THAT HEADLINE WAS ON THE 9TH OF SEPTEMBER, JUST A NOTICE.


http://www.ghacks.net/2016/09/09/geforce-experience-3-mandatory-registration/

Basically the gist of it is that in order to access all the extra features of GeForce Experience such as ShadowPlay, auto-updates, GameStream and all these features I don't have the patience for to list, are...

Yes. You need to register to use ANY of them, using either a Nvidia login, a Google(+?) login, or a Facebook login.

Yes.

You heard that right. In order to use your GPU's features from now on, you have to go online and sign up for an account to access such features of your GPU. I'll leave you to be the judge. The way I see it, it's DRM on one of the most important pieces of a PC, the GPU.

The one thing that really annoys me about the update is that the updater is locked behind a log-in screen. The fact that version 2 worked well for a lot of people without having to sign in makes the move all the weirder. I personally didn't use the other features of Experience which made ditching it easy. I just hope they don't screw up the control panel.

Actually, no.

"Its primary purpose however is to provide users with configurations for games that make them run in optimal fashion on the system. This is especially handy for inexperienced gamers who don't want to or cannot configure games manually."

In other words: "In order to have nVidia setup your graphics settings for your through an additional piece of software or use other features contained in that additional piece of software instead of other third party solutions that have been around for longer than the GeForce Experience you have to go online and sign up for an account."

All features of the GPU are still available to you. It's software features that are restricted. If the famous "Generic Fantasy MMORPG" shut down, you wouldn't claim that the developer had restricted your GPU's "Generic Fantasy MMORPG displaying feature", would you?

The control panel is my last frontier as my laptop uses an Nvidia card, so it's not my choice. This is where I do all my serious work, including setting which games and applications use which GPU as it is an Nvidia Optimus GPU.

I really hope it doesn't come down to that. The official implantation of such features however are restricted until you make an account. Nobody stops anyone from installing Raptr for auto-configuration regardless of GPU type. Nobody stops anyone from getting MSI Afterburner for capture. Nobody stops anyone from relying on whatever streaming application, what have you, to stream to your Android. These however are all not Nvidia's implementations, which in some cases, like with the stream to Android feature, might be special in a way in regards to how Nvidia does it.

But hey, what about drivers for the latest DRM-free AAA game that hits GO- nevermind.
http://www.ghacks.net/2015/10/16/future-nvidia-game-ready-drivers-will-require-registration/

You must wait till the regular driver is ready and shipped if you don't want an account to play that game, OR sign up for instant access according to this article. Which also outlines that this 'sign up for Nvidia features' deal has been planned a year in advance.

And again, those are additional services or software features that nVidia is under no obligation to provide free of charge or free of registration.

Their "game ready" drivers usually suck so I'm happy to go with regular drivers.

When I build my next rig it'll be goodbye Intel and Nvidia.

I surely don't like Nvidias move in this regard, no matter if it's considered a basic GPU feature or additional software. On the other hand, I don't like GeForce Experience either, so no great loss on my side. This little piece of software regularly causes problems with some GOG games, forcing players to deactivate it anyway. Adding DRM makes it a clear stay away for me.

Why do I feel I ready this months ago?

I really only use it for the frame counter and shadowplay, otherwise GeForce Experience is useless for me.

Which makes this account requirement particularly annoying.

You did... others did, but probably can't remember that far back.

The moment the new GFE (lol) showed up I just started using Bandicam. I don't need a program to tell me what graphics settings I should be using, and Shadowplay is certainly not the be all and end all of recording software.
Nothing will be missed.

good thing then that i dont care one way or another about those "features"

Never understood the purpose behind Geforce Experience:

I don't need a wizard over my game to configure graphics settings.
Game streaming? No. I have a PC and I sit in front of it the way it's meant to be played.
Driver updates? Yeah I think I'll manage. I've managed to update my drivers myself since 1991 thanks.
System specs? Much better programs can do this.
Video recording? Nope. I'm not an egomaniac and I don't make $$$ off playing my games.

This. For all I care, it's a piece of software I have no real use for.

Speaking of GeForce Experience, is there any way to stop the damn thing from running in the background? I disabled its autostart via msconfig, but it keeps popping up, like some nasty malware.

It's called uninstalling. ;) That'll stop it, for sure.

Cool, so this oh-so-smart move actually made me realize I didn't really need this program at all. Good riddance indeed.