Is the new Shadow Power offer financially attractive compared to a classic PC?

The new Shadow Power offer, the PC in the cloud, is causing debate. Are you ready to spend 44.98 euros per month for a modern and complete PC in the cloud? This is one of the questions we are trying to answer.

Shadow organized its first major conference since the acquisition by Octave Klaba / OVHCloud. The conference was very rich in novelties. They have confirmed their wish to market a more efficient offer this year, which is a good thing, because the basic offer is showing a certain age. They have updated the clients that allow you to connect to your virtual machine from several platforms. They also announced the arrival of a Shadow Drive offer, which replaces the old OVHCloud Hubic offer. Finally, they are launching an offer dedicated to professionals.

Here, we wanted to compare the consumer offer to comparable solutions. Is Shadow financially attractive? This is one of the questions we are trying to answer.

Comparison with conventional PCs

Like any consumer, we wanted to compare Shadow’s offers with more traditional equivalent solutions, and therefore a desktop PC and a laptop PC equipped with Windows. Our choice did not fall on a specific model, we compared the average rates in May 2022 at various traders. We chose the configurations closest to the Shadow Option Power offer which has just been announced.

	Basic Shadow offer	Shadow Option Power Offer	target laptop	Target PC
Configuration	4-core Intel Xeon CPU Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU 12 GB RAM 256 GB of storage	AMD Epyc 7543P CPU Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU or equivalent 16 GB RAM 256 GB of storage	Intel Core i7-11800H CPU Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 mobile GPU or equivalent 16 GB RAM 512 GB of storage Example: MSI GP76 Leopard 11UH-681FR	Intel Core i7-12700 CPU Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU or equivalent 16 GB RAM 512 GB SSD Example: Asus ROG Strix GT15CF
Gaming	Full-HD	4K UHD, VR and ray tracing	4K UHD, VR and ray tracing	4K UHD, VR and ray tracing
Modular	Yes	Yes	Nope	Yes
Cost 1 month	€29.99	€44.98	2000 €	2000 €
Cost 6 months	€179.94	€269.88	2000 €	2000 €
Cost 12 months	€359.88	€539.76	2000 €	2000 €
Cost 24 months	€719.76	€1079.52	2000 €	2000 €
Cost 36 months	€1079.64	€1619.28	2000 €	2000 €

As you can see in the table below, the Shadow Power offer is economically attractive. It costs 1,620 euros over three years, compared to 2,000 euros for target PCs that we have chosen. Obviously, you can resell your PC after three years, but there are other benefits to cloud computing.

What Shadow offers more

It is difficult to compare a cloud computing offer to a classic PC. First, they are two very different philosophies, with a dematerialized offer on one side and hardware on the other.

The Shadow offer makes it possible to run its virtual PC on all screens, including an iOS / Android smartphone, tablet, old PC or TV. The Shadow client has been ported to multiple systems, including Linux or macOS.

This therefore offers freedom to roam, as long as you have access to a sufficient connection to run Shadow (at least 15 Mbps download and stable latency).

In addition, the Shadow offer obviously includes maintenance in the event of a breakdown. If your PC crashes, you’ll need to fix it. On the other hand, if your Shadow subscription does not work, it is the technical teams of the service who will repair the failures observed.

Another advantage to the Shadow offer is the ability to stop your subscription whenever you want. If you no longer need your subscription, you can stop it whenever you want, you can also resume it whenever you want.

In addition, Shadow continues to put forward a strong argument of its offer: configurations change over time without specifically asking for it. Shadow hopes to get rid of all its GeForce GTX 1080s in 2024.

At last, you benefit from a large bandwidth on your virtual machine. This means that if you have an ADSL-type broadband connection at home, you can download your games and content with a much higher speed. This may meet some needs.

The weak points of the Shadow offer

Cloud computing is, despite several years of existence, still a very recent field in the era of consumer computing. This is why everything does not work perfectly. You can have compatibility issuesThis ranges from installing Windows 11 to certain games that may falsely ban you thinking you are using cheat software.

Shadow teams work closely with publishers to avoid disappointment, but they can’t fix everything. Among other things, the graphics cards used by Shadow are often cards designed for data centers, which leads to delays in the availability of drivers. Which can be a problem when launching new games.

Also know that you depend on a good connection, we recommend a very high speed offer, even if the basic Shadow offer runs relatively of course on an ADSL connection. If you ever move to a new home that is not equipped with a good connection, you will at least have the possibility of easily stopping your subscription.

You are also dependent the proper functioning of Shadow data centers. If there is any problem, you will not be able to connect to your PC. Today, this type of disappointment happens more often than on other streaming services (Netflix, Disney+, Nvidia GeForce Now, etc.).

Base storage amount is very fair, especially when installing demanding AAA games. Shadow offers optional additional storage. You can order up to 2 TB of storage in 256 GB increments. The price for additional storage is 2.99 euros/month for 256 GB.

Finally, Shadow immediately activates the basic offer, which is a positive point, but the Power option is announced for this fall. Shadow is dependent on the stocks of components available, which is very complicated with the current shortages. As for fixed and portable PCs, the situation has stabilized, it is easier to find an available product. Note, however, that a new generation of graphics cards is coming from Nvidia and AMD, which is bringing down the prices of the current generation.

What the table does not say

We wanted to add a few comments to the table. First, this table does not take into account the cost of electricity. The latter is not negligible, a fixed PC will consume approximately 1,000 kWh / year, or about 150 to 180 euros per year. With Shadow, you consume electricity, but that obviously depends on your machine. For example, the Mac Mini M1 (about 800 euros) consumes 6.8 W at rest, 39 W under full load, which is incomparable in terms of cost. The rest of the electricity costs are integrated into your Shadow subscription, these are the infrastructure costs.

At last, you can resell your PC, which is not the case with the Shadow offer, which can be compared to a rental or leasing offer. This resale is available to estimate in the current context, but it is not at all negligible. In general, it is considered that a computer, smartphone or tablet is capitalized over 3 years. But in reality, the value of your PC is not zero after 3 years of use.

Other possible alternatives

We compared Shadow to complete PC offers, the use of which goes far beyond gaming. But if it’s gaming that interests you, there are other alternatives.

Nvidia has launched its new offer GeForce Now with the equivalent of a GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. This offer allows you to play in 1440p definition at 120 IPS for 100 euros/6 months (i.e. around 17 euros/month). However, the GeForce Now offer does not offer access to a complete PC, but to a list of PC games in cloud gaming.

As for the offer Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, it gives access to the entire Game Pass catalog, but also the possibility of playing in the cloud via the Xbox application. The subscription is offered at 12.99 euros per month and is presented as a real Netflix of video games with a catalog of games of its own. It is possible to subscribe for half the price. There are a hundred titles, whether successful series from Microsoft (Gears of War, Forza, Halo, etc.), games from third-party studios or even independent ones.

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