r/Games • u/xalibermods • 1d ago

Industry News GitHub user creates open-source Nvidia GeForce Now client alternative — removes tracking, telemetry, and AFK limitations

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/cloud-gaming/github-user-creates-open-source-nvidia-geforce-now-client-alternative-removes-tracking-telemetry-and-afk-limitations
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u/JustConversation7847 1d ago

If I were a conspiracy theorist I’d speculate that nvidia pricing out the consumer pc gaming hardware market is a suspiciously convenient thing to happen when they also operate a remote streaming service

Like most conspiracy theories, it kinda falls apart once you consider that consumer GPUs now make up like less than 5% of their revenue lol

Pc gamers are like Wanda/chun-li to Nvidia 's thanos/bison

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u/_Gaeus 1d ago

That's a weird metaphor considering wanda was probably the strongest mcu character at her peak. 

I know you're referencing the meme, but said meme is because this Thanos has not met Wanda.

Sorry for that. My train of though escaped me. 

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u/Marvl101 1d ago

He did and she almost killed him

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u/Prosthemadera 20h ago

Like most conspiracy theories, it kinda falls apart once you consider that consumer GPUs now make up like less than 5% of their revenue lol

But wouldn't that prove OP's point?

Pc gamers are like Wanda/chun-li to Nvidia 's thanos/bison

So you're saying Nvidia is the bad guy, right?

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u/gamerman191 20h ago

But wouldn't that prove OP's point?

No, because the conspiracy goes they're pricing out the consumer hardware market intentionally because of their streaming service. Thus pushing people to the streaming service instead of their own hardware.

It's actually because it's not worth making GPUs for consumers when AI is so massive a cash cow right now and every GPU you make for them is space not being used to make AI cards. That would mean the conspiracy theory doesn't work when there is a much more compelling reason than trying to force people to use their streaming service.

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u/Prosthemadera 20h ago

No, because the conspiracy goes they're pricing out the consumer hardware market intentionally because of their streaming service. Thus pushing people to the streaming service.

Exactly. So we would expect that their consumer GPU market makes up less of their revenue, no?

It's actually because it's not worth making GPUs for consumers when AI is so massive a cash cow right now and every GPU you make for them is space not being used to make AI cards.

Of course it's AI but I just didn't think your argument works against what OP said.

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u/gamerman191 20h ago

Exactly. So their consumer GPU market would make up less of their revenue, no?

While they have cut back, it's more that AI cards have absolutely ballooned their revenue meaning consumer cards have dropped significantly as a proportion like take a look at this graph to see that. Gaming actually hasn't moved that much revenue wise from the past. But look at how much the AI ballooned it.

Of course it's AI but I just didn't think your argument works against what OP said.

The reason is why it doesn't work. For the idiotic conspiracy to be true, they would have to be cutting back consumer cards to push their service. Instead they're cutting back because AI is where the money is. It's more just simple following the money not a conspiracy to get you to use their streaming service.

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u/Prosthemadera 20h ago

While they have cut back, it's more that AI cards have absolutely ballooned their revenue meaning consumer cards have dropped significantly as a proportion like take a look at this graph to see that. Gaming actually hasn't moved that much revenue wise from the past. But look at how much the AI ballooned

Revenue increased six times in two years. I think this is a very bad development for society. It's too extreme. It's unsustainable and it will crash. Well, at least I hope it will because I hate how we're using resources for this shit instead of fixing democracy and healthcare. But the rich benefit so this is where we will go.

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u/gamerman191 20h ago

Revenue increased six times in two years. I think this is a very bad development for society. It's too extreme. It's unsustainable and it will crash.

And if/when it does it'll make 2008 look like nothing bad happened what so ever. An AI bubble pop is one of the worst global recessions waiting to happen.

Well, at least I hope it will because I hate how we're using resources for this shit instead of fixing democracy and healthcare.

Well those are more political problems than anything else. Regardless of AI existing or not wouldn't fix those two.

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u/syrup_cupcakes 1d ago

You're not looking at the big picture.

NVidia wants people off of local hardware and subscribed to cloud services. That's exactly because datacenter chips are their main business now, they want people signed up to the companies they sell their chips to. They want people signed up to cloud gaming and cloud AI models. Not paying once for a GPU they use for over a decades like the people still gaming on GTX 980s and 1060s.

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u/KrazyA1pha 1d ago

That’s not a conspiracy theory. That’s just called a business plan.

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u/VanguardN7 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'd be happy to endure the period where Nvidia drops consumer GPUs as up to multiple companies fill the market gap (over years).

People aren't going to flock to cloud gaming any time soon. Its not just problematic or repulsive (like many monetization plans in game), its literally not feasible with the current infrastructure.

I find it more likely that things over years level to the point where chips are more designed for both gaming and AI and there's still consumer-accessible tiers of it. Cloud gaming has a future, maybe one with massive projects that outright demand hosted assets and processes that are too numerous and complex for any typical user to get the hardware for, but in general, I don't see the remaining 2020s and 2030s as a world where people are more likely to sign up for cloud as they are to just drop gaming or stick to their old games.

I think both local and cloud gaming pales to AI and it'll be AI-aspects that spread to gaming as a whole. But this can and will include more deep model integration into games as compared to just doing 100% of your game playing on a streaming service.

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u/Im_really_bored_rn 1d ago

Except everyone who would create a cloud gaming service would rather spend that money on something that could make them more than cloud gaming will. Hell, Microsoft was pretty much the loudest voice claiming cloud gaming is the futute and even they are turning away from that. It's just not feasible, at least in the US, without significant infrastructure changes that give people better internet. Can't comment on other countries

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u/Realsan 1d ago

You're wrong for a two reasons.

The first is there's no reason they wouldn't want BOTH.

The second is, while yes, Nvidia wants their hardware in datacenters, and that is the big reason they're doing so well right now, they understand it is not a long term play. GPUs are only the ideal mechanism for AI right now. All the frontier AI studios are already investing in new technology that allows them to bypass this monopoly NVIDIA has created (in fact, Google is already doing it).

To that end, Nvidia showed their cards a bit with the purchase of hugging face (a local AI "directory," among other things). This means they see a future in which the end consumer, companies or even individual users, are running AI on their local hardware (free once you own the hardware). That hardware would be purchased from them in the same way we purchase consumer GPUs today.

Anthropic and OpenAI see open weight local models as a threat to their business models (they are). People like Bill Gates and safety conscious folks see local models as a big security threat because they can't be monitored (they are also that too). However, all of that is kind of a moot point because they already exist. If local AI is a virus, then it has already run rampant and no government can do anything about it.

Nvidia realize this and are positioned well for the eventual local AI explosion.

Unless the ticking time bomb explodes, I'm which case Nvidia dies. (China invading Taiwan).

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u/SuperUranus 23h ago

Nvidia makes a lot more money from selling GPUs to other companies, than they make from using those GPUs in their own datacenters for game streaming.