So instead of owning a gaming PC, you can rent one, but is it worth it?
Stadia
My journey began with Stadia because my old PC couldn’t run Cyberpunk 2077 - in hindsight I would have been better off with GeForce Now since your games are locked with the Stadia Platform - all the other platforms let you use you Steam Library or own binaries, on the other side is Stadia free if you own the game.
GeForce Now
GeForce Now is my go-to nowadays - it costs 9.99€ a month and connects with your Steam, Origin and Ubisoft Library, but not all games are available. There is also a free tier if you are willing to wait, but I am not. Also, the session is limited to 1 hour on the free tier and 4 on the paid tier. You can relogin instantly but it can be annoying. A bit plus: All games are predownloaded an installed, and you don’t have to pay for file space
Paperspace
Paperspace lets you rent a Windows Computer with a GPU for ~0.55€/hr + 10€ for 250 GB storage. However, their main focus is machine learning. I use this for everything that does not run on GeForce Now
Shadow Tech
Shadow Tech has the same model as Paperspace but uses a Flat rate Price Model it’s 29.99€ (including 250G Storage) which translates to 30 to 40 hrs on Paperspace, depending on the Machine you rented. Paperspace usually has more RAM and Shadow Tech has a slightly better CPU RTX 400 vs GTX 1080
You own PC?
What would your own PC cost? I quickly added some parts together and landed at 1340€. So let’s assume you need to buy a new PC every 6 years, then this PC would cost you 18,63€ a month - not taking power into account.
Conclusion
For me at least, GeForce plus supplementary paperspace is the way to go. I play too little for Shadow Techs Flat rate to break even for me, and I have access to high-speed internet connections. If you are wondering about high pings: Most Gaming Servers are in the same data center as the gaming pc, so the ping is 8ms extra to your ping to your gaming rig. So that’s pretty okay.
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