Nvidia's GRID platform hopes to dramatically improve cloud gaming

Using words we don't quite understand, Nividia has announced a new platform that will conceivably make cloud gaming a much more viable prospect. The Geforce GRID platform features "dedicated ultra-low-latency streaming technology and cloud graphics software" and the company believes it will "fundamentally change the economics and experience of cloud gaming."

A single GRID unit houses two GPUs based on Nvidia's Kepler technology, which the company says are capable of maintaining eight separate game streams simultaneously, an attractive prospect for gaming service providers. Additionally, "fast streaming technology" will supposedly drop server latency to "as little as 10 milliseconds," which, as we understand it, is pretty fast. So fast that GRID could potentially stream very high-end games to virtually any device, from phone to TV to toaster. Furthermore, Nvidia is working with smart TV manufacturers to reduce ethernet input lag so that, in theory, Gaikai could have latency on par with a console connected via HDMI (or slightly lower latency, if you believe the graph above).

Of course, we'll have to wait and see how everything works out in practice, but the possibilities are, in a word, crazypants.