Every company is trying to integrate AI into its ecosystems, which is necessary in this new tech world. Now, NVIDIA has jumped on this bandwagon with G-Assist for Gamers. But is it worth having or just another gimmick? Let’s find out!
What is NVIDIA’s G-Assist?
Project G-Assist is a new AI assistant launched by NVIDIA that runs locally on their GeForce RTX PCs.
You can prompt G-Assist using your text or voice commands for various uses or help. This all happens offline, powered by your own graphics card. This means it is free and ensures quick responses. However, if you use it during gameplay, your GPU will allocate some resources toward G-Assist, which might result in less FPS.
The assistant uses a tuned SLM (Small Language Model) to understand the instructions you provide in a natural language. It can then do the tasks in the NVIDIA App and even control other third-party PC software, including ones from LogiTech, MSI, or Corsair.
Note that G-Assist is currently in the experimental stage. This means it might provide an inaccurate or indecent response like any other AI chatbot. The product will be improved with every new version. NVIDIA is eager for user feedback to shape its future development.
How to Install It?
NVIDIA’s G-Assist is only for GeForce RTX 30, 40, and 50 Series Desktop GPUs with 12GB VRAM or higher. This means some popular budget-friendly GPUs like the RTX 3080 or 4060 will not work as they have only 10GB and 8GB of VRAM respectively.
Other than this, all other requirements are quite reasonable. It can run on Windows 10 & 11 and requires, at most, 9.5 GB of Disk Space.
Users can download G-Assist from the Discover section of the NVIDIA app. To activate it, just press Alt+G.
5 Main Features of G-Assist
Here are the key features of NVIDIA’s G-Assist that everyone is talking about:
1) Maintain NVIDIA Drivers
Are your NVIDIA Drivers up-to-date? If not, just ask G-Assist about it and it can update your drivers. Other tasks that are usually activated inside the NVIDIA App, like recording the gameplay or showing system stastics, can also be done using this AI Assistant.
You can also ask it questions about NVIDIA’s technologies like DLSS Frame Generation. Even questions about your own PC and its software and hardware can be answered by this AI Assistant.
2) Optimize Game or PC Settings
Achieving the perfect balance between performance and visual quality can be daunting.
Finding the best settings for a specific game or getting the best performance from your PC hardware can be a headache. You have to read through multiple online guides and forums. Now, you can just prompt G-Assist to optimize the settings.
This can be a game-changer for amateur gamers who struggle with such problems in their early days as gamers.
3) Evaluate Gaming Performance
Checking the PC hardware statistics is easy, but it is better if you can get the information in the form of a graph. Now, that’s cool.
Providing gamers with more data about their system will help them identify key areas of improvement in the settings as well. You can even download these charts
It can intelligently find ways to increase performance per watt, such as dynamically undervolting the GPU while respecting a frame rate target.
4) Control Your Peripherals
G-Assist can also control third-party PC APIs. So, if you want to change the color of your keyboard’s light or set the PC fans in quiet mode, you just have to tell it.
It will open the necessary applications and execute the tasks.
5) Get Game Assistance
Since NVIDIA has all the data about the game you are playing, it can analyze it to give you the best tips to get the best out of your PC.
It can identify any minor issues and give recommendations to fix them. In the example above, it told the user to set NVIDIA Reflex ON and increase the DLSS mode.
Prompts to Try Right Now
Along with the AI assistant, NVIDIA has shared some of the prompts that you can try:
- Optimize my graphics for <Game>
- Set a Frame Rate Limit to 100
- Start recording my gameplay
- Overclock my GPU by 60 MHz
- Set my keyboard lights to green
- How much power is my GPU using?
- Show me a graph of my GPU fan speed
- Update my GeForce driver
- Set my fans to silent mode
- What’s my CPU clock speed right now?
This will give you an idea of what G-Assist is capable of.
Takeaways
After looking at all the features, I believe this is an AI tool worth having. It might not significantly improve your gaming performance, but it can save a lot of time in the long run. If it works as the company claims, it can be a saviour for beginners who face problems when managing their PC settings.
On a side note, Microsoft has also recently revealed a similar type of AI Assistant for gaming, designed for Gamers.
