Nvidia steps into the cloud gaming battlefield with the GeForce Grid-- a "second-generation" platform promising to reduce latencies through the power of Kepler GPUs.
The result of a partnership with cloud gaming providers Gaikai, Ubitus and Playcast, Grid offers games "on any device, anywhere." Meaning tablets, smartphones, TVs and, of course, PCs (anything carrying a standard H.264 hardware video decoder).
The first Grid demo at the 2012 GPU Technology Conference runs on an LG Cinema TV, without the need for an external console.
Powering the Grid is consumer-grade technology derived from the latest GeForce card, the GTX 690-- x2 Kepler GPUs (each with 3072 CUDA cores) providing 4.7 teraflops of 3D shader performance. The technology apparently reduces latency to levels Nvidia claims are “comparable, if not better, than gaming on a console at home.”
A number of games developers (namely Epic, Capcom and THQ) already pledge support to Grid.
Nvidia gives no word on when Grid will actually launch, or the business model it will run on-- the company hints at an OnLive-style subscription model, with a $10 monthly fee. Will Nvidia manage to kill PC gaming as we know it?
