Samsung’s Smart TV Hub Adds Stadia, Xbox, And GeForce Now Streaming

There are numerous ways to play high-end games in the cloud in 2022, but rarely can you access all the top streaming services from a single screen. However, Samsung is making that a reality for anyone with one of its latest smart TVs. Its new Gaming Hub interface is getting support for Stadia, GeForce Now, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Not enough? Amazon Luna is coming, too.

We are still admittedly early in the era of cloud gaming, but it’s not going anywhere. Samsung’s integrated approach has advantages as the selection of games varies from one service to the next. So, like streaming video services, people may end up paying for more than one gaming cloud at a time. In that world, a Samsung TV makes it easy to jump between different services without using up all your HDMI ports.

To play cloud-rendered games on the big screen, all the popular services have their preferred hardware. For Stadia it’s the Chromecast, GeForce Now works best on the Shield TV, and Xbox Cloud Gaming is tightly integrated with the Xbox console (its plans to build a streaming stick have been delayed). Samsung’s current lineup of TVs will put all these services on one device. When Luna does arrive in Gaming Hub, you’ll be able to ditch your Fire TV. There are some TVs that offer Stadia or GeForce Now, but the inclusion of Xbox is a big deal for Samsung’s TVs.

Samsung says Gaming Hub will work with all popular Bluetooth controllers. Although, presumably the Wi-Fi-enabled Stadia and Luna controllers will work with their respective services (they connect directly to the internet instead of going through the streaming device). In the same vein, Gaming Hub will list any game consoles you have physically connected to the TV. It supports controller passthrough, so you can have one controller or headset paired with the TV for use on multiple devices and services.

Samsung makes some of the best TVs on the market right now, but its software is pretty heavy compared to others on the market. The Gaming Hub might give people more reason to stick with Samsung’s smart features rather than adding a streaming box like a Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV. There’s no installation necessary — Gaming Hub will be included with these TV sets with native support for the aforementioned cloud gaming services. Or rather, it will be. Samsung’s Gaming Hub won’t be available on your TV right this minute, but it will arrive as part of a free software update later this year.

Continue reading

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Launches Dec. 2, but Good Luck Getting One

The RTX 3060 Ti goes on sale tomorrow for a mere $399—it might even be affordable after the obscene reseller markup!

Nvidia Doubles GeForce Now Subscription Price to $10 Per Month

Nvidia is increasing the paid tier from $5 per month to $10. This brings it more in-line with other streaming platforms, but the price was Nvidia's big advantage until now.

Nvidia Confirms Some GeForce Now Games Are Capped Below 60 FPS

Nvidia has been tinkering with GeForce Now game streaming for the better part of a decade, but it's still not a perfect experience. Case in point: gamers have noticed that Nvidia caps frame rates for some games below 60 fps, even for those on the most expensive service tier.

NiceHash Cracks Nvidia’s Hash Rate Limiter For GeForce 30-Series GPUs

Mining platform NiceHash has developed a seemingly legit workaround for most hash rate limited GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs.