Nvidia's cloud-based gaming service, GeForce Now, has just received a new update that features new support for Google Chrome's web-browser and support for Apple's M1 based Macs (through the native macOS app).
With the addition of Google Chrome, now any device or computer capable of running Chrome should be capable of running GeForce Now. However, Nvidia says they do not guarantee support on devices that are on operating systems other than macOS or Windows. Specifically, that means Nvidia still doesn't officially support Linux platforms.
We conducted some cursory testing with the Chrome-based GeForce Now app on a Windows 10 machine and found it was very close to the native app experience. However, several options are missing in the settings menu compared to the native app: There is no 30 fps option (60 fps only), no option to change VSync, and the toggle to "adjust for poor network conditions" is missing as well.
Besides the missing options, the gameplay experience was good. Testing with Shadow of the Tomb Raider yielded excellent results; image quality, smoothness, and frame rates were great (with help from a wired 300 Mbps down/30 Mbps up ISP connection). The only minor difference we spotted with our limited selection of tests was in Apex Legends, where switching from the Chrome app to the native-app yielded a barely noticeable decrease in input lag. However, this is a small problem; if you play games casually instead of competitively, this should be a non-issue.
Overall the Chrome version works well, but if you can run the native app, it would be best to do so to get the best experience possible. Nvidia's Chrome implementation is mostly aimed towards devices that aren't capable of running the native GeForce Now apps in the first place, like Windows 10 ARM-based devices. Unfortunately, we were not able to test the M1 Mac update at this time.
