An ongoing chip shortage has made next-generation consoles and newer graphics cards like Nvidia's RTX 3000 series hard to find. While gamers wait for the stock to increase and make cards more widely available, Nvidia vice president Phil Eisler recommends using GeForce Now instead.
With recent reports from the likes of Intel and TSMC saying the chip shortage could last into 2022, players waiting to grab a new card could have some time before they find one. Nvidia reported that GeForce Now was approaching 10 million users last month, so it seems many think it works well as a substitute in the meantime.
GeForce Now works a bit differently from other game streaming services. Whereas services like Xbox Game Pass on mobile stream games from a limited library over the cloud, GeForce Now instead utilizes cloud computing to assist players in running the games they already own. Because of this, Eisler told PCGamesN that the service can be used as a reasonable substitute for an RTX 3000 series GPU, since it should be able to reach similar benchmarks while being cost-effective and more easily available to play newer games like Outriders.
Nvidia has been working to drive the games industry forward, and while the service does offer those benefits at only $9.99 a month, it also comes with some drawbacks. The service requires players to use a wired ethernet connection of at least 25Mbps to play games at 1080p with 60fps, which can be hard to come by in some areas. Perhaps the largest drawback, however, is that the service only works on a select list of games. While the list is growing every week, it is possible that a player will run into an unsupported game.
For any players who are growing tired of waiting for a new graphics card, GeForce Now seems like a strong alternative, even after Nvidia's recent price increase. The service has built a sizable playerbase, and with its steadily growing list of compatible titles it is only becoming a better deal. Another strong point for Nvidia's service is that if players try it and are not satisfied, they still have access to the games they were intending to play when they are finally able to get a new graphics card. Hopefully, the chip shortage will end sooner rather than later, but it is good to see that there is another option out there for players.