BUY A PC OR CLOUD GAMING SERVICE

[hailongpham3012]

Hi guys, I just wanna ask for your opinions on a quite interesting gaming concept that caught my attention recently.

You might already know, it's a cloud gaming service, or to put in simply, a Netflix for gaming. It basically allows user to play modern games at high setting on a crappy PC, laptop, or TV (Geforce Now from Nvidia or Shadow Blade in France for example).

From my point of view, this isn't a bad idea at all. Take Shadow Blade for example (https://shadow.tech/int), it allows users to play games on a PC with specs equivalent of a Xeon CPU 8 threads, 12 GBs of DDR4 Ram, 256 GBs SSD and GTX 1080.

In terms of value, a PC with that specs along with proper peripherals will be about $2000. If you buy a 12-month package, you will pay around $420/ year, which is $2100 in 5 years, similar to an usual PC life cycle before being slow and outdated. However, they offer hardware upgrade for every major releases, which means that your virtual computer will never get outdated. Let's say you upgrade your GPU and CPU every 3-4 years, storage and ram every 5 years, it will probably cost you another $1000. Also, it allows you to use it on any devices, Windows, MacOS, Android, IOS, basically anything with a motherfking screen. For now, instead of building a high-end PC to game and a crappy laptop to carry around, you can buy an expensive laptop (even a Macbook) and literally game on it.

Sounds like a dream, I know, so here are the disadvantages. First off, the internet connection. According to its founder, a 15 mbps would be ideal to avoid any latency, but, a 10mbps would be sufficient I think, since he said that 15 was just in case someone watches porn in the other room. This means that if you have a shitty internet connection, you are pretty much obligated to buy a PC. I personally don't have this issues, I can still get 45-50 mbps both down and up using wifi even from an extender. If you use ethernet cable directly from the router, I doubt that you will ever have this issue. The second disadvantage is privacy, (which only occurs if you use Shadow Blade, not Geforce Now) where hackers can hack into your windows desktop and steal your information. I don't think this is likely to be serious, since you buy it to game, other applications that might affect your money will probably happen outside of the service.

So here comes the question. Is it worth it? So far with all these analyses that I wrote down, it kinda is. Cheaper, more convenient, a bit limited by the internet speed which will likely be solved in the near future with fiber connection or ethernet.

[Airdragonz]

In my opinion, no it's not. Internet connection speeds largely depend on where the server is, so going by what your speed test results are won't necessarily work out. Then you are also missing a key component when it comes down to owning a pc, which is the ability to resell it. For instance, I purchased a gtx 1070 around 2 years ago. I can still turn that around and sell it used for about 200 to 250 USD, a little more than half of what I paid for it. Your own PC also allows for more customization and personalization on your end too, whether that's using it for other applications besides gaming or downloading games that aren't offered by the cloud service. 

[Ya_Mi]

But does our game will be locked at 30FPS?

And thats pretty bad not just for us pc gamer who already got used to 60FPS but for competitive gamer who play competitive games such as cs go,overwatch,quake,etc because latency and frames is critical for them

[Hip]

I'd wait for cloud gaming like 1 more year or so.

Even with a great internet connection you will get more lags than on local pc's.

When EA and Nvidia will launch their services for the public, then it's time to get a cloud gaming service, not now in my opinion.

[Peskanova]

just 3 words : high refresh rate

the rest is peasant.

why do you need a gtx 1080 experience at 30-60fps? for 800$ I can make a computer that run all games at 60fps smooth (without monitor)  a 1080 graphic experience needs to be backed with some assets like high refresh rate monitors, and I dont think any solution can bring to you 144 hz 1080p/1440p thats now the norm and I have 600mbps up/down, just If you want cheap 30-60fps buy a console, that can be a thing , cloud vs console , but cloud vs pc -> no chance for now

[hailongpham3012]

Im pretty sure that they ensure that it is 144fps in any modern game

 

[Fullmental]

Cloud gaming is an interesting emerging market right now, but I'd say it's not quite ready for widespread use, nor are typical home internet connections always equipped to handle it. Your typical $60 wifi router that most people have will not perform without some significant latency over wifi, and even though you can get better wireless routers most people frankly don't know what they're missing. Latency alone isn't necessarily a deal breaker on some games though. If you mostly do adventure RPGs and other epics that don't really rely on pinpoint accuracy and precise timing, then it could be an option.

 

But if you're spending $2100 over 5 years, why not just buy the hardware? For $1200 you can easily get a computer that will last 3+ years of use at good graphics settings, and you can even stretch that further if you want with incremental upgrades. Today, $1200 would get you an 8600K and a 1070 if you're smart about your part selection (windows key included!). This is more than enough for exceptional 1080p quality, with some performance headroom for future games as they come out (compared to a 1060 which is great for everything out now, but may or may not see similar performance in a year or two with 1080p gameplay). You also get the advantage of not needing to get another OS key, case, and possibly power supply in 3 years time when you're ready to upgrade, further reducing the cost of a "new" build.

 

Even if you were to completely replace your build with a comparable one every 3 years, at the end of 6 you'd spend only $2400 compared to the $2520 you'd spend on cloud gaming, assuming you don't stretch your usage out any further, and assuming the cost of cloud gaming doesn't increase over that span.

 

Therein lies another factor involved in monthly services - you have no control over price hikes or service changes. If your cloud gaming service suddenly decides to increase your service plan by $20/month, you can't fall back on a gaming PC to pay even if you've been investing in the service for 2-3 years already. You'd have to fully invest in a gaming PC to get out. Personally, I don't like that idea one bit. We're already at the mercy of distributors when it comes to what services our favorite TV shows are streamable on, and how much those might cost each month. It's the same reason why I'm still buying blurays these days - once I buy them, they're mine and Disney or Fox or Netflix can't take them away citing contract expiration or some stupid feud.

 

Since we're comparing to a cloud streaming service, you can pretty much guarantee 4K is out of the question as an apples to apples comparison, so you're not even going to get the advantage of the 1080 and the Xeon over this $1000 price point.

 

With that in mind, I'd consider a cloud gaming service today if the pricing was much cheaper, like $20 a month. I think at that price point you could argue that it's cheaper than building your own PC and upgrading it, making it a desirable alternative if you're strapped for cash.

 

 

55 minutes ago, Airdragonz said:

In my opinion, no it's not. Internet connection speeds largely depend on where the server is, so going by what your speed test results are won't necessarily work out. Then you are also missing a key component when it comes down to owning a pc, which is the ability to resell it. For instance, I purchased a gtx 1070 around 2 years ago. I can still turn that around and sell it used for about 200 to 250 USD, a little more than half of what I paid for it. Your own PC also allows for more customization and personalization on your end too, whether that's using it for other applications besides gaming or downloading games that aren't offered by the cloud service. 

Graphics cards are an anomaly this generation. 5 years ago, you could not resell a 2 year old $400 card for $250 as easily, if at all(?). For example, in 2014 you weren't getting $200 for a 670, more like $150. We're also seeing a particularly long-running generation from Nvidia which is further disrupting the market, usually new cards are out by now.

 

While it's true you can recoup some of your money this way, I wouldn't rely on it in cost/value estimates when building a new rig. Think of it more as a bonus.

 

8 minutes ago, hailongpham3012 said:

Im pretty sure that they ensure that it is 144fps in any modern game

 

You're not getting good quality video like that through a stream. 60fps at best, even if the hardware is rendering at 144. At 60fps, you'd want a minimum of 8-10mbps bitrate for it to look good and ideally you'd want 20-30 for uncompressed or very lightly compressed streaming. You'd have to more than double that to get the same quality at 144fps. Then you need it to be a stable connection, not just locally but regionally to wherever the cloud server is hosted. 

[Nicnac]

Geforce now does 60 fps 1080p at most

[Markoooooos]

I wouldn't with a actually PC you can do much more than a cloud streaming service. Like movie editing and modding