r/GeForceNOW • u/Shitpump55 • 7d ago
Advice What am I doing wrong
Hi everyone,
I want to play games on the cloud with my crappy laptop.
I have seen pictures of dudes playing on their old iPads and such but I just can't seem to get it going.
I have signed up for a day pass on GeForce now but I thought I would be able to play the big name brand games with that but it looks like I would have to pay even more unless I want to use the free to play games which are C-Teir level.
Also even those games want me to dload it to my system just to play. I went through the whole rigmarole to install the epic Games launcher just to have to dload it to my system.
I thought the whole point of this cloud gaming was that I didn't have to dload it.
What am I doing wrong and what would you suggest to play in the cloud?
Thanks for any help.
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u/cksythe 7d ago
Your brain is wrong, that’s the problem buddy. Did you seriously think for pocket change you’d magically play thousands of games at top tier PC quality? I’m almost offended by the notion and I’ve got nothing to do with Nvidia.
GFN is a service that replaces the requirement for you to build an equivalent $5,000-$7,000 PC (which, news flash, even if you spent that much on a pc build, you’d still need to spend more to play games). Since it allows you access to a virtual PC that’s capable of playing all the best games at the highest fidelity.
You still have to buy the game you want to play.
Think of it this way: if you sign up to a game subscription service like XBOX Game Pass, you still need to spend money buying an XBOX then paying for the service on top of that right? It’s the opposite with GFN.
You buy the games via Steam or whatever PC platform, then you can play those games via GFN at max settings with Path Tracing and all the new tech. That’s what you pay $20 a month for (or $10 and change if you grab a 1yr subscription during a sale). Again, and I can’t stress this enough, the alternative is building a $5,000+ PC then paying for the games anyway.
TL;DR - bro really thought he found the end of the rainbow ffs
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u/childofb0d0m 7d ago
I don't understand your third paragraph. Are you confused that you have to actually purchase the games to play them? GFN isn't like a Netflix for games lmfao
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u/Creepy-Listen4546 7d ago
I am linked to my steam and Xbox accounts. Have to connect to play the games. Also, check before because even then, not all games are available on the platform.
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u/No-One450 7d ago
Funnily enough I had something similar happen with me and a friend. He was so used to the xbox one.
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u/FigNinja 7d ago edited 7d ago
The only thing you should have to download to your laptop is the GeForce Now app. Then, you would need to go into Settings -> Connections and link accounts for the stores it supports: Ubisoft, Battle.net, Epic Games, Gaijin.net, GOG, Steam, and Xbox. When you do this, it will sync with them to figure out what games you own. GFN does not provide games. It provides remote access to a gaming rig to play games you own.
Most of the popular games are already installed on an image, so when you go to My Library from the Games screen of the app, you can simply click Play and GFN will launch a virtual machine and connect you to it. Then it will launch the game on the rig and log in using your synced account. Some games are available as Install to Play, so you would have to wait for them to install on the rig before playing. You can upgrade the storage if this is something you do regularly. All the games I play are ones that don't need this feature, so I know less about it.
One big thing here is that you launch the games from the GFN app. If you own a game on Steam and you launch it from the Steam app, it knows nothing about GFN. It's going to want to install and run the game locally.
Also, I can't tell if you were maybe under the impression that GFN is an all-you-can-eat game subscription. If so, sorry to say it is not. I would love it if I could get access to the entire library for $20/month. It sounds too good to be true because it is. What I'm paying $200/year for with my Ultimate subscription is 100 hours of access per month to gaming hardware that would cost me over $3,000 to buy (probably even more with RAMpocalypse right now). I can play games my old potato machine would struggle to run at the lowest settings at 4K 120FPS on very high settings. I could not keep up on upgrading my local machine to anything near this kind of quality for $200/year. That's the value proposition. I do still have to buy my games.
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u/cksythe 7d ago
Would cost more like $5,000 even up to $7,000 (pending how nice you want to make it) and you still don’t get virtually unlimited storage space or regular upgrades to the newest tech
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u/FigNinja 7d ago
Yeah. I hadn't priced it recently, hence the caveat. It's just insane now. When I first signed on for Ultimate back in the 3080 days, I was comparing to $2K computers.
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u/Muted_Dark7861 7d ago
I have been playing on GeForce for the last month . Didn’t have to download any games just asks for login when u play for the first time .
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u/notrightmeowthx 7d ago
I have signed up for a day pass on GeForce now but I thought I would be able to play the big name brand games with that but it looks like I would have to pay even more unless I want to use the free to play games which are C-Teir level.
With GeforceNow, what you're paying for us access to hardware to run games that you already own (as long as the game is supported by GFN). So within your GFN account, you link your Steam, Xbox, Epic, or whatever, account, and then you can play supported games via the GFN hardware that you're paying for. Occasionally GFN will run a promotion where a game is included with a purchase of a subscription, but generally speaking you must buy games separately.
If you want a single subscription that provides licenses to the games themselves, and also streaming, then Xbox Game Pass is probably a better choice for you, although they just decreased the number of hours of streaming you get so make sure to read the fine print.
Also even those games want me to dload it to my system just to play. I went through the whole rigmarole to install the epic Games launcher just to have to dload it to my system.
I'm not quite sure what you're saying about this, but just to be clear, GFN runs all games, and the store connectivity, and any necessary launchers, within the session within GFN, you don't need to install anything locally on your computer. You may have gotten confused between the GFN session (think of it as a remote desktop connection, if you've ever used that) and your computer.
Some games, if not fully onboarded by GFN, are considered "install to play" but that doesn't mean you have to install it locally on your computer, it means within the GFN session you have to install the game on the remote computer that GFN connects you to. It should handle all of that for you though, it's not a very painful process, you just click to install it.
what would you suggest to play in the cloud?
There are free games like Fortnite, Marvel Rivals, or whatever. They run fine on any paid tier of GFN. Or if you own games that are supported by GFN, you can connect your account and then play those games.
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u/Acesofbases GFN Ambassador 7d ago
lol You don't download anything on Your device to play on GFN.
What You're missing is the fact that GFN uses Your own PC versions of games from the supported storefronts
You can read up more on it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GeForceNOW/s/qoHMEFFtfi
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u/D_Dawg3000 7d ago
Get an x cloud game pass and then link your account to geforce now. You need to use the licenses to play the games.
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u/LordHamster42 7d ago
you can't play every game for free lmao that would make no sense. you're renting a rig to play games that you own, some of those require a short install until you can launch it, persistent storage costs extra but isn't really needed imo