Streaming Can’t Replace Your PC, but Nvidia’s Updated GeForce Now Comes Close

Nvidia let me try out its update to GeForce Now early, before it started rolling out to users on Wednesday. It upgrades some games to use a better GPU, dampens server latency, and makes games look better. As much as that sounds like a good deal, let’s remember who is making use of cloud gaming in the first place. Gamers running systems that can’t play today’s AAA games, whether they’re not powerful enough or incompatible altogether, can instead stream the game to their system for the cost of two large artisan coffees each month. That hasn’t changed with the update, but now PC players with a Steam backlog may be able to play far more games using Nvidia’s new Install-to-Play feature.

Don’t expect miracles from RTX 5080

Nvidia’s latest update to GeForce Now allows some games to run on systems with the GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, rather than the last-gen RTX 4080. Not all games support this at launch, though titles that can get performance uplift with the new GPU, including older titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and new games such as Borderlands 4, benefit from extra frame rates and more graphics options. You may find you can push some titles with ray tracing settings that you weren’t able to before. I could get Cyberpunk 2077 running with path tracing enabled for ultra-realistic lighting effects and still have more than enough frame rates that I wasn’t completely relying on digital tricks or so-called “fake frames.”

Nvidia claims it pushed latency down as much as possible below 30ms to make games feel more seamless. That would be enough to receive my paternalistic nod of approval, but Nvidia also touts the RTX 5080’s multi-frame gen capabilities as a big reason why users should jump on the streaming bandwagon. This is an RTX 50-series Blackwell-exclusive software feature that inserts multiple generated—aka “fake”—frames in between each rendered frame, artificially increasing frame rates for more responsive gameplay. It’s the kind of feature that sounds great on paper, but in practice is more constrained. Users need to achieve more than 50 fps normally to make multi-frame gen work without introducing odd graphical glitches. Frame generation also introduces more latency, though Nvidia said it was able to tamp down on sluggishness with some help from its updated SuperPOD servers.

I tried games with and without frame gen, and in most cases, I still think gamers can go without. In Indiana Jones and the Great CircleI pushed it up to beyond 250 fps with 4x frame gen, and the experience didn’t feel any better than without any frame gen running at around 90 fps. The added latency runs counter to smooth frame rates. Plus, 90 fps is more than playable for single-player titles.

If you can afford a 360Hz monitor, which is now supported by GeForce Now, you can probably afford a non-streaming gaming device. And if you’re using a high-refresh-rate display, you’re likely playing multiplayer games. I could jump into Overwatch 2 or Counter-Strike 2 through streaming and about as well as usual (re: awful), but pushing the refresh rate to 360Hz also pares down the resolution to 1080p. Streaming is not the arena for competitive multiplayer. I doubt it ever could be.

GeForce Now can’t replace PC gaming… yet

I wasn’t as interested in running these games on my usual gaming PC. If you can play these games natively, then there’s no reason you should be spending an extra $20 on top of however much you blow on the next Steam sale. Instead, I wanted to see what happens when using devices like a 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 chip, a Steam Deck, and even an Nvidia Shield set-top box, which—like a spunky grandfather—is still kicking despite its age.

Nvidia claims it reduced latency enough to enjoy games online or offline, but the real reason you get GeForce Now is to play your games without spending money on new hardware. Streaming is notorious for introducing odd visuals into high-fidelity 3D games. To remedy this, Nvidia introduced a new “Cinematic” quality mode that enhances colors and sharpens certain objects, like trees. This means a game like Assassin’s Creed: Shadows appears sharper than it did in previous versions of GeForce Now. The extra visual quality was enough to entice me to put a few more hours into a game I had already harangued back at launch.

I took screenshots of both Baldur’s Gate III and Cyberpunk 2077 running natively and streaming on my 14-inch MacBook Pro. There are obvious quality differences between the two, plus Nvidia’s base HDR settings result in an overall darker image than natively. It’s a fully playable experience, but I still noticed a loss in detail on some terrain in Baldur’s Gate III and fuzz,y far-distant objects in Cyberpunk 2077.

Of course, I was getting better frame rates through GeForce Now than playing each game on a MacBook Pro with M4 chip. For single player games, the latency never became a problem on my home Wi-Fi. Packet loss, where data goes missing moving between your device and the server, is also kept manageable. I do not have the best home Wi-Fi, but in tests, my internet bandwidth usually sits at 75Mbps with a 26ms latency. That’s more than enough for me to stream at 4K and even the new 5K resolution at 120 fps. Other people may not be so lucky to have the 54Mbps minimum required to achieve the highest resolution possible on GeForce Now.

Good reminder of what games you own

Nvidia updated its existing Steam Deck app to play games with support for up to 90Hz refresh rate. Of all the devices I’ve tested with Nvidia’s streaming service, handhelds and other mobile devices are where GeForce Now shines. You can push the resolution in games beyond the Steam Deck’s 800p display, which will help reduce artifacts that pop up from streaming. I can settle down and play from lying down on my bed. Nvidia also released a version of the app for the Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS to support 120Hz gaming. That 8.8-inch display and 1200p resolution combine well with an RTX 5080 GPU to offer strong performance across titles. If the SteamOS handhelds are the most console-like devices you can take with you, then GeForce Now makes it so much easier to enjoy games without having to worry nearly as much about frame rate dips or battery life.

You still won’t find titles like Elden Ring available to stream on GeForce Now. However, Nvidia effectively opened up servers for users to download a whole host of new titles. These games remain on the servers until you log off, though you can rent out that space for an extra $3 a month if you want your games to remain.

Currently, Install-to-Play is mostly filled with the kind of older games or indie titles that don’t normally require much graphical power, which in turn means they don’t have enormous file sizes that take hours to download on Nvidia’s remote PCs. Going through the staggering 4,700 titles, you may think there are more games than it’s possible to try. Still, out of the 441 games in my Steam Library, only 15 of them were available through Install-to-Play. That ignores the titles that are fully streaming-ready on the service, which would push the actual number to 359 across my Steam, Epic, and Xbox libraries. Nvidia said it plans to add more games to the service as more developers opt in.

Downloading games on these cloud-based PCs didn’t take much hassle. I could already play games like Mark of the Ninja perfectly well on my Steam Deck, but having access to it on my phone, should I want it, is a treat. I only hope Nvidia doesn’t use this feature to eventually dump games that are less played from its official servers, but at least we know we’ll still be able to download them, should that ever happen.

GeForce Now is becoming more and more a go-to for me and my personal gaming habits. I enjoy using my Steam Deck at home for playing through Clear obscure: Expedition 33 and then taking the device on the road to run through compatible games like Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader. I’m at a point in my gaming life where my consoles and PCs are like chains that keep me tied to a desk or across a TV. I know the good times can’t last forever, and I’m waiting for the hammer blow of increased subscription costs or the inevitable enshittification that comes to all streaming services.