GeForce NOW (GFN) is NVIDIA's cloud gaming service. On GFN, servers are divided up and given names (IDs like NP-DAL-04, NP-DAL-05) and so on. These servers are linked to a more human friendly name and zone often using the country name or state name (eg. NP-DAL-04 is in Dallas). This allows NVIDIA to better manage their server infrastructure and add more servers as needed.

At PrintedWaste, we have serveral ways of processing and calculating the GeForce NOW Queue. It starts with our servers that collect the Queue from each region every couple of minutes and sending it up to our API. From there, we display it to you in two ways:

• Normal Queue
• Simple Queue

Normal Queue

Normal Queue is displayed when you have Simple Queue turned off through settings. This shows you all the servers on GeForce NOW and their respective queue position. There is no altercation to the data and it's displayed as is.

Simple Queue

Simple Queue is the default display when viewing the GFN Queue on PrintedWaste. When you enable Simple Queue, you may notice that the server count is significantly reduced. This is because we group individual servers into regions (for example, Florida).

This gives you a better idea of how long you can expect to wait for servers in that region. We calculate the average queue position across all servers in the region and display that value.

However, in some cases, you may notice that the displayed queue position is not the average and appears highly inflated. This happens when we detect that users are being queued on a specific server (<200 queue) within the region rather than being evenly distributed across all servers. In this situation, we display the highest queue position among all servers in the region instead.

This provides a more accurate estimate of how long you can expect to wait in that region. Addtionally, you can always click on the region to see the breakdown of individual servers and their queue positions.

Graphs

PrintedWaste provides detailed graphs to help you visualize GFN queue trends over time. We use different aggregation methods based on the time range you select:

• 24-Hour View: Shows raw, granular data points for precise, minute-by-minute tracking.
• Extended Views (7d, 14d, 30d, Lifetime): Displays daily averages to visualize long-term trends and general patterns without cluttering the interface.

Popular Times

The "Popular Times" feature is designed to help you identify the best hours to play. It analyzes the last 30 days of historical data to calculate average queue positions for every hour of each day of the week.

We use a color-coded "Busyness" system ranging from green (low) to red (high) to provide a quick visual indicator of how busy a server typically is. Additionally, we automatically merge the latest real-time queue data with these historical trends, ensuring you always have the most accurate up-to-the-minute estimation.

Queue ETA Calculation

When viewing the queue, you'll often see an "Estimated Wait" time. This is calculated using a dynamic formula that accounts for both base processing time and the current queue size.

• Base Wait: Every estimate starting with a constant 2-minute (120 seconds) baseline to account for initial connection and those sweet sweet ads.
• Short Queues (<100): For smaller queues, we estimate approximately 6 seconds of wait time per person in line.
• Long Queues (≥100): For larger queues, we increase this to 25 seconds per person, reflecting the slower throughput often seen during peak hours or system-wide usage spikes.

This formula provides a weighted estimate that better reflects the actual gaming experience, rather than a simple linear calculation. In Simple Queue mode, these same calculations are applied to the averaged regional queue position.