Nvidia GeForce Now just took a big step forward, and now all gamers out there can pre-order its recently revealed new top-tier streaming service.
Previously, the RTX 3080 subscription was only available in early access to Founders and Priority members (in the US and Europe), but now anyone can jump on the bandwagon and pre-order the faster streaming offering.
As the name suggests, the RTX 3080 membership allows you to stream from one of Nvidia's rigs armed with the equivalent graphics firepower of a 3080 GPU. That enables resolutions of up to 1440p at up to 120 frames per second (fps) on PCs or Macs (compared to 1080p and 60 fps for Priority members), or 4K HDR on Shield TV at 60 fps.
The maximum session length is also extended for RTX 3080 subscribers and runs to eight hours instead of six.
A six-month subscription will run you $99.99 (around £75, AU$135) with Nvidia noting that there are only a limited number of memberships available for this tier. Founders who are upgrading get a 10% discount, incidentally, and maintain their status and benefits (and can revert to their original plan if they wish, as long as they don’t miss any subscription payments).
As mentioned, this is just in the pre-order phase now, with the RTX 3080 memberships going live in November for the US, and December for Europe.
Other announcements for this week’s GeForce Now Thursday include the arrival of a hot new gaming property on Nvidia’s streaming service: Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The game boasts support for RTX On, meaning you get ray-tracing and DLSS for speedier frame rates (if you’re a subscriber).
Other games now live for Nvidia’s cloud gaming service are Riders Republic and Alan Wake Remastered, along with a couple of more obscure offerings: Hide and Shriek, plus Paradise Killer.
Analysis: Dream stream? Just make sure your connection is up to the task
Nvidia’s GeForce Now is gathering considerable momentum, with some impressive new games coming to the service (including recent introductions from EA) which now boasts over 2,000 titles in its library.
That’s all good, of course, and a new flagship tier is a very welcome option, and reasonably enough priced given the upgrades here. Streaming at 1440p, and indeed 120 fps, should make for a much more compelling visual experience and fluid gameplay; but as ever the proof will be in the pudding.
We all know that streaming transfers the gaming demands from your device to your internet connection, and you’ll need a chunkier level of bandwidth to make the most of streaming at a higher quality – just the same as you need more bandwidth to stream 4K shows to your 4K TV from, say, Netflix.
There are undeniable strides forward being made by Nvidia here, then, and as more gamers get the benefit of ultra-fast connections, this new tier will doubtless become more widely used (remember, there are only a limited amount of available subs to begin with, anyway).
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