Game streaming seems to be one of the current big steps in PC Gaming. It’s also an innovation that can often have a slightly different meaning almost every time you encounter it. Nvidia’s GeForce Now is one of the better known iterations which sees users pay a subscription to access Nvidia’s bank of powerful PCs to play games on and stream to their own. Though some users have found they’re capped below their plans. Other services, like Alienware’s new Concept Nyx, are more about streaming games within your own home.
Tom’s Hardware witnessed a demo of Alienware’s Concept Nyx and describes it more as a single powerful PC for a home of gamers. It’s a very beasty computer that can stream up to four games at once to other screens around your house, and allow you to seamlessly transition between them. For people considering something more like GeForce Now but lack the internet connection to handle it, it’s a neat idea.
It seems fairly similar to other PC streaming like Valve’s Remote Play. With Valve’s version, you can stream your Steam games from your main PC to other devices that support it, like phones. Alienware’s Concept Nyx differs in that it’s a super powerful physical PC that goes in your home to replace many, rather than just giving you some flexibility about where you play your PC games.
When demoed in controlled environments all reports suggest the Alienware concept Nyx works as intended, but we’d need to test it before making any judgements ourselves. It appears to be able to move from screen to screen fairly well, and even be used as to split screen a monitor between two games in some cases. There’s no real mention of performance stats or benchmarks on what Nyx can deliver, but as Nyx is still in development we’ll probably have to wait a while to see.
Alienware also isn’t telling what’s in the box yet which is a bit disappointing, but also likely subject to change. Whatever it is would have to be pretty powerful, and thus with a price tag to match. We also don’t know what software is being used, and how that plays with various clients. But for a household of gamers one super PC might be a smarter and cheaper option. It’s probably easier to build one super computer at the moment than it is to build several smaller gaming units anyway thanks to the ongoing chip shortage.