It’s been seven years now since Nvidia joked about introducing a GeForce G-Assist feature to its graphics cards, powered by (what else?) artificial intelligence. Since then, however, Team Green has made great strides in making deep learning algorithms useful to gamers, through DLSS Super Resolution as well as, more recently, Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction. With this in mind, Nvidia’s recent social activity has some hopeful that what was once a farce will become a feature.
For those unfamiliar with GeForce GTX (yes, the gag is that old) G-Assist, here’s a brief refresher of the “feature”. Using the power of the best graphics cards at the time, Nvidia offered a USB stick “packed with deep learning algorithms” which could be used in a variety of ways. ‘GhostPlay’ created a player ghost, based on your playstyle, that could come in clutch should you need to go AFK, with a configurable sliders for Actions Per Minute, as well as taunt frequency. Additionally, ‘BossBoost’ gave you the “best and most stylish way” to take out bosses, meanwhile ‘NV Nurture’ gave you regular prompts to take food and drink breaks, all at the press of a button. Of course, this was all a joke.
Recently, though, a post by Nvidia GeForce on X has brought GeForce G-Assist back into the spotlight. Quoting the original post from April 1, 2017, the profile states “the future is never far away…” devoid of any meaningful context. As such, it’s impossible to deduce with any certainty what Nvidia has planned. Nvidia should make any announcements inspired by G-Assist at Computex 2024, but we can make some educated guesses in the meantime.
Firstly, Nvidia will undoubtedly bake G-Assist into Nvidia App/GeForce Experience instead of putting in on a USB drive. Discounting all the examples described in the original April Fools’ video, as all would most certainly fall foul of anti-cheat, we have thought of a few genuinely useful things G-Assist could do. Given the company’s investment into technologies like ULMB2 and Reflex, it’s not unreasonable to suggest Nvidia could leverage its AI powers to help train your aim in something like KovaaK’s. Alternatively, G-Assist could provide guide functionality, through builds or strategies in games like Elden Ring.
Support for G-Assist on GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards is a given, if it materialises at all. There is a chance that the feature could be exclusive to Blackwell GPUs, as Frame Generation is for Lovelace, but there’s simply no way of knowing at this time. Truth be told, I’ll be happy so long as Nvidia brings back USB drives styled after Founders Edition coolers to promote G-Assist.
We’ll be reporting on everything Computex, including the Nvidia keynote, right from the show floor so stay tuned for our hands-on coverage. In the meantime, catch up on the latest GeForce RTX 5090 rumours, or give our GeForce RTX 4090 review a read.