It seems like "Netflix for gamers", as Google Stadia and GeForce NOW, they have come to stay, but without a doubt the biggest problem they have with all these broadcasting jobs is with them high latency or ping. In this case, NVIDIA breastfeeding because, analytically, the competitive mode of GeForce NOW has a 30% lower ping rather than Google Stadia.
It was the guys from GameStar (and this is good because it's not an NVIDIA or Google review, but an impartial one) who decided to test the functionality of both game apps. The result is a surprise, if the GeForce service NOW wins not just that, but as they say its latency is very close to playing online on a PC
GeForce NOW vs Google Stadia: ping test
The method of measuring latency has been, at least, excessive. They used the Makey Makey upgrade board and the Olympus TG-6 camera to make the recording at 480 FPS. This allowed the latency test to be very accurate, since the number of frames taken by the development board registration could be calculated compared to that taken by the camera.
The two streaming platforms for the game are tested under the following conditions:
- GeForce NOW
- Rated: 1080p at 60 FPS with V-Sync unlocked.
- Competition: 720p at 120 FPS with V-Sync disabled.
- Stadia
- Rated: 1080p at 60 FPS, unknown V-Sync (platform does not allow or disable this option).
- Competition: 720p at 60 FPS, unknown V-Sync.
The "competitive" option for GeForce NOW is intended for users who want immediate action in gaming, possibly damaging the quality of the gaming experience (and hence its name). The latency was tested with two games: Destiny 2 and Metro: Exodus, and in the test they added the latency obtained from the same games to the local PC. This resulted:
Conclusion 2 | Metro: Exit | |
---|---|---|
Home PC | 39.5 ms | 41.3 ms |
Stadia’s balance | 95.4 ms | 100.5 ms |
Contests Stadia | 93.4 ms | 97.1 ms |
GeForce NOW to balance | 97.8 ms | 81.1 ms |
GeForce NOW Competition | 69 ms | 68.6 ms |
Obviously the ping of both services is higher than what is available on a local PC, but the data remaining in this comparison are that the competitive mode for GeForce marks NOW is also a big difference, because it provides latency less than 70 ms and the game is then "played." Not at the level of competition, it's all said, but this broadcasting platform is not intended for them even though they have given it that name.
Google Stadia is also losing GeForce NOW
This latency analysis of both streaming game resources has meant another Stadia hit, which has always been under the NVIDIA app. In this competition to see who takes the cat out of the water, it is fair to say that NVIDIA's service has over one million subscribers since its launch, and despite the fact that both of them activate – Blizzard and Bethesda have released their platform games catalog.
In any case, latency issues in these services are not an insurmountable obstacle, and in particular Google has far greater potential than NVIDIA to save. We'll see what happens in weeks or months, when both platforms are "stable" in the market.