience) to playing via the Steam remote option? Is that right?

Deceptichum

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Yup but it enables gamers with lesser hardware to play these games.

Not everyone is as lucky to have the hardware to run things locally or streamed from their beefy PC.

AttackPanda

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Ahhhh. I get it now. So it runs on NVIDIA machines, not local machine so that is the difference. With the Steam Link (or whatever it’s called) you run the workload on your desktop and stream to like the Deck. With the NVIDIA solution, you stream the workload from the cloud. That makes sense to me now.

Anamana

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Yes, exacytly. It's like stadia, but in good.

Sharpiemarker

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That's correct. I used to do most of my steam deck gaming by streaming games from my desktop. It's a seamless experience, as much as anything is on the Deck. I still prefer to stream games from the desktop that benefit from better hardware, like BG3.

ColeSloth

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It saves battery life and let's you have a higher and smoother framerate. You're talking shit on something you've never even tried. Playing on high graphics at 60fps is a hell of a lot nicer than low graphics at 30 fps.

AttackPanda

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I didn’t talk shit about anything. I said that I played directly on the deck, asked how the NVIDIA remote play option worked, and said that I have the option for the Steam remote play but haven’t tried it. I am curious about the remote play options for both NVIDIA and Steam but since it is good enough for me, I haven’t tried anything other than local play. That wasn’t meant to indicate that anything was wrong with an alternative.

derin

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People are not talking about remote play, lol.

GeForce Now is a cloud streaming service - meaning the games run on Nvidia machines with all settings maxed out, and you get the output. It's great if you:

live close to an Nvidia data center and pay for the service
prefer 60 fps with all settings on high to 30 fps with all settings on low
want to play games that aren't supported on the deck
want to save space by not installing certain large games
want to save battery

You doing a completely separate thing and that being "good enough for you" would be like me asking for a recipe for apple pie and you responding with "well I went to McDonald's the other day and ate a pie and it was swell".

That's not what we're talking about, it doesn't help the original poster, and your experience contributes nothing to the overall discussion.

Edit: Removed some text that served no purpose other than being nasty to the above commenter. Apologies.

AttackPanda

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OR, my comment and this thread could be viewed as an opportunity to identify a value in driving development of a more seamless NVIDIA streaming experience on the Deck. The original commenter indicated that there is no demand or desire for it and I (and I assume many others) own a deck and were not familiar with the service thus driving awareness and possibly a few more people to push the demand. This post is about the use of the service on the deck and this thread focuses on whether there is a demand. It would seem like education on the service running on a deck would be pretty on-topic.

derin

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Sure, that's fair.

However, if that's the case then I would encourage you to at least edit your above comment to indicate what you've learned - as it stands right now it still implies the discussion is about local streaming/Gamestream.

circuitfarmer

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As Linux gains in popularity for gaming, there will be endless articles about corporate stuff from the Windows world that Linux users clearly cannot live without. But the fact is, Linux is gaining ground in part because it does not have them. The simplicity of it all, especially on AMD, is light years ahead of the kind of ecosystem Nvidia and others may want to continue to force down consumers' throats.

Stampela

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Comments here are fun, seem a 3 way split between people thinking it’s GeForce Experience, game stream, and finally the actual cloud streaming service running your own Steam games.

mordack550

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Yeah it's crazy. I don't see what's negative in having a GeForce Now app on Steam Deck, it's always better to have choices.

skullgiver

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Heavybell

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Ah yeah, I also thought it was talking about that awful fucking thing I used to opt not to install alongside my geforce drivers.

Stampela

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Back when I had a 1060 3gb it was awesome! Always giving me nearly flawless settings for games, now with a 3060… we have very strong disagreements about the ideal settings.

That said yeah, a random software to install, that requires a new account and all for the privilege of installing the drivers? Hard sell.

regbin_

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Nvidia: Creates a whole new app for driver updates and ShadowPlay.

Also Nvidia: Creates the most half-assed GPU tuner in the app.

Seriously I can't even undervolt without a third party app. Once PyTorch + ROCm comes to Windows I'm switching back to AMD.

mino

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JoMiran

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I definitely do. At this point the only reason I keep a Windows machine is so that I can run GeForce Now. With it I can run CP2077 at max settings, full ray tracing, 1440p and 120fps (the max for my monitor). My old hardware can't handle new games and I don't like to abuse my lovely Steam Deck by asking it to run games like that. You don't have to like GeForce Now, but it's not accurate to say that nobody wants it.

EDIT: To clarify, I want the client for my Linux PC, NOT my Steam Deck. My Steam Deck is perfect as it is, thank you very much.

bjoern_tantau

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So using a browser is not an option? Last time I tried Microsoft's streaming service with Fortnite on my Deck it worked very well. It was just missing mouse and keyboard support to be viable for desktop.

JoMiran

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On a browser, the max resolution is 1080p and max framerate is 60fps. It is also significantly less smooth and a bit laggy when compared to the native client. The difference is huge.

scrubbles

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Yeah I'm very much in favor of not having all the shitty bloatware that comes with modern windows gaming. You need the latest audio driver? How about we bundle our shitty game launcher with it?!

ironcrotch

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Haha subscription? No thanks

hogart

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Is it now? I don't hear anything. Gimme an official Xbox Game Pass app tho! Sure it's easy enough to work arround but official apps are guud!

fakeman_pretendname

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It's a Steam Deck. Connected to Steam. I don't think many people are suffering from a shortage of Steam games to play.

"Yes, Andrew Fear (great name by the way), when I finish playing the 500 games already in my library, and start playing the 200 I already own but haven't started yet... which all work on it... I mean, yeah, I'll definitely look at whatever it is you're on about"

[Edit] I have misunderstood it as a game rental/streaming service, rather than a computer rental/streaming service

Stampela

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It’s not a subscription plan with games, it’s a cloud service running the (supported, stuff about licensing) games you already own on Steam.

fakeman_pretendname

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Ah sorry, my misunderstanding. Though, isn't that just built into Steam anyway?

You know what, I'm going to read up on it myself, so as to be less wrong in future!

Stampela

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Steam allows you to stream from another computer you have, GeForce Now is cloud based and depending on the subscription it can have a 4080 equivalent gpu.

Cool stuff!

RageAgainstTheRich

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Even a chromium browser doesnt work well. It doesnt use hardware acceleration, so high bitrate and resolution are out of the question. When you DO force use hardware acceleration, the video you receive misses a part of the dark black colors, so the video is darker and games that are already dark, are completely unplayable. This has been an issue for years and i have worked on the issue myself but this is not fixable on the user side. And nvidia doesnt care.

huginn

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Heads up for anyone still using steam streaming and an Nvidia card.

Install Moonlight and run that instead. Way smoother experience overall.

tsuica

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Don't you need a PC for that?

GFN allows you to play on NVIDIA's servers.

huginn

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Yes but others are talking about steam streaming, which is also my comment here.

It's tangential but worth calling out in this discussion, especially as you can do remote play with moonlight (haven't personally tried it though)

PHLAK

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I do believe Moonlight is a bit better but Steam Streaming has been reliable and high enough quality for me not to care enough to use Moonlight most of the time.

huginn

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I've played 100 hours of Elden Ring streaming and the difference between steam and moonlight is night and day in my experience. Steam struggled to hit 60fps streaming (definitely not the computer's fault: it's their streaming codecs or something) while moonlight is rock steady 60fps.

AceQuorthon

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No, not really…

woelkchen

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I wouldn't be opposed to it existing but that's it. Never been a fan of game streaming myself.

HughJanus

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Been using Xbox GamePass w/ GeForce Now for a while and can't see why anyone wouldn't like it. For $30/mo I can play on any device, anywhere with a decent internet connection. It uses almost no power, so my batteries last forever. I get the best gaming experience available on my gaming monitor without spending thousands on hardware that sits totally unused for 99% of the day. My room does not heat up to 100*F. I get access to a wide variety of top-tier games for a minimal fee. It's pretty great.

woelkchen

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can’t see why anyone wouldn’t like it.

Input latency and compression artifacts but hey, if it works good for you, I'm happy for you. I'm not here to stir drama about game streaming.

HughJanus

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Haven't noticed any of either during my time. At least not with any degree of frequency. Probably not something you want to be playing competitively on, if that's what you're into.

Lots and lots of people have reviewed them at this point with similar results.

ShaunaTheDead

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What does GeForce NOW offer that isn't already on Linux? My drivers are updated automatically, and streaming through Moonlight/Sunshine is incredibly easy to setup. Okay, GeForce NOW can customize the settings of all of my games, but I've literally never used that feature because the settings they suggest are awful anyway.

conciselyverbose

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You're describing GeForce experience.

GeForce Now is the cloud gaming service.

ShaunaTheDead

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Oh! I had never heard of that. My mistake. Is that different than Moonlight/Sunshine game steaming? Does it stream from the internet like (the now defunct) Stadia rather than a local machine?

conciselyverbose

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It's stadia but without the bullshit where you have to buy games just for their platform.

It also works better.

Anamana

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It's like stadia but in good

PurpleTentacle

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As someone with "founder" status in both services, Stadia's user experience was far better. It also had the best latency with its direct connect controllers.

While GeForce Now made some steps towards mitigation and cooperation, with 2FA it's often still a mess of tediously logging into PC launchers before finally being able to play. And because the hardware changes every time, this repeats before every session.

GFN's library of compatible games is still stupidly limited, yet has all remaining competitors beat by a wide margin. And it has by far the most powerful hardware.

Both of those things probably make it the best streaming service right now, and outweigh the shortcomings. But "good" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

Anamana

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Thanks for your perspective. I just know it through a friend who uses GeForce now frequently on his MacBook. He is happy with the service that's why I wrote this.

I think it was stupid you had to buy games twice for stadia. The caveat of GFN with 2FA being annoying is an acceptable compromise imo. I also looked at the compatibility list and didn't find it to be lacking many games tbh. But mb I have different needs and expectations here or mb they don't work as advertised?

BetaDoggo_

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I'm surprised there isn't something already with how google has been marketing gaming on Chromebooks via streaming services.

wallmenis

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There is moonlight and sunshine and you can use xcloud via microsoft edge on the steam deck.

skullgiver

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skullgiver

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westyvw

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jordanlund

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Why would Nvidia support hardware that has fuck all to do with Nvidia?

https://www.steamdeck.com/en/tech

Processor

AMD APU CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32) GPU: 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.0-1.6GHz (up to 1.6 TFlops FP32) APU power: 4-15W

RAM

16 GB LPDDR5 on-board RAM (5500 MT/s quad 32-bit channels)

Storage

64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1) 256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4 or PCIe Gen 3 x2*) 512 GB high-speed NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4 or PCIe Gen 3 x2*)

lotanis

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GeForce Now is Nvidia's game streaming service.

HughJanus

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Because it makes them money? 🤷

hansmeiser666

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mordack550

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Geforce Now is a cloud streaming app, you can already use Nvidia Gamestream on deck with moonlight.

Blackmist

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GameStream is dead. You have to use Sunshine with Moonlight now.

RadicalKittenWanabe

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I would say that both Nvidia and Valve, I think we're both interested in making [GeForce Now on Steam Deck] better.

To me, this is like saying that HP would want their printers to use non HP cartridges.... The printers and the steam deck are not making much money by themselves, the money is made by selling the games or cartridges or subscription

As a user it would be nice to have it, but saying that it is something that Valve would obviously want invest in it, does not make sense to me