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The Future of 4K Streaming: How Close are We?

londontko

londontko

Member
When do you think 4K streaming will become mainstream? I recently tried Microsoft's Xcloud and was impressed by its responsiveness. However, the image quality seemed more like 720p, which looked like shit on my 4K monitor. Considering Microsoft's significant investment in streaming, what's your estimate of their timeline to deliver 4K at 60fps?

I gotta say, I was a bit taken aback by the progress. It's been years since my last attempt at streaming with Geforce Now, an experience that led me to quickly dismiss the entire concept. But the advancements since then are staggering. If this continues, there will soon be no compelling reason to own a console or a high-end gaming PC. Instead, I can see a future where the only requirement is simply a display linked to a low-powered device with internet access or 'smart monitors'. All heavy lifting could be done in the cloud.

This makes me wonder about the potential of AI and technologies like DLSS in this future scenario. Could we be looking at a significant contribution from AI to upscale low-quality streamed games to ultra-high resolutions? It seems we might be on the cusp of a technology-driven revolution in game streaming and I'm excited.
 
Spyxos

Spyxos

Member
Try the new 3080/4080 tier on Geforce now. You can also play in 4k with it. And it supports 120 fps perfect for streaming. It works amazingly well, and I don't notice the lag with it and the quality is also very good. The other streaming platforms are very, very far behind.
 
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O

old-parts

Member
londontko said:
When do you think 4K streaming will become mainstream? I recently tried Microsoft's Xcloud and was impressed by its responsiveness. However, the image quality seemed more like 720p, which looked like shit on my 4K monitor. Considering Microsoft's significant investment in streaming, what's your estimate of their timeline to deliver 4K at 60fps?

I gotta say, I was a bit taken aback by the progress. It's been years since my last attempt at streaming with Geforce Now, an experience that led me to quickly dismiss the entire concept. But the advancements since then are staggering. If this continues, there will soon be no compelling reason to own a console or a high-end gaming PC. Instead, I can see a future where the only requirement is simply a display linked to a low-powered device with internet access or 'smart monitors'. All heavy lifting could be done in the cloud.

This makes me wonder about the potential of AI and technologies like DLSS in this future scenario. Could we be looking at a significant contribution from AI to upscale low-quality streamed games to ultra-high resolutions? It seems we might be on the cusp of a technology-driven revolution in game streaming and I'm excited.
Click to expand...
What matters more for streaming is how good the video compression is, the bitrate and then the latency.

xcloud is limited by the hardware it runs on being xbox consoles, same as playstation.

Ideally you will want pretty much all games running at 60fps at minimum as it affects the end user experience far more with streaming and lowers latency inside the games own internal code.

Next you need something which can capture in H.265/AV1 or better like H.266 (H.264 is obsolete and still used by cloud gaming servers as its so widespread) and fast enough internet infrastructure to deliver good bitrates and low latency.

AI upscaling is game/server side and does nothing as if your still using H.264 at low bitrates its going to look soft/poor no matter what.

4K quality is doable but not everyone could access it unless your doing a PC custom cloud server that meets all of the above.
 
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londontko

londontko

Member
I'm having a hard time finding footage of GeForce Now running 4k 120 fps, any one able to point me in that direction?

Maybe this?:

 
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ZoukGalaxy

ZoukGalaxy

Member
Never I hope and no thanks, I want to own my things and not subscribe a service until my death.

rTEOSO6.jpg
PRMMlN0.jpg
 
Haint

Haint

Member
londontko said:
I'm having a hard time finding footage of GeForce Now running 4k 120 fps, any one able to point me in that direction?

Maybe this?:

Click to expand...


You're obviously not going to learn anything watching reencoded recompressed capture uploaded to Youtube (for any of these services). You'll have to try them yourself natively.
 
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Nydius

Nydius

Member
Between data caps, poor infrastructure, and high prices, I’d say not very close. At least not here in the US. I’m fortunate to have exactly one high speed internet provider where I live but their uptime is frequently inconsistent (especially during peak tornado season), and have a 1TB monthly cap unless you pay the premium for unlimited (which I do because between video streaming and my gaming, we easily blow through 1TB).

Drive 5 miles from my front door and the only option is expensive, slow (10mbps max) copper DSL. Assuming the house isn’t too far away from the nearest utility pole. If I lived barely outside of town I wouldn’t even have enough bandwidth to regularly stream 720p video, let alone ever hope to stream games.
 
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zeroluck

zeroluck

Member
GFN(4080 tier) has good quality at 4k/60, 4k/120 quality drops because it is capped at ~75mbps. Hopefully AV1 will improve thing a bit on supported devices.
 
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TGO

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Streaming will be the next step once Digital fully takes over.
And it'll be seemless, all your digital purchases will just be replaced with a stream button and only then will you realise....
star-wars-anakin-skywalker.gif
 
tryDEATH

tryDEATH

Member
I don't think it will ever become a main stay in gaming, but a very good alternative to "traditional" gaming. DLSS/FSR are going to have to play a huge part in making streaming a thing, which is advancing nicely, but I think we're at least 2 or 3 generational iterations away from getting to the level necessary to make the experience viable for the masses.

However, personally I believe fold-able phones and dedicated handheld devices such as SteamDeck and Switch will performing better and more consistently thus be a bigger threat to console gaming and will become the new "traditional" gaming sphere.
 
U

UniformDeliverance

Member
GeForce now can do 4k 120hz with surround sound and HDR and it’s damn near perfect on a LAN connection. No perceptible lag in my experience. No streaming artifacts or hitching to speak of. If you tried it at my place and I told you it was running locally, you’d believe me. It’s that good. I only with it could leverage VRR (though no idea how you’d make that work on a streaming service.. and DLSS 3.0 supported games make this non issue when they lock at 120)

Mileage obviously varies depending on network and location, but what you what exists.
 
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DGrayson

DGrayson

Mod Team and Bat Team
Staff Member
If great HQ streaming was another option for gaming I would be fine with it. But we all know it wont be an option. It will eventually be the forced standard and default mode so that developers and hardware companies can completely control the ecosystem, your purchases, how you play etc.
 
N

nbkicker

Member
A long long way off, in the uk in the area i live unless youve bought a new build house (900mb connections) youve no chance of getting full fibre connection, bt and open reach just not bothered with paying loads to connect older houses when new builds it easy for them, at the min my home connection is only 35mb, if i stream a 4k movie then go to use ipad to browse net, the picture quality goes to blocky, im now left to downloading games through night when im asleep as if downloading a game cant do anything else,my old house i had 73mb connection. for me hope we never go to a streaming game only service, thats the day i just pack in gaming or just concentrate on retro
 
C

crackajack

Member
The tech probably exists already. The question is more if the infrastructure to handle it, will be available for a mass market soon. For those who even allow any extra lag. Anyone that is adamant about at least 60fps and whatnot is probably not really ever happy with streaming (and console gaming).
Imho 5G should be easier than fibre for everyone. True 5G, where the ping is properly reduced, seems to be rolled out slowly if at all. My 5G is bascially just 2 times 4G or maybe 4G at its peak specification. So, fast downloads but still much slower ping than cables. But imho it works even with that to an acceptable degree.
Also a bit disappointing that PS5 in house streaming feels way too compressed or something. It looks like PS4 or less, even without a long route to a server somewhere. PS4 looked really good on Vita, and losing much quality on any proper screen, but the next gen should have improved much more, but on a 1440 screen it looks just not as good as I would expect.
 
S

systemr123

Banned
ZoukGalaxy said:
Never I hope and no thanks, I want to own my things and not subscribe a service until my death.

rTEOSO6.jpg
PRMMlN0.jpg
Click to expand...
If you own nothing, you'll have nothing to worry about. Instant bliss and happiness right? ... Right?... Am I right?... I know I'm right!!!

ian mckellen GIF


Just adding /s for clarity for some of the less intelligent members :).
 
analog_future

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
GeForce Now has 4k/120 streaming and latency is actually lower than local Xbox play, which is insane.

Only thing holding GeForce Now back is the library is still sorely lacking.

I’d give it a shot if I could play RE4 Remake, Dead Space, Hogwarts Legacy, Spider-Man, Last of Us Part I, Elden Ring, God of War, Diablo IV, Horizon, etc.. etc.. but literally none of these are on the service.
 
C

crackajack

Member
systemr123 said:
If you own nothing, you'll have nothing to worry about. Instant bliss and happiness right? ... Right?... Am I right?... I know I'm right!!!

Just adding /s for clarity for some of the less intelligent members :).
Click to expand...
The corporate overlords thank you for your consumerism. Instead of trying to make life nice for Jo Schmo, financing yachts and sports cars for a few privileged.
Individual shit that most of the time is unused pricey paperweight instead of cleverly sharing the limited ressources. Yeah, certainly intelligent. /s
 
killatopak

killatopak

Member
Yeah no.

Not to mention the existing problems it has to tackle, how can you even reasonably have streaming on 3rd world countries, cruise ships, islands, vacation homes and such in the near future?

This is just something peddled by a few percentage of people fortunate to have not only stable internet but also have them be fast enough and live close to data centers. A lot of people still use DSL or just settle for mobile data wifi hotspot combo.

Starlink is trying to make internet available for those places but reasonable ping and input delay? You have to break the law of physics.
 
phant0m

phant0m

Member
4K streaming? We can barely get get 4K native locally between DRS, checkerboard reconstruction and AI upscaling
 
REDRZA MWS

REDRZA MWS

Member
Sleepwalker said:
The future you envision in your post sounds like a nightmare scenario, so hopefully it never happens. IMO of course. Its ok as an option in a pinch, but to replace regular gaming. Nah
Click to expand...
This. 100%. the day dedicated hardware no longer exists is the day i quit gaming. No matter how far it advances, or how fast internet speeds get, there will ALWAYS be inherent latency/input lag. Theres no comparison to playing on dedicated hardware.
 
existensmaximum

existensmaximum

Member
TGO said:
Streaming will be the next step once Digital fully takes over.
And it'll be seemless, all your digital purchases will just be replaced with a stream button and only then will you realise....
star-wars-anakin-skywalker.gif
Click to expand...
I will just keep playing the old physical games then and ignore the new stuff. I'm still plenty entertained by everything from NES to Skyrim and there are so many great games to last a lifetime. 😌
 
Fess

Fess

Member
analog_future said:
GeForce Now has 4k/120 streaming and latency is actually lower than local Xbox play, which is insane.

Only thing holding GeForce Now back is the library is still sorely lacking.

I’d give it a shot if I could play RE4 Remake, Dead Space, Hogwarts Legacy, Spider-Man, Last of Us Part I, Elden Ring, God of War, Diablo IV, Horizon, etc.. etc.. but literally none of these are on the service.
Click to expand...
Geforce Now is held back by the queue system too. And the usability is lacking. If you have 2FA on your Steam account you can get into extreme jank when you have a controller in your hands, was a long time since I used it so maybe it’s been updated but I had to use an app on the phone to get a touch pad to move a mouse cursor.
 
P

PrimeX

Member
I play daily on GFN 1440p@120hz (Gears 5 lately) and it's awesome. Surround sound ads a nice layer of immersion. I could play 2160p but my thunderbolt 4 output has some issues correctly identifying the oled hdmi 2.1 port so for now I'm good on this res
 
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