NVIDIA GeForce NOW RTX 3080 Review

 

Introduction to Geforce NOW

NVIDIA GeForce NOW by NVIDIA is a peculiar video game streaming service or at least different from the other options on the market where we buy games from the platform and then we have the right to use them through a monthly payment where in some cases interesting games are also included in the purest Netflix or HBO Max style.

GeForce NOW does not sell us games, as we will see during the review, but rather sells its servers to us so that we can use our games from Steam, EPIC, and more recently, Ubisoft. We can connect our accounts to these PC game distribution platforms and use them in sessions that are limited in time and technique depending on the contracted service. Today we will tell you about our experience with the most advanced of all.

Service features and supported games

NVIDIA GeForce NOW offers us different variants of access to the service, but all with the same common denominator, we provide the games and the multiplatform streaming service for PC, Mac, Android, Android TV, browsers such as Safari, Chrome or Edge. Platforms such as mobile phones, tablets, and televisions with Smart TVs become next-generation video consoles with three different access modes.

We have free access, which anyone can try, with a game session limitation of one hour a day. The quality of service is the standard, NVIDIA does not elaborate, and it is clear that it is intended to introduce new users to the service. In addition, we will not have any type of priority access so, if the servers are at full capacity, we will have to wait our turn.

The priority access option is paid, from 8.33 euros per month with semi-annual payments or 9.99 euros per month for monthly payments, the service can be canceled when desired, there are no stays, but if we have contracted six months we will have to put up with the service during that time. The priority mode offers us the possibility of playing games with active RTX and resolutions of up to 1080p with 60Hz vertical refresh. Access is premium so we will be the first in the entry queue and we can play in sessions of up to 6 hours of continuous duration. This was until now the payment service accessible from GeForce NOW, until the arrival of the new RTX 3080 mode that we have tested.

NVIDIA GeForce NOW RTX 3080 offers us exclusive access to the brand's servers equipped with RTX 3080 graphics and it is not marketing, we will actually be playing with one of the most powerful graphics engines on the market. The service forces us to contract 6 months and costs 100 euros, about 16.67 euros per month and we put the games ourselves.

Among the added features of the service, we can find that we will obtain resolutions of up to 2k (2560x1440 points) with FPS rates of up to 120 FPS on PC and Mac. If we have an NVIDIA Shield connected to our monitor or television then the service reaches 4k qualities without clear specifications on FPS. With this service, we also get, in promotion, the game Crysis Remastered. Interesting features that we will now compare with other game streaming services.

Differences from other streaming game services

There are currently many alternatives to play streaming to different platforms, almost all with the difference of NVIDIA that are platforms where we pay for the use of those video games or where we have to buy them from the platform to be able to play with them. Almost all support multi-platform support, almost all with the latest generation browser support, or some with dedicated clients. Be that as it may, here are our selection of the best and their technical and differentiating peculiarities and all, of course, require a quality internet connection, preferably a fiber of about 25-50Mbps of download bandwidth and low latency, for adequate enjoyment.

Google Stadia is surely the one that offers the highest technical capacity with support for 4k resolutions in many games with its most expensive access mode. It normally includes a control with Wifi Direct connectivity, which reduces latency, and its more powerful Chromecast 4k device which allows an interesting use of any Smart TV. Its integration with YouTube, for game streaming, is interesting.

The problem with Stadia is that the games continue to come in with a dropper and their prices are not competitive and if we want to play at all the quality that the service offers we will have a monthly fee of 9.99 euros that must be added to the unattractive prices of the games. What is attractive are the most recent offers of the remote control kit and Chromecast ultra that we can find for less than 23 euros currently on their website (the stock disappears quickly so do not kill me if it is out of stock when you click on the link), the hardware that we get for that price is of great quality.

PlayStation NOW or PS Now is perhaps a little-known alternative or that Sony has not known or wanted to sell well until now except to the users of its video console platforms, where it works very well in its last two generations. It is a good and inexpensive service, perhaps one of the cheapest, that we can hire from just 5 euros per month paying a full year, that is, 60 euros per year.

We can use it on PC and its video consoles and Sony is preparing news in this regard to open up to more markets. It requires a Dual Shock controller for PC and the sampling quality has been, for some months now, 1080p with a maximum of 60FPS. In its favor is that it also has an excellent catalog of games that is nurtured by its extensive history of epic video games from several generations of Sony PlayStation video consoles. It works on PC, although only as streaming and not being able to play native as on their consoles, and it is for me one of the jewels that many of us still have to discover, shame for its lack of support for mobile platforms.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the perfect definition of pay per use and Microsoft is currently one of the great achievers that this business model is permeating all of us. They have sold us Office 365 as they had not known how to sell until now, with a quite affordable price per use modalities, and now they also do it with their Xbox video game platform that enables us both to buy PC and Xbox games that we can use interchangeably as You can also use them via streaming on your PC, your own game consoles and also on mobile devices.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has a cost of 13 euros per month and that includes all or almost the entire catalog of exclusive games of the brand, at least in some mode of use, from the day of launch and then a catalog that rotates month by month. the month of games that we can use "free" on a rental basis. Like PS Now

Microsoft also invites other distributors to use its service so now we can also use EA's pay-per-use services to the Game Pass game catalog and its streaming service. Its quality of service is of maximum 1080p with 60FPS and the quality of the game and latency is excellent. It has the advantage that we can play natively on PC or Xbox or through streaming in Chrome or Edge browsers. The Cloud Gaming service, which is already accessible in Spain, is in beta, although the service is very good and offers great and interesting games to try. We can use any compatible controller, although without a doubt a more or less recent Xbox controller is a "must-have" to get the most out of it, the mouse, depending on the game, is also welcome, of course.

NVIDIA GeForce NOW RTX 3080 has a fundamental difference and that is that it offers us the possibility, with games added every Thursday, to play the best of the best of PC with PC graphics and PC resolutions. We do not pay for the game, but for the graphics power and the service is fast and has low latency. On PC, it also allows us to use our usual peripherals like mouse and keyboard well.

The RTX 3080 mode adds graphics power, more resolution, and FPS like no other streaming platform can. Their servers in Central Europe and Southwest Europe allow us low latencies, in my case less than 35ms (I am located in Madrid), and no packet loss, which does more damage than a slightly higher ping on a normal fiber line. and current of a medium price operator such as Jazztel.

The loading speeds are dizzying, the games are recorded in the cloud, and the quality is surprising, although if I must say that those of us who have an ultra-panoramic monitor, such as my 34 ”monitor, we will have that resolution limitation at 2560x1440 points which means that the experience is not completely PC, being able to take advantage of these extended formats that give so much quality of experience to the PC world.

Use experience on PC, Android mobile, and Android TV

One of the key conditions for the NVIDIA Geforce NOW RTX 3080 service to work properly is that we have a good Internet connection and the first step to achieve that is through our own network installation. Here the wireless devices are the ones that will suffer the most and will make us depend on a good wireless connection, of course, 5GHz, and to be able to be Wif-6 or Wifi-6E if we have multiple devices connected to the wireless network at this frequency.

If we have the right network connection, with minimal packet losses and fast latencies, we can have a high-quality gaming experience in both response and graphic quality. This will depend on each game, where we can even make quality adjustments, although NVIDIA already provides us with the most appropriate game profiles for our subscription profile and the supported games.

The resolution and quality is usually the variant in these settings since it is sought to have at least 60FPS of sustained refresh rate in any of the supported games, including those that we consider AAA in the PC category. Our experience with games like Death Stranding, Control, World War Z AfterMath, FarCry 6, and Rift Breaker has been most satisfying.

The answer is quick, not as fast as if we will play on our PC but of great quality both on Android TV devices and Android phones and especially from our own PC with integrated Intel graphics. This enables us to achieve levels of quality that our hardware would never reach, perhaps the only frustrating thing, and you end up doing it, is that on PC we cannot access panoramic resolutions, perhaps over time.

Analysis and conclusion

The new NVIDIA GeForce NOW RTX 3080 service variant delivers new levels of quality, with access to 2k resolutions, RTX On, and up to 120FPS on PC. Not all games are supported at this refresh rate, but some RTS and other Batlle Royale games can benefit from these new refresh rate levels.

If we have an adequate internet connection, which in Spain is easy to obtain due to the extensive installation of fiber networks to the home, we can have low latencies and a high-quality gaming experience on multiple platforms.

Its price is about 16 euros per month, and RTX 3080 currently exceeds 1000 euros, and although I am not saying that it is the same gaming experience, it does allow us high-quality levels, using our games from Steam, Ubisoft or Epic Games, in PCs and devices where we would never have this level of quality.