Shadow reviews: Cloud Gaming without limit

Power offer is the most advanced option at Shadow. It allows you to have a real PC in the cloud, With Windows 10 and components dedicated to video games. Shadow, however, had to make concessions since the components are not exactly the same as those found in our domestic PCs. Thus, the processor is a server model, the AMD Epic 7543p with 32 hypered cores. It is therefore 4 cores of the processor which are devoted to each virtual PC of a Power session, with 16 GB of RAM in addition, an RTX A4500 (Professional model of RTX 3070) and an SSD of 256 GB.

Shadow Power: the cloud gaming offer that wants to cheat the PC Gaming

Shadow has updated its PC solution gaming in cloud At the end of 2022. It is therefore time for us to test the performance and ergonomics of this system which can question the composition of your next PC gaming. Here is an overview of this service.

Advertising, your content continues below

Power offer is the most advanced option at Shadow. It allows you to have a real PC in the cloud, With Windows 10 and components dedicated to video games. Shadow, however, had to make concessions since the components are not exactly the same as those found in our domestic PCs. Thus, the processor is a server model, the AMD Epic 7543p with 32 hypered cores. It is therefore 4 cores of the processor which are devoted to each virtual PC of a Power session, with 16 GB of RAM in addition, an RTX A4500 (Professional model of RTX 3070) and an SSD of 256 GB.

This configuration is on paper sufficient to play the majority of games in Full HD, or even in 4K if we reduce the quantity of details while activating the DLSS. And that for € 44.90/month. A price at first high, especially if we compare it with its direct competitor, GeForce Now which offers a GeForce RTX 3080 (soon an RTX 4080) for € 19.99/month. However, Shadow’s offer is distinguished by providing a full PC where you can install all of its software library while having access to game platforms (Epic, Ubisoft, Steam, Gog, etc.)).

Half-fig half-grape performance

To assess the performance of the Shadow Power offer, we have submitted it to the same protocol as that of laptops gaming that we test. We therefore measured the performance of the processor and the graphics card subject to our gaming panel.

Advertising, your content continues below

The EPIC 7543P processor performance index with 4 hyperthredes of our session is 78. It is therefore at the level of an Intel Low consumption processor and very far from the Core i7-12700h present in the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (189 index).

Inevitably, with only 4 hypered cores, the Power Shadow offer cannot compete with PC processors which are now much more supplied in hearts. However, it is necessary to put the necessary power to turn to run correctly video games, since it is the graphics card that performs the biggest work.

In terms of graphic performance, the Shadow Power and its RTX A4500 20 GB obtain an index of 225, which corresponds more or less to the performance of the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro with a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (150 W) which obtains a clue 234.
The Shadow Power offer is therefore slightly less efficient than the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, which is a bit surprising since the RTX A4500 is a card in office format with a 200 Watts thermal envelope and which is supposed to be as efficient as ‘A GeForce RTX 3070 from office.
We will remember above all that she is not particularly helped by the processor, which is apparently, is a bit limited for her to express himself fully with only 4 hyperthredes, while 6 hyperthredes are today today The standard to play. In addition, RTX A4500 is also responsible for encoding the video flow to send it through the cloud In order to receive it at home via fiber.

To play in Full HD

In practice, the Shadow Power offer allows you to play all the games with the details set to the maximum at more than 60 i/s. Only the activation of Raytracing lowers the framerate Under the 60 i/s on Metro Exodus And Cyberpunk 2077. In any case, in full HD, the Power offer is sufficient to play in optimal conditions.

Advertising, your content continues below

Play in 4K with some concessions

Since Shadow’s Power offer also intends to be used on a TV, we pushed the definition in 4K, while retaining the same quality display settings.

In 4K definition, it is quite possible to play in good conditions. However, we will avoid activating the effects in Raytracing. For those who wish to approach the 60 i/s mark, it will also be necessary to compromise on the details displayed by reviving its requirements downwards and activating either the DLSS or the FSR, according to the games.For example, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Go from 49 i/s to 63 i/s with the FSR in “quality” mode and saves fluidity. For Cyberpunk 2077, We managed to reach 69 i/s with the “Steamdeck” preset and the DLSS activated in “quality” mode. So, if you absolutely want to play in 4K, you will have to make some sacrifices on the quantity of details and on Raytracing.

A convincing experience and some frustrations

To access the Shadow Power offer, you must install a customer on the game device. An application is available for iOS and Android, as well as for MacOS and Windows. It is therefore possible to play on a MacBook Air and take advantage of its operating silence, or on your Android tablet. Shadow covers a very large majority of devices, from TVs connected to Raspberry Pi via the Chromebook.

Advertising, your content continues below

One of the prerequisites to take advantage of Shadow is obviously to have a good internet connection, ideally in fiber and with a solid local network (Ethernet or WiFi 6). The customer software performs a test at the first start to assess your speed and adapts accordingly.

And here you are on the desk of your Shadow Power session under Windows 10. If you are used to using services like TeamViewer, you will not be disoriented. However, drag and drop does not work and the file transfer is particularly slow. You will have to get into the habit of using a storage service in the cloud To transfer files between your devices and the Shadow Power session – Shadow also offers a shadow drive.

In use, latency is very slightly noticeable. It requires a slight adaptation time, especially on nervous games. You will also have to be careful not to add too many elements likely to add latency. Thus, when using an entry -level PC connected to WiFi and connected in 4K to our TV with a Bluetooth controller, our car in Forza 5 was particularly difficult to control. Apart from this particular case, the Shadow Power offer turns out to be convincing as long as we do not target the ranking of an FPS. It is also particularly appreciable to play with a MacBook Air M1 on battery in a silence that lets the soundtrack appreciate without having to undergo the roar of the fans.

However, everything is not perfect. So we were victims of a few blue screens due to graphic pilots and rare connection difficulties. We must also take care to let Shadow Manage the pilots of the graphics card, at the risk of worsening the situation. It can also happen that a game plants without causing a blue screen; In this case, it is necessary to restart the session via the customer and wait for the restart, as with a classic PC.

Shadow Power against GeForce Now

The Shadow Power offer offers a convincing experience with a few small faults inherent in technology. We thus regret the low storage capacity which requires juggling with the installations of the games and some frustrations linked to the start -up or to small plantages of the session. Shadow will especially have much to face Nvidia. The GeForce Now offer of the Green Géant de Santa Clara certainly does not have a large catalog of games and versatile Power uses, but it turns out to be much more attractive in terms of price.

Shadow reviews: Cloud Gaming without limit

Shadow is a cloud gaming service that offers the player the possibility of Manage a real PC from a distance. Our general opinion is that this is a Quality Cloud Gaming, who manages to satisfy his promises by offering a good quality gaming experience and freedom higher than most of its competitors.

What is the cloud gaming ?

Without going into detail (see our article on the cloud gaming for that), the cloud gaming allows you to play on any device (computer, smartphone, connected TV, tablet) to a game that is actually executed from a remote server ( from the cloud). This is an opportunity that we owe in particular to the quality of the internet connections that we have today.

Blade, Shadow and OVH

Blade is the French company that founded the Cloud Gaming Shadow in 2015. Today bought by OVH, the French Cloud Computing giant, Shadow has evolved and clearly aims to expand its cloud computing offer beyond cloud gaming.

The past few years have allowed Shadow to become the French Cloud Gaming and one of the main competitors in the world cloud.

Cloud Gaming with Shadow

The operating principle of Shadow goes a little further than the cloud gaming. It is a question of offering the user a dematerialized PC, in the cloud, which can be controlled according to their good will.

A PC in the cloud

When you connect to Shadow from the Shadow application, it’s a full PC that you take in hand. You can use it as you see almost or almost (see below for restrictions).

This is a major difference compared to other cloud gaming services such as vortex (see the Shadow vs vortex comparison).

The power of this PC in the Cloud as well as the technologies developed by Blade Shadow are dedicated to running resource -seeking games. Equipped with an equivalent of GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card and 12 GB of RAM, it is the gaming experience that is the main objective of Shadow.

Indeed, by connecting to your Shadow account from an application, you will take control of a complete and powerful PC computer.

More than Cloud Gaming

As we said, Shadow gives you access to a computer on which Windows 10 is installed.

In addition to playing games of your choice, you can install all the software you want and use it as your own computer.

The power of this dematerialized machine makes it possible to run particularly greedy software. It is very useful for those who practice 3D modeling or animation, video editing, graphics, etc.

The fact that these software is running in the cloud allows us to use them naturally from a laptop, a tablet, or simply from a not enough computer enough.

In terms of streaming, Shadow is excellent: for those who have a reliable and fast internet connection, the latency is very low, and allows you to play or work on your computer without a hitch, even forgetting that it does not ‘Acts not a local machine (in our case, the test was carried out from the south of France, with a Shadow computer installed in the Datacenter of Paris).

Restrictions of use

According to Shadow, using your Shadow computer does not have many limits.

Concretely, the only prohibited uses are those likely to undermine the functioning of Shadow or its equipment:

• Stop or manipulate Blade Shadow programs that run in the background to operate the whole cloud gaming service.
• Overclocking your Shadow PC or M the Bios de la Machine.
• The mining of cryptocurrencies is strictly prohibited because it quickly deteriorates the equipment and leads to too much electricity consumption.

What about download ?

Download (in particular by torrents) is not prohibited on Shadow. On the other hand, the conditions of use of the cloud gaming service naturally means that these downloads must respect French law.

Does Shadow monitor its users ?

According to Shadow, the answer is no. Shadow PC activity is not monitored. On the other hand, the equipment is to detect possible anomalies (overheating, breakdowns, etc.)).

How to use your equipment on Shadow ?

The Shadow application takes care of the communication between the device used to execute the Shadow application (therefore the device you have in your hands) and the dematerialized machine in the Cloud (Shadow PC).

This communication is managed to allow you to use your USB devices On Shadow PC. For example, all joysticks tested were well recognized and functional during our tests. Even plug in an external USB hard drive operates in this way (but the data is of course transferred by the Internet, the transfer time does not disappear).

Shadow Cloud Gaming Data Management

The Shadow service incorporates a 256 GB storage space to manage (to install games, software, store backups, etc.)).

How to transfer your data to Shadow ?

Of course, the question of data transfer on or from the Shadow machine arises. How to send your data to Shadow PC ? And how to repatriate data from your Shadow machine to your physical computer ?

In reality, the process is very simple, you can do it mainly in two ways:

• As we said above, if you connect an external hard drive (or a USB key) to your physical machine, then it will be recognized as if you had connected it directly to your Shadow PC. You can therefore make the transfer very simply in this way.
• Another sometimes even more practical method is to use an online storage space, such as Pcloud or Sync.com. You can easily set up a synchronized folder between your Shadow PC and another device.

What becomes of data after stopping the subscription ?

Once your subscription is finished, you have 30 days to recover your data before the storage space is definitively deleted.

Attention : If you are still in your trial period (at € 29.95 for 30 days) and you decide to interrupt it, then your data is immediately deleted. In this case, you will not have the possibility of recovering them for 30 days as for “confirmed” accounts.

Play on Shadow’s Cloud Gaming

Offering a gaming experience is Shadow’s main objective, despite the other possible uses.

One of the major difficulties for cloud gaming services is the appearance of latency. Shadow has set up a whole series of methodologies to reduce them, working on encoding images of games that are sent from shadow servers to your local machine.

The gaming experience obtained is mostly very fluid. At times, however, short interruptions may appear. The impact of these of course depend on the type of game: a latency will be more embarrassing on a game with controls that require a lot of responsiveness.

The stability of your connection will also be very important in the quality of the experience. Although Shadow advises a connection from 15 Mb per second (or 1.8 MB per second), better speed and better connection quality make the game experience much more pleasant.

What Shadow Cloud Gaming Games ?

On Shadow, the user will play the games he will simply want. Since it is a complete PC that Shadow puts in our hands, nothing prevents installing all the games compatible with a powerful PC equipped with Windows 10, that is to say almost all the imaginable games.

You can for example without problem install the games of your STEAM, Epicgamestore, GOG libraries, or which you simply have installation files.

An undeniable advantage of freedom that Shadow leaves in the management of PC remotely, is that you manage your games as you see fit. Updates, mods, DLC, plugins, … The operation of Shadow lets us administer all this to perfection and without limit.

What devices to launch Shadow and his cloud gaming ?

Shadow has seen wide in compatibility terms. Shadow applications have been developed for the main existing platforms.

For computers, Shadow is compatible with:

• Windows,
• Macos,
• Linux (Ubuntu).

Regarding mobile devices, mobile applications exist for smartphones and tablets (or for TV equipped with Android):

• Android 5.0 and later, or Android TV,
• iOS, iPados or Tvos 11.0 and later.

Technical characteristics

• On the graphics card side, this is equipment Nvidia, equivalent to a card GeForce GTX 1080.
• Processor Intel Xeon.
• 12 GB Ram memory.
• 256 GB of storage space (it is possible to add more storage, up to 2 additional toes)
• Windows 10 (Shadow says working to let the user install Linux instead of Windows, but this is not yet the case).

The more time passes, the more this configuration is part of the midrange Rather than high -end (for example, we would appreciate having RTX graphics cards to take advantage of the latest graphics advances, or more powerful processors). We therefore hope that Shadow will quickly update his equipment. However, performance is still very appreciable, and most of the even recent games can be played without problem, with very good graphic quality.

Datacenters

Shadow manages 6 data centers to perform games and other software. These data centers are located in Europe (Paris and Amsterdam) and UNITED STATES (Chicago, Dallas, New York and Santa Clara). Having a data center in Paris is very good news for French players who will be able to enjoy this proximity.

Shadow prices

Shadow offers its cloud gaming service in the form of a subscription paid monthly, without commitment.

Since the redemption by OVH, the offer has evolved and the monthly price has greatly increased to reach a price of € 29.99 per month for a single formula (previously, several formulas at variable prices co-existed).

The elders who were entitled to a much lower price in 2020 will undoubtedly find the current service dear. But for many, having access to such a powerful machine for around thirty euros per month remains very accessible and reasonable. Indeed, this could avoid buying a new expensive computer, equipped for the game.

Trick. Shadow applies a sponsorship principle which allows by sharing your sponsor code, to save on your invoice, at the rate of one euro less by sponsored user. The sponsored will have a reduction of € 5 on its 1st invoice. If you have friends ready to take the plunge, it can be a good way to reduce the monthly bill as long as their subscription remains active.

How to get your Shadow subscription

To create and obtain your PC in the Shadow Cloud, the procedure is simplest and Shadow currently ensures that it will take less than 3 hours to get your access. It’s very fast compared to the long months that we had to wait a year ago.

The following link leads to registration (it contains a promo code to save € 5 on the 1st invoice).

Registration in itself is extremely simple: it will be a question of giving conventional information (name, first name, and contact information) then validate the creation of the account and the subscription. Payment can be made by Bank card or separate transfer.

Our opinion on the Cloud Gaming Shadow

Shadow is a very good cloud gaming service that could satisfy most of those who have good connection conditions. Fiber is not essential to enjoy Shadow, but a reliable and stable connection will be preferable (Shadow recommends a connection of 15 Mbits per second minimum).

Although latency problems sometimes appear in play, The global experience remains very positive. Shadow allows its users to play recent and gourmet games, whether from a laptop, a mac or a tablet. We hope that this will remain despite the growing customers of Shadow.

Let’s not forget one of the great strengths of Shadow: The user can do what he wants with his Shadow PC, not just play. It is not uncommon for users to exploit the Shadow system for many other reasons than the game (gourmet software in graphic resources in particular) !

On the side of the drawbacks, cERTAINS Types of games are more difficult to adapt to Cloud Gaming especially when the connection is not perfect. It is the games most demanding in reactive controls (even more when it comes to competitive games) that suffer from this difficulty inherent in the cloud gaming.

Who is Shadow for ?

The price of Shadow can be a brake, unless we consider that it is a question of renting a powerful and complete computer that will be accessible at any time and everywhere.

Those looking for a solution that will allow them to play without any limits (neither time, or games, mods, etc.) will appreciate what their Shadow offer. They will appreciate it even more if they are looking for a solution that allows them not to play. Under these conditions, the price of Shadow becomes more interesting given the possibilities offered.

Test the service There remains the best way to make sure your connections allow you to enjoy Shadow’s cloud gaming. Fortunately, the fact that the subscription is without obligation will easily leave you to put an end to it if it is not satisfactory.