Nvidia GeForce Now Ultimate
This updated version of GeForce Now Ultimate makes cloud gaming a match for a gaming PC
SCORE PRICE £15 (£18 inc VAT) per month from nvidia.com
When Nvidia first showed off the new Ultimate tier of GeForce Now at January’s CES, it set us journalists a challenge. It placed two identical PCs alongside one another: one was streaming Apex Legends over the cloud at 4K, the other was a full-blown gaming PC with an RTX 30 series graphics card inside. Could we tell the difference? In all honestly, we couldn’t.
I’ve been in this industry long enough to know that demos at tech conferences don’t always translate to real-world performance. It’s only now that I’ve tested GeForce Now Ultimate from my home in slightly less glitzy Sussex that I can confirm performance is nothing less than stellar. Cloud gaming has come of age.
GeForce Now Ultimate membership unlocks access to the company’s new RTX 4080 “superpods”. Nvidia claims these are five times faster than an Xbox Series X and 1.75x faster than the last generation RTX 3080 superpods. They also support higher resolutions and faster frame rates than before. Ultrawide and 4K screens are supported at up to 120fps; drop to Full HD and you can double the frame rate. Finally there’s a reason to buy a 240Hz screen.
There’s also support for a host of advanced gaming technologies, including ray tracing and DLSS 3. But perhaps the biggest advancement is support for Nvidia Reflex, which reduces latency, especially for those using G-Sync monitors.
I’ve tested GeForce Now Ultimate on a range of hardware – a laptop with a 240Hz screen, a PC connected to a 4K TV, a MacBook Pro with a
4K screen at 60Hz – and the performance has been flawless on each of them. The promised frame rates are delivered, latency is normally sub-40ms, and it’s frankly hard to believe all of this is possible. With the PC connected to a 4K television, there was no perceptible difference in playing games such as Rocket
League and Fortnite than there was when playing on the Xbox Series X sat under the telly. It is remarkable.
There are a couple of caveats here. Flawless performance is dependent on the client device being connected via Ethernet. You can play over Wi-Fi, but even when sat in the same room as my Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 router connected to Wi-Fi 6 laptops, the gameplay suffered from lag and dropped frames. Not ideal when someone’s shoving a double-bore shotgun in your face in a battle royale. Your internet connection will need plenty of bandwidth on tap, too. Nvidia says 4K streaming at 120fps can require as much as 45Mbits/sec – and note that’s not a 45Mbits/sec connection, but 45Mbits/sec dedicated to this application alone. That could be a stretch on even a fibre-to-the-cabinet connection in a busy household.
While I’m throwing in caveats, the other big one is that not all games are supported. The service hooks into your Steam, Epic Games and Ubisoft libraries, giving you cloud access to games you’ve bought in any of those stores. While GeForce Now supports more than 1,500 titles, some big names are missing. In my Steam library, for example, Civilization VI, GTA V and Football Manager 2023 aren’t supported. The focus is understandably on supporting titles with demanding graphics, although games such as RimWorld (which could run on a Spectrum 48K) and Terraria are on the list. Check games support on Nvidia’s website before committing.
Although it’s a joy not having to deal with massive game updates, updating drivers and all the other hassles that come with maintaining a PC gaming rig, the activation of games in GeForce Now could be smoother. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to click on a tiny, minimised window to log into the Epic Games store, for example, just so I can access a game in my library. That gripe aside, controller support is good (including vibrations on compatible controllers, such as the Xbox models), and you can still use Discord to chat with fellow gamers during GeForce Now sessions. We do have to talk about the price: £18 a month for a cloud gaming service that doesn’t include games is steep, especially compared to Microsoft’s Game Pass (£11 a month). Compared to the cost of a PC capable of playing the latest games in 4K at 120fps, however, it looks an absolute steal.
If you’re considering a new gaming rig, I urge you to give GeForce Now Ultimate a test first; there’s no long-term contract, so it’s a cheap experiment. Set aside your preconceptions about stuttering, blurry cloud gaming. This is the real deal. Save that money for a sensational screen and let Nvidia’s servers take the strain. BARRY COLLINS
REQUIREMENTS
“The promised frame rates are delivered, latency is normally sub-40ms, and it’s frankly hard to believe all of this is possible”
At least 45Mbits/sec for streaming up to 4K at 120fps at least 35Mbits/sec for streaming at 1440p at 120fps or 1080p at 240fps hardwired Ethernet connection or Wi-Fi 6 wireless router recommended