An in-depth look at NVIDIA GeForce Now Ultimate, the ideal option for serious gamers looking to play on the cloud
Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service has recently introduced a new Ultimate subscription tier that offers gamers a new level of performance and features. This includes RTX 4080 graphics, HDR, and ultrawide resolution support, as well as a new 240fps and 240hz mode, doubling the frame rate from the previous RTX 3080 tier.
Cloud gaming
Cloud gaming is a technology that allows users to play video games on powerful remote servers, rather than on their own computers or consoles. This eliminates the need for expensive hardware and allows users to play games on a wide variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs.
What happened to Google Stadia?
Google Stadia is a cloud gaming platform launched by Google in 2019. Despite early hype, Stadia failed to gain significant market share and was criticized for its limited game library and high latency. In the end Google shutdown overnight, putting a dent into the cloud gaming sector overall. Nobody told GeForce, however.
Why GeForce now is different
GeForce Now Ultimate is a cloud gaming service that allows users to stream and play over 1500 PC games on various devices, including laptops, desktops, TVs, and mobile devices. The service connects to digital PC game stores, allowing users to access the games they already own, and any purchases made on personal store accounts will be accessible on the service. The service also offers a premium membership with access to high-performance GeForce RTX rigs for a high-resolution, low-latency, and competitive gaming experience. The games are always up-to-date, eliminating the need for large game downloads, updates, and patches.
The GeForce Now Ultimate Tier:
The new Ultimate subscription tier offers gamers RTX 4080 graphics, HDR, and ultrawide resolution support, as well as a new 240fps mode, doubling the frame rate from the previous RTX 3080 tier. However, the new 240hz mode is currently only available at 1080p and supports a limited number of games.
Games available on the GeForce now Ultimate Tier:
- Apex Legends
- Counter Strike: Global Offensive
- Dota 2
- Fortnite
- League of Legends
- Rocket League
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Warface
- Warframe
- World of Tanks
Pricing
The GeForce Now Ultimate will cost you $19.99 a month, which isn’t bad when you consider that an equivalent PC to what you’re getting access to here would cost north of $2,000. This means if you went down the avenue of building your own PC, it would take 100 months to start seeing profit over going with this subscription route. This likely isn’t going to turn the heads of any serious hardcore gamers but for more casual gamers, this will look a little more enticing.
Overall conclusions
Overall, the new Ultimate subscription tier for Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service offers gamers a new level of performance and features, including RTX 4080 graphics, HDR, and ultrawide resolution support, as well as a new 240fps mode. For $19.99 a month, it may seem expensive but for gamers who are looking for a hassle-free way of upgrading their systems to access high-end graphic, it could be an interesting way forward.
I see the appeal of this, especially since the owned games may be played elsewhere as well. One of the advantages that I see is that it allows gamers to play games that they could not otherwise, because their PCs are not well equipped for taxing games.
Instead of having to pay a lot for a solid gaming rig, one could buy a subscription for a month or two, and play the game that would otherwise not be playable at all, or only using mediocre settings.
It’s the cloud, it’s insecure.
No thank you. I’ll stick to hardware that I own.
This all looks like a great thing and a wonderful technology. Until you read the NVIDIA GeForce Now Privacy Policy. They gather a LOT of details about the user — not only about how you use the product, what games, platforms and stores you use but they also dig deep into other data broker’s information so they can profile who you are, your social media handles, professional or employment information, friends, etc., so they can market to you and to your friends. And they will share all this info with others so THEYcan market to you, as well. Remember, you are the product.
This doesn’t add up to a good value proposition to me. So, no thanks.
Until we can figure out how to use blockchain technology to our advantage then it seems that virtually all online services could be potential long-term threats to our liberty/freedom. Anonymity, strangely enough, is a vital key to freedom – history has proven that.