Shadow PC tested: streaming instead of upgrading
Shadow from Blade rents you a gamer PC at a fixed monthly rate - via the Internet. This means that you stream the content to any end device. I tried out whether and how this works.
The days when you had a large desktop standing around in your home should be over. No more upgrades and no more electronic waste. Simply connect to the Shadow PC via an app or the Shadow Box and get started. Sounds too good to be true? I thought so too. We've been hearing for years that the future of gaming lies in streaming. Our colleague Philipp Rüegg recently discussed this
.
The whole thing hasn't really worked yet. Initial hands-on tests that I found during a brief search on Shadow show that it doesn't seem to work all that badly. Even a "CS: GO team" is said to have used Shadow for a tournament. If it's good enough for even semi-pro or pro gamers, it's far and away good enough for me.
What does it cost and what do you get for it?
As a casual gamer on consoles, an expensive gaming PC at home makes little sense for me. I do like to play on my PC from time to time, but I don't like spending a lot of money. So I would be the perfect candidate for game streaming. From CHF 39.95 per month, Blade provides me with a PC with Intel Xeon, 12 GB RAM, a graphics card comparable to the Nvidia 1080 and 256 GB mass storage. This should run all current games on the highest settings (resolution is not precisely defined). Incidentally, the offer costs CHF 39.95 if I sign up for a whole year. There are two other plans. For three months it costs CHF 46.95 per month and a monthly cancellable plan costs CHF 63.95.
The only hardware you need is an internet-capable device. This can be a worn-out notebook, but also a mobile or tablet. Blade also offers the Shadow Box. This is a video decoder with an AMD Falcon chip. The box can be connected to the network via Ethernet. It also has two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, two display ports and microphone and headphone connections. The box's angular design and LED strips are most likely to appeal to gamers. I think it's okay, but not particularly attractive either.
In contrast to the other game streaming services, Shadow doesn't offer any games, I have to get them myself. I can do that via Steam or other suppliers. That may not sound great at first, but it's a positive thing. I'm not limited by the supplier's game library. If I can't find something on Steam, I can use another supplier. Another advantage is that I'm not just streaming games with Shadow, I'm actually streaming a PC. Basically, I can do without my desktop at home, which I don't have anyway, and just use Shadow. This gives me a high-end PC for around CHF 480 a year. If I extrapolate that with the cost of a gaming box, Shadow will cost me about the same in four years.
First impressions
I take out a three-month plan for the test. I also take the Shadow Box. After signing up and paying, I can basically get started right away. But I'm still missing the box. So I grab a test notebook and install the Shadow app on it.
I try to connect. The connection doesn't work via the office Wi-Fi. This probably has to do with the rights, because the connection works via my hotspot. But that's all there is to it. The resolution always looks more like 640 × 480 than Full HD. The 4G connection in the building isn't the fastest either. Incidentally, Blade recommends at least a 15 Mbps line. I'll try it at home as soon as the shadow box arrives.
What's actually inside and what does the hardware do?
According to the description on the homepage, an Nvidia GTX 1080-like graphics card is installed. You won't know exactly what you're getting until you've cancelled your plan. I have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 with 8 GB of physical memory. The other specifications are also correct: 12 GB DDR 4 RAM and 256 GB hard drive. Yes, you read that correctly, Blade uses hard drives in its Shadow PCs and not SSDs. It's not entirely clear which processor model is installed. I analysed the hardware with four programs. SiSoftware Sandra and Fire Mark indicate the Intel Xeon E5-2667 v3 with 3.2 GHz, 8 cores and 16 threads. Cinebench and CPU Z the Intel Xeon E5-2620 v4 with 2.1 GHz, 8 cores and 16 threads.
Now you probably want to know how the Shadow PC performs in benchmarks. Unfortunately, the results are somewhat sobering. In the 3D Brand Fire Strike, I get scores of around 12,000 points. The physics test and the combined test in particular drag down the overall score. In contrast, the Asus ROG Huracan, which my colleague Martin Jud tested, managed over 15,000 points. And it costs around CHF 1900, which is about the same price as a Shadow subscription for four years.
In Cinebench R15, the Shadow PC's CPU performs worse than the Huracan. On average, I get scores around 750 points compared to 1200, which leads me to assume that the cooling in the server room in Paris is not optimal and the results are therefore depressed. The Shadow PC achieves around 70 points in OpenGL, which is also lower than the Huracan's result of around 130 points. You can access Martin Jud's article via the link below.
The box tested
The box arrived three days after I placed my order. Amazingly fast, considering that Blade is based in France. As I can only connect the box via Ethernet and my router is in the living room, I use my TV as a monitor. Now I just have to log in to the box. Incidentally, this works with two-factor authentication when logging on to a new device for the first time. The connection is not an obstacle: The box connects to the Shadow PC straight away.
Now it looks different than in the office: the picture is actually full HD. And my internet connection is not the fastest. In speed tests, I usually get between 40 and 50 Mbit/s. If I connect to shadow.tech from my home network, the response time is around 12 ms. Nevertheless, I have the impression that my inputs are displayed with a slight delay. I therefore ping the shadow computer and not the homepage from my home network several times. I get values of around 25 ms. Not a huge delay, but I still notice a delay when moving the mouse back and forth quickly. Let's see how it looks when playing games.
I select "Far Cry 5", which I download especially for the test. It's extremely fast. Shadow provides a 1 Gbps connection. I play the game in Full HD and at 60 Hz (my old receiver is to blame for the limitation). I set the other settings to the highest possible level. The game also looks good on a 55-inch television.
After the short introduction to the game, the first action sequence follows. I don't notice any delay here. This may be because I don't notice it in the heat of the firefight. I play for a few hours to get a better impression.
After about four hours of gameplay, I'm pleasantly surprised. I can't detect any loss of streaming quality. The game runs smoothly, despite unconvincing benchmark values. And the latency is hardly noticeable for me as a casual gamer. With my skills, it doesn't really matter if the input is delayed by a few milliseconds. To make sure that my impression is not clouded, I give my login details to my colleague Philipp Rüegg. He should give it a try too.
Philipp Rüegg's impression
Unlike me, Philipp uses the app for Windows. He also plays "Far Cry 5" on the highest settings at 2240 × 1080 and 60 Hz. He can't turn the settings any higher at first, because of the monitor that Blade sets for the Shadow PC. Only when he activates additional resolutions for the monitor via the Nvidia control panel does the native resolution of 3440 × 1440 work for him.
He is not at all enthusiastic at first. He finds the lag too great. He also tries to ping the PC. It only takes 15 ms for him compared to 25 ms for me. Maybe it's the app settings.
Philipp changes the bandwidth in the Shadow software to the maximum value of 50 Mbits. After a restart, everything seems to work better. The delay is now shorter. But he is still not entirely convinced by the quality. In direct comparison to "Far Cry 5", which runs on his PC, the Shadow version seems a little grainier and the lag of the mouse is even more noticeable there. In addition, the audio is also slightly delayed.
On the whole, he finds that Shadow works well, but is still a compromise. The slight lag is a killer criterion for him as a gamer who takes a Byte.
Unusable Android app
As I'm an Android user, I was only able to test the app for Google's mobile operating platform. But I didn't do that for very long. The reason I didn't use it was because I couldn't use Windows properly on the small smartphone screen. And if something can't be operated, I leave it alone.
In addition, the smartphone can only be connected to the internet via Wi-Fi or 4G. And as I mentioned at the beginning, the connection is so poor that the stream doesn't run smoothly. Incidentally, I later felt the same way on my home network. The idea of being able to play AAA titles on the go is tempting, but on a smartphone it's rather a waste of time.
The app also interfered with the use of the Shadow Box. Even when I closed the Android app, I couldn't log in to the box. Before I could do that, I had to log out in the Android app each time. This doesn't live up to Blade's promise that I can switch almost seamlessly from one device to the other.
Conclusion
First things first: Shadow is not perfect. Hardcore gamers, but also gamers with somewhat higher demands and hardware fans will certainly not be happy with it. The latencies are too high and you no longer have control over what parts are installed in your gaming box. What's more, the benchmarks performed don't necessarily make gamers' hearts beat faster.
But Shadow is great for casual gamers who are prepared to spend a little money for a certain amount of time. If a new hit game is coming up and you really want to play it, you can do so without an expensive gaming PC. Sure, the plans aren't cheap. But for the price, you get a fully-fledged PC with which you can easily play the latest AAA games. Blade guarantees constant hardware upgrades so that future games will also run at high settings. So you don't have to worry about that and your box should be up to date again for the next top title.
Although there are positives, there are also negatives. There's the app. It's one of the most useless things I've ever tested. And anyway: if you're playing a AAA title, you certainly don't want to do that on a 6-inch mobile display, do you? I certainly don't. That's why the app is useless, but you don't need it either.
The connection is another point of criticism. Although the latency when connecting via a network cable is perfectly fine for casual gamers, it is subterranean via Wi-Fi or 4G. The technology is definitely not quite there yet.
So we still have to wait for the game streaming revolution. But Shadow by Blade is a big step in the right direction. <p
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Kevin Hofer
Senior Editor
kevin.hofer@digitecgalaxus.chFrom big data to big brother, Cyborgs to Sci-Fi. All aspects of technology and society fascinate me.
