{"id":599457,"date":"2023-01-20T06:49:15","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T12:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/20\/geforce-now-ultimate-is-a-winner-even-halfway-across-the-country\/"},"modified":"2023-01-20T06:49:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T12:49:15","slug":"geforce-now-ultimate-is-a-winner-even-halfway-across-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/20\/geforce-now-ultimate-is-a-winner-even-halfway-across-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"GeForce Now Ultimate is a winner, even halfway across the country"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nvidia\u2019s GeForce Now cloud gaming service has always been among the best game-streaming services<\/a> on the market, but how does it hold up when you\u2019re not near a data center? Nvidia gave me a chance to try out the new Ultimate tier, fitted with its \u201cRTX 4080\u201d capabilities<\/a>, but there was a slight problem \u2014 I wasn\u2019t near any of the data centers.<\/p>\n

For this brief preview period, Nvidia only enabled a couple of data centers, one on the East Coast and another on the West Coast. I\u2019m located in the dead center of the U.S., but Nvidia still gave me access. And after trying GeForce Now Ultimate, even halfway across the country, I came away extremely impressed.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Seamless cloud gaming<\/h2>\n
\"Cuphead<\/figure>\n

Before getting into using GeForce Now, I need to clarify that no paying user will be in the position I was in for my preview period. Nvidia has nearly a dozen data centers spread across the U.S., so you\u2019ll have something nearby. My situation is unrealistic, but it\u2019s a compelling testament to Nvidia\u2019s cloud gaming tech.<\/p>\n

For the vast majority of my testing, I was around 40 to 50 milliseconds of network latency, which is just over the 40ms or lower Nvidia recommends for a smooth experience. Still, I didn\u2019t have any problems, and the increased performance of the new RTX 4080 SuperPODs<\/a> is a big reason why.<\/p>\n

Even under poor network conditions, Nvidia\u2019s features go a long way to reduce total system latency.<\/p>\n

This new tier allows you to stream at up to 4K at 120 frames per second (fps) or 1080p at 240 fps (in select games). Higher frame rates don\u2019t change the latency of your internet connection, but they do reduce the total\u00a0<\/em>latency in your gameplay experience. You\u2019re seeing more frames every second, allowing you to respond faster.<\/p>\n

This was clear when I tried out Apex Legends<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>I\u2019m not a highly competitive player, but I\u2019ve dumped thousands of hours into first-person shooters, so I\u2019m a solid representation of the average person playing these games. After a couple of games, I just forgot I was streaming from the cloud. That\u2019s the higher frame rate combined with Nvidia\u2019s Reflex<\/a> latency tech at work \u2014 even under poor network conditions, these features go a long way to reduce total system latency.<\/p>\n

I also tried out\u00a0Cuphead\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Blasphemous.\u00a0<\/em>These games both have very tight windows for inputs, so precision is key. Still, I wasn\u2019t missing parries or tight jumps. Part of the reason why is that GeForce Now Ultimate supports variable refresh rate (VRR) on any monitor that supports VRR, and it uses a variable codec for streaming.<\/p>\n

In short, these two features mean you\u2019re getting the latest frame of a game rather than seeing old or repeated frames with a static codec.<\/p>\n

\"Destiny<\/figure>\n

The real test for me, though, was Destiny 2.\u00a0<\/em>I have 2,000 hours in\u00a0Destiny 2\u00a0<\/em>on Steam, and I know the feel of the game inside and out. It wasn\u2019t perfect, with a slight delay between what my brain wanted to do and the inputs I was able to execute. Still, I was able to take on high-level content like Grandmaster Nightfall strikes and Raids without ruining the experience for other players on my team.<\/p>\n

Even with a minor hiccup in\u00a0Destiny 2,\u00a0<\/em>I\u2019m comfortable saying that was due to my location. I had a flawless experience across the dozen or so games I tested, and under circumstances that are far worse than any subscriber will actually experience.<\/p>\n

Nvidia is starting the rollout in Texas, California, and Germany, but it says it will add new cities to the list every week. If you\u2019re outside of one of these locations, GeForce Now Ultimate will give you access to the RTX 3080 tier, but you\u2019ll be upgraded to the RTX 4080 machines for free once Nvidia enables data centers in your location.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Still not perfect<\/h2>\n
\"The<\/figure>\n

Nvidia has the latency aspect of cloud gaming down, but it\u2019s still not the same as playing a PC game at your desk. And that largely comes down to the encoder that\u2019s used for streaming the game.<\/p>\n

The new GeForce Now Ultimate tier includes an AV1 encoder. In short, an encoder takes the raw video from the game and compresses it down into an easily-transmittable and readable format. AV1 is much<\/em> better than previous-generation encoders, but it\u2019s still not perfect.<\/p>\n

\"Star<\/a><\/figure>\n

In\u00a0Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order,\u00a0<\/em>you can see the blockiness in what should be a smooth gradient of the sky. The same was true with fog in\u00a0Warhammer 40,000 Darktide.\u00a0<\/em>The latency of GeForce Now Ultimate can have you tricked that you\u2019re playing natively on a PC, but these moments of encoding artifacts bring the experience back down to earth.<\/p>\n

\"Destiny<\/a><\/figure>\n

Fine detail in the distance also suffers, as you can see in\u00a0Destiny 2\u00a0<\/em>above. The distant branches and railings show up as blocky pixels. You don\u2019t notice these individual elements while playing, but the encoding artifacts make the image look less sharp further away from the camera in large vistas like the ones present in Destiny 2.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m fine dealing with these artifacts \u2014 they don\u2019t break the experience of playing, and the AV1 encoder is far ahead of what Nvidia was using before. It\u2019s not the final destination, though.<\/p>\n

The GeForce Now app still needs some work, too. Nvidia has done\u00a0a lot\u00a0<\/em>with this app, and it includes some great features like automatic syncing with your Steam library and various library filters. It needs to go a bit further, though. For example, there\u2019s no way to tell if your controller is connected, which sent me into a loop of closing and reopening a game twice during testing.<\/p>\n

Similarly, launchers don\u2019t always play nicely with GeForce Now. Nvidia has done a lot of work to improve compatibility over the last few years, but I still encountered a handful of games that I had to relaunch a few times to get the launchers to work. This was particularly an issue in games with multiple launchers like the Steam version of Jedi: Fallen Order.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>A perfect compliment to a gaming PC<\/h2>\n
\"The<\/figure>\n

Even if GeForce Now isn\u2019t identical to using a local PC, it\u2019s closer now than it has ever been. The latency improvements are astounding, and from a playability standpoint, I don\u2019t have any issues using GeForce Now Ultimate to play even highly competitive games like\u00a0Apex Legends\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Rainbow Six Siege.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The encoder still isn\u2019t perfect, even if it\u2019s a stark improvement over the previous version, and the GeForce Now app still needs some extra features. But Nvidia has continued to improve its service at a torrid pace over the last few years, and I don\u2019t see that stopping any time soon.<\/p>\n

Overall, though, GeForce Now only makes sense if you already have a gaming PC. It pulls games from your Steam, Ubisoft, and Epic Games accounts, rather than offering a library of stream-able titles like Xbox Game Pass<\/a>. It\u2019s a perfect complement to a gaming PC, allowing you to play on your phone, laptop, and browser without losing any progress.<\/p>\n

At $20 per month, the Ultimate tier is more expensive than Xbox Game Pass, but only by $5. It depends on how you want to play and the library of games you have access to, but one thing is for sure \u2014 Nvidia GeForce Now Ultimate provides the best experience that I\u2019ve had with cloud gaming, even halfway across the country.<\/p>\n

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