Nvidia GRID is an on-demand streaming PC game service for SHIELD devices
Nvidia has introduced its GRID on-demand gaming service which will be made available starting next week in North America.
Toting it as the "Netfilx of Games," the streaming service provides "GeForce GTX-quality graphics to SHIELD devices."
Nvidia said in the press release that GRID offers "super-low-latency from controller streaming to graphics to game streaming."
The goal is to provide 20 petaflops of graphics processing compute power into the cloud by "putting thousands of GRID GPUs into data centers around the world."
This all sounds lovely, but how does it run? How well does it actually stream games?
According to Digital Foundry, despite a "lackluster internet connection" where the demo was made available, the GeForce Grid demo "came across as the best cloud gaming experience we've tested to date."
"We can confirm that Grid is indeed supplying 60fps video, and [depending upon latency due to Internet speeds] video stream runs at 720p60 and according to the game's setting menu, USF4 was rendering at 720p, with 4x MSAA.
"In the short-term, the Grid preview [free until June 30] is certainly a welcome boost for the Shield Tablet."
You should really read the entire Digital Foundry article, especially if you are interested in cloud gaming.
At launch, over 20 titles will be available such as Batman: Arkham City, Ultra Street Fighter 4, Borderlands 2, Brutal Legend, Psychonauts, Strike Suit Zero and more.
Shield tablet exclusives such as Half-Life 2: Episode 1, and a Shield-enhanced version of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath are available for the device and a 32GB LTE version of Shield will offer a 'Green Box' bonus consisting of free copies of Portal, Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode 1.
Available November 18 in North America alongside the Android 5.0 Lollipop update, the GRID on-demand streaming service arrives in Europe this December, and next year in Asia.
GRID is free on SHIELD tablets and SHIELD portable through June 30, 2015.