LG adds Nvidia GeForce Now gaming to select 2021 smart TVs

By Simon Cohen Published November 18, 2021

LG has announced that it is the first smart TV maker to debut a native app for Nvidia’s GeForce Now online streaming gaming platform. The GeForce Now app will be available as a beta test on select 2021 TVs, including 4K OLED, QNED mini-LED, and NanoCell TV models in 80 markets globally. LG says the full list of compatible TVs will be released at a later date.

With the GeForce Now app installed, users will have access to 35 free-to-play games if they own a compatible controller, with no additional hardware required. Games include Rocket League, Destiny 2, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Crysis Remastered Trilogy. Games can be played at up to 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second, though there has been some recent controversy over this as Nvidia has admitted to capping some games at lower frame rates. (Digital Trends has put together a list of the best GeForce Now games.)

Recommended Videos

There are three tiers to the GeForce Now service: Free, Priority ($50 per month), and the recently announced RTX 3080 ($100 per month) that lets gamers experience 1440p resolution at 120Hz. As shortages of high-end graphics cards has continued, this new tier is something of a stopgap until gamers can once again upgrade their rigs. LG hasn’t indicated whether its GeForce Now app will support the RTX 3080 tier.

Nvidia GeForce Now on LG TVs. — LG

GeForce Now Priority members get access to ray tracing and A.I. technologies streaming from Nvidia RTX-powered servers in data centers worldwide. One of the benefits of the GeForce Now service is that games can be started on one device an then continued on another. GeForce Now is currently available on Nvidia Shield TV, Windows PCs, MacOS, Chrome OS, Android, and the Safari browser for iPhone and iPad.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

“Partnering with Nvidia to bring GeForce Now to LG TV owners is a sign of our commitment to deliver the best gaming experience on LG TVs running WebOS,” said Lee Sang-woo, senior vice president of corporate business strategy at LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company.

LG has a long-standing relationship with Nvidia. LG’s OLED TVs were the first to be compatible with Nvidia’s G-Sync variable refresh rate (VRR) technology, making the TVs among the best large-size displays for PC and console gaming.

Topics

Contributing Editor, A/V

Simon Cohen is a contributing editor to Digital Trends' Audio/Video section, where he obsesses over the latest wireless…

Computing

The best games to show off Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4090

The RTX 4090 graphics card sitting on a table with a dark green background.

Nvidia's monstrous RTX 4090 is finally here, and it's powerful (just read our RTX 4090 review). It's so powerful, in fact, that there aren't a lot of games that truly showcase the GPU's power. The RTX 4090 is the best graphics card you can buy, but you'll want to install a few key games to show off what the GPU is capable of.

There are a few games that still push the RTX 4090, though many of our recommendations come on the back of Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). DLSS 3 includes a frame generation setting that's only available on RTX 40-series GPUs, which helps a lot of games that are traditionally limited by your processor hit a high frame rate.

Gaming

A Plague Tale: Requiem heading to GeForce Now with ray tracing

a plague tale requiem heading to geforce now with ray tracing amicia

Nvidia revealed that A Plague Tale: Requiem is heading to the GeForce Now cloud gaming service on the same day it releases on other platforms. The best part about the game's expansion to the service is that it will support ray tracing.

The company said in a blog post on Thursday that A Plague Tale: Requiem will support ray-traced effects for GeForce Now users who are RTX 3080 and Priority members, even if they don't own a powerful gaming PC. The game can even be streamed on Mac and mobile phones, which normally wouldn't support large games otherwise. Take a look at the video Nvidia shared two weeks ago demonstrating the game's performance enhanced by ray tracing.

Gaming

Logitech made its own lightweight handheld built for cloud gaming

The Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld sits on a stack of comics.

Although I can be tough on cloud services that have faults, I actually do enjoy cloud gaming on Google Stadia and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate quite a bit, and I’m excited about the technology’s potential for both players and developers. Currently, most of my cloud gaming takes place on my phone, but Logitech and Tencent Games want me to start playing cloud games on a new device. In October, the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld starts rolling out, and it hopes to become the way to play cloud games.
During a hands-off preview of the device, Logitech certainly delivered on highlighting an Android-powered device with two native cloud gaming apps that players can use to enjoy games with a Wi-Fi connection. At $350, though, it feels like a solution for a niche usage problem that similarly priced devices already solve. I could see myself enjoying this device if I wanted to stream a video game from my bed or a room without my TV and consoles. Unfortunately, it seems outclassed by just the ability to stream games on a midrange-or-better phone, something anyone reading this can likely do already.

What is the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld?
From a technical perspective, the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld contains specs that wouldn’t feel out of place on a mid-range mobile device. It features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G octa-core 2.3GHz CPU, as well as 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 64GB of internal storage that people can expand with an SD card. The display is a 7-inch IPS multi-touch screen that displays at a 1080p resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate. Players can listen to audio through its stereo speaker, a 3.5mm stereo audio jack, or a Bluetooth 5.1 connection.
What sets it apart is that Logitech built the controllers into the device, giving it a Nintendo Switch-like look. It has the d-pad, analog joysticks, buttons, bumpers, and triggers expected of a modern controller, plus a Home button to bring players to the home screen and a “G button” that will access more system-specific settings. Players will be able to remap the controls however they wish, though. On top of that, players can expect the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld to have haptics feedback, a gyroscope, a light sensor, and even a built-in stereo microphone with echo canceling and noise suppression support.
These aren’t top-of-the-line specs by any means, but Logitech made this choice because the device is made for gaming natively on the device. It also allowed them to get the device’s weight down to only 463 grams and give it a battery life of around 12 hours (it uses USB-C to charge), which has never been seen on a gaming handheld. Think of the Logitech G Cloud Gaming Handheld as an Android 11 tablet with built-in controllers, uniquely tailored UI, and access to native Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now, and Google Play Store apps.