Published: Oct. 26, 2021, 6:39 a.m.
b'NVIDIA GeForce Now is a cloud game streaming service that launched in 2015 as a beta, and finally went public in 2020. The service is unlike others in the industry. Rather than essentially renting a game and having it stream to your device using whatever technology the system believes is most appropriate, GeForce Now works on your existing library. You sign in to a computer instance, choose your game from your own Steam, Epic Games, Ubisoft, or another game catalog, and stream the game that way. The platform supports several hundred games, but some high-profile titles, such as Microsoft\'s Minecraft are completely unavailable.
The company has offered 2 tiers of service since launch: a Free tier and a {riority tier. Now, the company is adding a dedicated RTX 3080 tier to help support those who do not have an RTX 3080 video card on their computers but want to game as if they do. This new tier allows you to take advantage of the card\'s processor to produce a higher quality video stream, but there will be some costs associated.
The Free tier is, obviously, free. There is no guarantee of which video processor you\'ll get (though it is definitely not going to give you a 3080). You get streaming at 720p and your session ends after 1 hour. The Priority tier costs $50 per 6 month block (about $8 per month) and upgrades just about everything. Your video quality is upgraded to a card in the range of an RTX 2080. Rather than 720p, you get moved up to 1080p at 60 FPS, as well as offering ray tracing. Your session grows from 1 hour to 6 hours before the session is ended. In addition, if a Free tier player is waiting to get a slot and a Priority player gets in line, you will get the slot first.
The new RTX 3080 tier comes in at $99 per 6 month block, and gives a number of new upgrades. Clearly you are guaranteed an RTX 3080 video chip for your gaming experience. Your video jumps up to 1440p at 120 FPS, but can go even higher. If you have a NVIDIA Shield set top box, you can opt in for 4K UHD HDR at 60 FPS instead of the 1440p. Your session length jumps to 8 hours from 6 hours, so you can play all night without interruption. The new tier is currently available for pre-order, but you must be either a Priority or Founder subscriber to be able to upgrade.
The new tier is going to cost you in bandwidth, though. The company requires a 5GHz Wi-Fi connection and recommends a 1 Gbps internet connection to play. This is because the RTX 3080 tier uses 25 Mbps just for the game. If you have a data cap, such as the one coming from Comcast, this could cause an issue. Comcast\'s data cap is 1.25 TB per month, which works out to just about 100 hours of gameplay, so be careful before you sign up.
Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.
Avram\'s been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom\'s Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom\'s Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he\'s not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you\'ll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW.
'
