So, bottom line, does it help my 760 at all? I'm planning on trying the other features at some point, but does it help me in any games? I reckon I'll have to read the notes and see...
Are we talking GTX 760 or GTX 760M? The latter should receive GameStream and ShadowPlay support; the former only gets a couple smaller updates. I'm guessing you're talking about the drivers, though, in which case it will mostly be a few specific games that might see a moderate bump in performance.
If you're not already using GFE at all, then there are some pretty nice benefits to a 760 user. The auto-optimization of game settings is (to me, anyhow) extremely valuable. No more time wasted tweaking game settings to get it playable on your setup. nVidia has already tested your CPU/GPU/resolution combo and picked a suite of game settings that will get you the best quality your setup can produce playable framerates for.
Definitely cool and I don't want to diminish what NVIDIA has done here, but the relevance is limited when factoring in Valve's Steam Streaming efforts. Granted, NVIDIA officially supports global streaming (awesome!), but the same can be accomplished with Steam through VPN. Valve's solution is free and also supports more games (and non-Steam applications when added to library) and hardware configurations on both the rendering and receiving end. It's likely just a matter of time before Steam Streaming officially supports Internet streaming and expands to more mobile devices.
True, but Steam In-Home Streaming is in closed beta, whereas GameStream has been available for months (though not on laptops). I think what will really be the deciding factor is latency of the solution. Steam Streaming from my desktop to a laptop -- *ANY* modern laptop -- could potentially eliminate the need for a discrete GPU. Of course, you're then tying up both your desktop and laptop while gaming, but there's not much to be done about that.
"Of course, you're then tying up both your desktop and laptop while gaming, but there's not much to be done about that." That's the rub for me and my family. You really need a separate gaming PC for the streaming to really matter since you're tying up a machine. My main rig can easily handle gaming and desktop use for most games, so it would be nice if I could be working and the kids gaming remotely at the same time.
Indeed, and given Valve's track record there's no guarantee as to when it will be available. Personally, I believe that what NVIDIA is doing now will ultimately be viewed as the catalyst for Steam Streaming to be mainstream a year from now.
I have a bunch of older components together (except for a 4U case) for a Frankenstein's Monster-esque game streaming server to add to my rack in the basement. Nothing fancy: Q6600, GTX 470, 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD (to hold the Steam library). I've tested the components and it's good enough for 1080p in-home streaming for most games with about 60ms latency over 802.11n to my crappy old dual-core Pentium laptop with 320M GT. The latency is a steady 16ms over gigabit.
My brother-in-law has a IVB notebook that just barely plays Borderlands 2 on the HD4000 IGP, but when he comes over, he can play the games he owns off my server in near-flawless quality. If not the technology alone, the ease of doing it is remarkable.
IF GFE 3.0 supports multiple streams from one box, then I'll be VERY impressed!
No, they would never expect mainstream consumers (or even prosumers) to spend that kind of money. Titan Z notwithstanding.
You can already play multiple games simultaneously on a single machine with a good deal of effort (hardware and game dependant), so it's not outside the realm that we'll see a solution from NVIDIA, AMD, Valve, or someone else.
Streaming Video Content @ 1080p wirelessly looks like crap right now. Maybe if both devices were Wireless AC Enabled with 3 spatial streams, then yea, but currently, the bit-rate is just to low. Mirroring my iPad Air to my Apple TV @ 1080p looks like junk, same with chrome cast, and i have a AC router. Nobody has been able to match what Nvidia's streaming is capable of, not yet anyways.
Just wanted to point out that getting into home streaming "closed" beta is easier than you make it out to be. Signing up for the community and waiting for the next update (seems to happen about every week or so atm) is pretty much all you need to do - so far it seems like everyone who is currently in the group gets an invite automatically.
And the hardware requirements for the home streaming are also very much minimal on the receiving end. I mean I've been doing it with my chromebook (via chrubuntu) which is a dual core 1.4ghz celeron (2955u haswell celeron to be precise - i mean c'mon) with no problems what so ever.
As for nvidia being the catalyst... who knows? Does it matter even? Nobody owns the shield really and by now any people that cared about home streaming are in the steam group already and are using it already.
Buying specific vendor tied hardware for what is essentially video streaming over wifi network seems stupid tbh.
> Of course, you're then tying up both your desktop and laptop while gaming, but there's not much to be done about that.
The IGP in the desktop would be perfect to render the regular desktop and even light duty 3D work while the discrete GPU handles the big game. Some people might complain that their socket 2011 system doesn't have an IGP.. but then there are enough who complain that their socket 115x system does have one.
I'm pretty sure it's just performance; the GTX cards have at least twice the number of shaders I believe. I'm guessing there's also a bit of political junk going on (e.g. let's limit this useful feature to only higher-end GPUs), but that's par for the course with computer technology.
I like that they're taking "frame rate targeting and more" into account. This could be used to make better use of our raw hardware power with GPU featuring turbo modes. I'm thinking about this: target a sane frame rate between 30 fps and the display refresh rate. In scenes where the system is faster than this the GPU can be throttled back a bit, saving power and running more efficiently. If the next demanding scene occurs some of the thermal headroom previously accumulated in the light scenes could be used to boost worst-case performance by temporarily exceeding the power target (like Intel already does). On average we might use the same power, but improve worst case performance.. which is what really counts at the end.
Some will complain that such fpts targets are too low for snappy input response. But I think the GUI response of any game should be decoupled from the screen refresh rate anyway.
I hope this helps nVidia make their "nVidia Streamer service" stop running at random times and gobbling up all my network bandwidth, hard drive throughput, or my CPU cycles. Seriously, I don't care about the pittance of memory it usually takes, but damn it, when I'm trying to load a level and I've got a bajillion nVidia streamer service instances running trying to stream a game I'M NOT ACTUALLY STREAMING, that's really not cool.
Moreover, the fact that few news outlets even notice this problem is kinda odd. It's almost like they don't even TEST these parts of video cards even though they are discussed as part of the benefits package. Perhaps PC enthusiast sites need to actually day to day USE the computers they're testing games on between tests.
That way, they'd see how after several hours of gaming the nVidia Streamer service inexplicably begins gobbling up resources like a high Pac Man. And you'd think DISABLING the Streamer Service in Geforce Experience would fix it.
Nope. Them ROGUE nVidia streamer services are still being started at login. After finally realizing that the chugging wasn't normal, not even for shoddy Bioware games like Dragon Age 2 that were never properly optimized, I determined the cause. An nVidia streamer service I thought had been STOPPED when I DISABLED the option.
This problem is not related to nVidia DRIVERS. It's related to nVidia GEFORCE EXPERIENCE. Hence, if anyone had bothered to test it, they'd have found other posts on forums of people saying the same as me.
"Stop" that service if you aren't using it because it will eventually turn on you and Agent Smith all over the place. Replicating, sucking down resources, and generally being a pain of itself.
"The best part about being me... is there's so many me." Indeed, nVidia Streamer service. Indeed.
No, we never do anything but benchmark. LOL. I can't say I'm the type to use ShadowPlay, so I've never really looked into that aspect, but I've never done anything to try and disable the NVIDIA Streamer service either. It certainly hasn't cropped up in normal use as a problem for me, and I've tested/used dozens of laptops with NVIDIA GPUs. YMMV.
i'm stuck on a 332 series driver for the time being, because it's the only one that will not freeze my gtx660 everytime i start StarCraft2. sometimes a fast driver update schedule is good, but there are times when a bug like this will creep on a LOT of drivers because of the lack of proper testing.
I've submitted 2 bug reports to nVIDIA regarding GeForce Experience's inability to handle Windows filesystem symbolic links/directory junctions. The first one was shortly after GeForce Experience was launched, and the issue still isn't fixed yet. So I'm not particularly impressed with nVIDIA's competence, or lack thereof, on this front.
I have a Shield and dig it and I know they are trying to sell them but... It sure would be killer to Remote gamestream from my desktop at home to my laptop.
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BPB - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
So, bottom line, does it help my 760 at all? I'm planning on trying the other features at some point, but does it help me in any games? I reckon I'll have to read the notes and see...JarredWalton - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
Are we talking GTX 760 or GTX 760M? The latter should receive GameStream and ShadowPlay support; the former only gets a couple smaller updates. I'm guessing you're talking about the drivers, though, in which case it will mostly be a few specific games that might see a moderate bump in performance.Guspaz - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
If you're not already using GFE at all, then there are some pretty nice benefits to a 760 user. The auto-optimization of game settings is (to me, anyhow) extremely valuable. No more time wasted tweaking game settings to get it playable on your setup. nVidia has already tested your CPU/GPU/resolution combo and picked a suite of game settings that will get you the best quality your setup can produce playable framerates for.nathanddrews - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
Only if you play at 60fps.Guspaz - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
GFE doesn't target 60 FPS.nathanddrews - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Sure does.https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/525176/ge...
nathanddrews - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
Definitely cool and I don't want to diminish what NVIDIA has done here, but the relevance is limited when factoring in Valve's Steam Streaming efforts. Granted, NVIDIA officially supports global streaming (awesome!), but the same can be accomplished with Steam through VPN. Valve's solution is free and also supports more games (and non-Steam applications when added to library) and hardware configurations on both the rendering and receiving end. It's likely just a matter of time before Steam Streaming officially supports Internet streaming and expands to more mobile devices.JarredWalton - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
True, but Steam In-Home Streaming is in closed beta, whereas GameStream has been available for months (though not on laptops). I think what will really be the deciding factor is latency of the solution. Steam Streaming from my desktop to a laptop -- *ANY* modern laptop -- could potentially eliminate the need for a discrete GPU. Of course, you're then tying up both your desktop and laptop while gaming, but there's not much to be done about that.BPB - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
"Of course, you're then tying up both your desktop and laptop while gaming, but there's not much to be done about that." That's the rub for me and my family. You really need a separate gaming PC for the streaming to really matter since you're tying up a machine. My main rig can easily handle gaming and desktop use for most games, so it would be nice if I could be working and the kids gaming remotely at the same time.nathanddrews - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
Indeed, and given Valve's track record there's no guarantee as to when it will be available. Personally, I believe that what NVIDIA is doing now will ultimately be viewed as the catalyst for Steam Streaming to be mainstream a year from now.I have a bunch of older components together (except for a 4U case) for a Frankenstein's Monster-esque game streaming server to add to my rack in the basement. Nothing fancy: Q6600, GTX 470, 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD (to hold the Steam library). I've tested the components and it's good enough for 1080p in-home streaming for most games with about 60ms latency over 802.11n to my crappy old dual-core Pentium laptop with 320M GT. The latency is a steady 16ms over gigabit.
My brother-in-law has a IVB notebook that just barely plays Borderlands 2 on the HD4000 IGP, but when he comes over, he can play the games he owns off my server in near-flawless quality. If not the technology alone, the ease of doing it is remarkable.
IF GFE 3.0 supports multiple streams from one box, then I'll be VERY impressed!
ZeDestructor - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
IF GFE 3.0 supports multiple streams from one box, then I'll be VERY impressed!Unlikely. They want you to use GRID instead for that stuff.
nathanddrews - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
No, they would never expect mainstream consumers (or even prosumers) to spend that kind of money. Titan Z notwithstanding.You can already play multiple games simultaneously on a single machine with a good deal of effort (hardware and game dependant), so it's not outside the realm that we'll see a solution from NVIDIA, AMD, Valve, or someone else.
Morawka - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
Streaming Video Content @ 1080p wirelessly looks like crap right now. Maybe if both devices were Wireless AC Enabled with 3 spatial streams, then yea, but currently, the bit-rate is just to low. Mirroring my iPad Air to my Apple TV @ 1080p looks like junk, same with chrome cast, and i have a AC router. Nobody has been able to match what Nvidia's streaming is capable of, not yet anyways.nathanddrews - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
I haven't had any issues streaming 1080p Steam or Blu-ray discs.HanzNFranzen - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
I currently stream uncompressed MKV Blu Ray rips from a WHS over Wireless N with no problems.Alexey291 - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Just wanted to point out that getting into home streaming "closed" beta is easier than you make it out to be. Signing up for the community and waiting for the next update (seems to happen about every week or so atm) is pretty much all you need to do - so far it seems like everyone who is currently in the group gets an invite automatically.And the hardware requirements for the home streaming are also very much minimal on the receiving end. I mean I've been doing it with my chromebook (via chrubuntu) which is a dual core 1.4ghz celeron (2955u haswell celeron to be precise - i mean c'mon) with no problems what so ever.
As for nvidia being the catalyst... who knows? Does it matter even? Nobody owns the shield really and by now any people that cared about home streaming are in the steam group already and are using it already.
Buying specific vendor tied hardware for what is essentially video streaming over wifi network seems stupid tbh.
MrSpadge - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
> Of course, you're then tying up both your desktop and laptop while gaming, but there's not much to be done about that.The IGP in the desktop would be perfect to render the regular desktop and even light duty 3D work while the discrete GPU handles the big game. Some people might complain that their socket 2011 system doesn't have an IGP.. but then there are enough who complain that their socket 115x system does have one.
mfenn - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
Looks like somebody at Nvidia knows what's important.*points to Dota 2 and /r/dota2 on the ShadowPlay slide*
mr_tawan - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
It' pretty sad to see GameStream and ShadowPlay are exclusive for GTX cards. Those laptops (mine included) with GT card won't be able to upgrade.Is it something with hardware limitation ? or just purely performance issue ?
JarredWalton - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
I'm pretty sure it's just performance; the GTX cards have at least twice the number of shaders I believe. I'm guessing there's also a bit of political junk going on (e.g. let's limit this useful feature to only higher-end GPUs), but that's par for the course with computer technology.MrSpadge - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
I like that they're taking "frame rate targeting and more" into account. This could be used to make better use of our raw hardware power with GPU featuring turbo modes. I'm thinking about this: target a sane frame rate between 30 fps and the display refresh rate. In scenes where the system is faster than this the GPU can be throttled back a bit, saving power and running more efficiently. If the next demanding scene occurs some of the thermal headroom previously accumulated in the light scenes could be used to boost worst-case performance by temporarily exceeding the power target (like Intel already does). On average we might use the same power, but improve worst case performance.. which is what really counts at the end.Some will complain that such fpts targets are too low for snappy input response. But I think the GUI response of any game should be decoupled from the screen refresh rate anyway.
HisDivineOrder - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
I hope this helps nVidia make their "nVidia Streamer service" stop running at random times and gobbling up all my network bandwidth, hard drive throughput, or my CPU cycles. Seriously, I don't care about the pittance of memory it usually takes, but damn it, when I'm trying to load a level and I've got a bajillion nVidia streamer service instances running trying to stream a game I'M NOT ACTUALLY STREAMING, that's really not cool.Moreover, the fact that few news outlets even notice this problem is kinda odd. It's almost like they don't even TEST these parts of video cards even though they are discussed as part of the benefits package. Perhaps PC enthusiast sites need to actually day to day USE the computers they're testing games on between tests.
That way, they'd see how after several hours of gaming the nVidia Streamer service inexplicably begins gobbling up resources like a high Pac Man. And you'd think DISABLING the Streamer Service in Geforce Experience would fix it.
Nope. Them ROGUE nVidia streamer services are still being started at login. After finally realizing that the chugging wasn't normal, not even for shoddy Bioware games like Dragon Age 2 that were never properly optimized, I determined the cause. An nVidia streamer service I thought had been STOPPED when I DISABLED the option.
This problem is not related to nVidia DRIVERS. It's related to nVidia GEFORCE EXPERIENCE. Hence, if anyone had bothered to test it, they'd have found other posts on forums of people saying the same as me.
"Stop" that service if you aren't using it because it will eventually turn on you and Agent Smith all over the place. Replicating, sucking down resources, and generally being a pain of itself.
"The best part about being me... is there's so many me." Indeed, nVidia Streamer service. Indeed.
ZeDestructor - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
Never seen that happen on my machine... so maybe journalists aren't either?JarredWalton - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
No, we never do anything but benchmark. LOL. I can't say I'm the type to use ShadowPlay, so I've never really looked into that aspect, but I've never done anything to try and disable the NVIDIA Streamer service either. It certainly hasn't cropped up in normal use as a problem for me, and I've tested/used dozens of laptops with NVIDIA GPUs. YMMV.marc1000 - Monday, April 7, 2014 - link
i'm stuck on a 332 series driver for the time being, because it's the only one that will not freeze my gtx660 everytime i start StarCraft2. sometimes a fast driver update schedule is good, but there are times when a bug like this will creep on a LOT of drivers because of the lack of proper testing.The_Assimilator - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
I've submitted 2 bug reports to nVIDIA regarding GeForce Experience's inability to handle Windows filesystem symbolic links/directory junctions. The first one was shortly after GeForce Experience was launched, and the issue still isn't fixed yet. So I'm not particularly impressed with nVIDIA's competence, or lack thereof, on this front.Gunbuster - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
I have a Shield and dig it and I know they are trying to sell them but... It sure would be killer to Remote gamestream from my desktop at home to my laptop.