We ran ray tracing on a $259 Chromebook with GeForce Now

Nvidia’s long-awaited GeForce Now arrived on Chromebooks Tuesday morning, giving avid gamers the power to play their recreation libraries on Google’s laptops.

Plans for GeForce Now streamed gaming on Chrome OS have been within the works since 2017. The service, already in style on Windows and MacOS, lets avid gamers stream their present Steam, Epic, and different recreation libraries to lower-end {hardware}.

GeForce Now’s launch on ChromeOS comes on the heels of Google’s announcement that its personal Stadia gaming service can be free for Chromebooks for 3 months. One benefit GeForce Now enjoys is that many video games in avid gamers’ present libraries might be streamed, whereas Stadia requires shopping for the sport.

Both providers supply free video games, however Nvidia appears to have the sting right here over Stadia, which has struggled to draw gamers. GeForce Now prices $5 monthly for Founders Edition standing, which will get ray tracing assist and prolonged gaming periods. Those on a funds can play with out ray tracing assist for as much as an hour at no cost. After that hour you are booted off, however you possibly can reconnect and proceed to recreation. 

IDG

Minimum specs for GeForce Now on Chromebooks

As GeForce Now is a streamed service, it doesn’t require a beefy graphics card or CPU to allow you to play video games. There are official minimal necessities:

CPU: Intel Core M3 (Seventh-gen and later) Core i3, Core i5, Core i7

Graphics: HD graphics 600 or higher

RAM: 4GB or increased

• Acer Chromebook 15 CB3-532-C4ZZ (Intel Celeron N3060, HD, 2GB)
• Acer Chromebook 715* (Intel Pentium 4417U, UHD 610, 8GB)
• Acer Chromebook Spin 13 (Intel Core i3-8130U, UHD620, 4GB)
• Asus C101P Flip (Rockchip OP1, 4GB)
• Asus Flip C302CA (Intel Pentium 4405Y, HD515, 4GB)
• Asus Chromebook Flip C434* (Intel Core M3-8100Y, UHD615, 4GB)
• Google PixelEbook (Intel Core i5-7Y57, HD515, 8GB)
• Google Pixelbook Go (Intel Core i5-8200Y, UHD612, 8GB)
• HP Chromebook x360* (Intel Celeron N4020, UHD600, 4GB)
• Lenovo Yoga Chromebook C630 (Intel Core i5-8250U, UHD620, 8GB)
• Samsung Chromebook 3 (Intel Celeron N3060, HD400, 4GB)
• Samsung Chromebook Plus* (Rockchip OP1, 4GB)
• Samsung Chromebook XE350XBA* (Intel Celeron N4000, UHD600 4GB)
• HP 15-de0517wm* (Intel Core i3-8130U, UHD620, 4GB)

Many of these laptops fall under Nvidia’s official minimal spec for GeForce Now. Surprisingly, just a few of the laptops Nvidia doesn’t suggest for voice chat (denoted by the asterisk) are higher-end Core-class Chromebooks. There are additionally fairly just a few “Atom-based” Celeron N Chromebooks formally authorised.

Nvidia officers added that, as with GeForce Now’s launch on MacOS, the official checklist of supported computer systems begins off quick. As the corporate is ready to take a look at extra Chromebooks, it expects so as to add laptops operating AMD and different CPUs to its authorised checklist as properly.

IDG

Hands on with GeForce Now on ChromeOS

We tried a pre-release of GeForce Now on two present Chromebooks, a non-approved Acer Chromebook 14 with a Celeron N3160 CPU, and a Google Pixelbook Go. We additionally tried two out of date fashions: An authentic 2013-era Google Chromebook Pixel, and the unique 2010-era Google CR-48. 

While GeForce Now will run on surprisingly sparse {hardware}, what is going to cease you in your tracks is the Chrome OS model. Nvidia’s official minimal spec is OS construct 77. Anything older than that didn’t work for us. That means the CR-48 and the unique high-end Chromebook Pixel, each long gone their assist intervals, have been useless within the water.

GeForce Now runs fairly properly on the Google Pixelbook Go with its Core i5-8200Y CPU and 8GB of RAM. That’s no shock for a $650 Chromebook, however we additionally noticed excellent outcomes with the $269 Acer Chromebook 14 with its Celeron N3160. We performed Rocket League with it for just a few rounds and felt the efficiency was very…