Nvidia's new GeForce Now service will turn any PC into an on-demand gaming machine

Nvidia has announced GeForce Now, a new game streaming service that aims to turn any PC into an on-demand GeForce gaming machine. Following in the footsteps of services like OnLive and Gaikai, GeForce Now will enable you to launch Steam and other gaming services on any computer—even Macs.

"There are now 1 billion PC users with systems that aren't game ready," said Jen-Hsun Huang, Nvidia CEO, at the company's CES 2017 keynote. "These are Macs or thin and lights that have integrated graphics without the ability to install discrete GPUs to make visuals come alive."

The idea of GeForce Now is to do what AWS does for enterprise, but for gamers. With the download of a small client, any PC can run gaming services (and by extension, play games) with high quality graphics and, most importantly, low latency. Use of the service will cost $25 for 20 hours of play.

Services such as OnLive and Gaikai have attempted game streaming before, but ultimately failed to build a product that was worth using. GeForce Now will have to deliver on the promise of low latency streaming if it wants to succeed.

At this stage we haven't tried it for ourselves, but the live demo during the keynote proved promising. Huang launched Steam and booted up Rise of the Tomb Raider in around 20 seconds from both a Mac and a notebook PC.

GeForce Now will be available in March.

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As the former head of PC Gamer's hardware coverage, Bo was in charge of helping readers better understand and use PC hardware. He also headed up the buying guides, picking the best peripherals and components to spend your hard-earned money on. He can usually be found playing Overwatch, Apex Legends, or more likely, with his cats. He is now IGN's resident tech editor and PC hardware expert.