NVIDIA GRID beta goes live, but only for San Jose residents

If you’re the lucky owner of an NVIDIA SHIELD, you know that the device can do quite a bit. It can play games locally, output games to a TV and even stream games from your computer (if you have an NVIDIA GTX 660 that is). But what if you don’t have a powerful desktop PC? That’s where NVIDIA GRID comes in.

NVIDIA GRID is a cloud gaming service that uses NVIDIA’s own servers to run games and stream them to your SHIELD. It works very much like OnLive, where it streams full PC games to a device that wouldn’t be able to run it. And this service is finally available to the public, to a small extent.

The GRID beta is available to those who live near the city of NVIDIA headquarters. It is located in Santa Clara, California, and the beta is available to those who live in San Jose. You’ll need an internet connection with a 10 Mbps download speed, a sub-40ms ping to the servers, and an NVIDIA GameStream-ready 5GHz router. If you live near San Jose, feel free to give it a shot; it just might work. It’s a really limited beta, but it’s just the beginning.

NVIDIA says that the free beta will last for at least three months, so those who have access to it have quite a while to stream games. Hopefully locations will expand soon. Do you have a chance to give it a shot? Download the GRID Beta app and tell us how it goes, and if you don’t, watch this video of someone trying it out!