PREVIEW Stuf: the new Cloud Computing service that could well overshadow Shadow

OVH (Shadow) must now face a new competitor in the field of cloud computing : Stuff (Innovate Games). This French family business aspires to compete with the European giant by offering its customers two formulas with unbeatable value for money. We had the opportunity to test Stuff (Gamer) during one week, enough to give you our first impressions.

You don’t know what the cloud computing ? Well, it’s relatively simple: from a simple computer or smartphone screen, you stream the image of a PC Gamer in the cloud.

The principle: obtain for a ridiculous price much more power than what your machine is supposed to deliver.

Knowing that kilometers separate your PC from the one offered to you remotely, the experience will be even better if you have a quality network installation (fiber recommended, but not obligatory).

Once your remote PC is turned on, unlike Cloud Gaming, you have all the functionalities of a computer (office, multimedia, productivity, etc.).

If the best known of the services of Cloud computing what is Shadow still holds the bar (for how long?) and, for lack of competition, still retains the monopoly, it’s the turn of Stuff to join the dance and shake up the prices.

The idea of STUF was born during the period of COVID-19 when the founding brothers, Jean-Baptiste (co-founder) and Sébastien Chabert (CTO), facing difficulties in accessing their ShadowPCdecided to create their own solution.

What was supposed to be just a simple personal project quickly transformed into a real business. cloud computing, and this, eight years after the leader of the sector: Shadow. If the adventure is still in its infancy, the team has already succeeded in developing the essentialsand this is what we let you discover below:

From the outset, the quality/price ratio is in favor of the formulas Stuf. For less than 20 euros per month, subscribers get RTX 3060 against one GTX 1080 at the house of Shadoweither an additional 10% gain in performance. Although this may not seem like much, the benefit of this increase appears when it is correlated with the price of the formula: 10 € cheaper than at Shadow ! same for me THE CPU of Stuff10% more efficient than the one opposite.

Source : Technical City

Raw power level, Classic Stuff turns out to be more efficient and less expensive than Shadow Boosta first in the world of cloud computing.

On the other hand, if we compare the CPU high-end formulas, at first glance, the advantage is to Shadow Power. Its processor is more than three times more powerful that the one who equips the Stuff Gamer !

Source: Technical City

Same observation on the question GPU, Shadow has a small advance in graphics performance (around 10%) in its most expensive offer.

If the offer Power is a little more powerful, at 27 euros difference, it’s difficult not to grimace.

In his defense, Shadow can boast of having features that its direct competitor does not have like the ability to update Windows 10 towards Windows 11 on the range Powerthe possibility (all plans included) of connecting hard drives, the possibility of having the dual screen, the activation of respect for colorimetric fidelity (4:4:4), the drag & drop (copy and paste from the host machine to the remote machine), storage expansion, etc. Although this brings comfort to use, the main expectation of players is above all to be able to play all their games (and especially mods) on powerful machines at a reduced price, which Shadow unfortunately no longer allowswhat’s more on the formula Poweroffered at an exorbitant price.

On the other hand, the lack of accessibility of the solution proposed by Stuff may slow down those less computer literate. Eh yes, Shadow offers a solution as simplistic as possible to connect when your direct competitor requests the installation of third-party software (Moonlight) to work.

The various actions to perform before accessing your remote PC may seem daunting to many newbies. Fortunately, Stuff works (among other things) to provide explanatory videos, a launcher dedicated as well as the possibility of increasing storage, then wait and see.

The price being similar, some will (rightly) put the formula in competition Gamer of Stuff (22.90 euros) to that of Geforce Now Ultimate (€21.99). If the latter offers a RTX 4080 for the same price range (very high-end compared to an RTX 4060), let’s not forget that the service of Nvidia will never have a catalog as complete as a real dedicated PC. In addition to the gaming traditional, emulation and VR, it will be impossible for you to work or play modder if you choose the solution from the famous manufacturer of GPU.

If Cloud Gaming Nvidia has the technological advantage, Cloud Computing has the advantage of being much more complete.

Never mind, there are still many games (mostly multiplayer) that will not run on virtual machines (Valorant, Star Citizen, Fortnite…) since it is also from them that most cheaters can commit their misdeeds. Yes, this is unfortunately what leads many studios to simply refuse this compatibility, however legitimate the reason may be. But all is not lost, because certain agreements are possible, as evidenced by the possibility of playing Fortnite on the service of Nvidia.

Want to know the performance of Stuff in real conditions? Go to the next page (use, benchmarks, conclusion).