Nvidia’s PC game streaming service, GeForce Now, is getting some big new options this week. A long-awaited feature is a “day pass” that allows free players to try out advanced features of the paid tiers without commitment. And updates to the local apps on Windows and Mac mean that you can get G-Sync…if you have the right hardware.
The day pass is probably the bigger news for anyone who’s not already a subscriber. For $3.99 at the Priority tier or $7.99 at the Ultimate tier, you get access to the upgraded hardware, increased visual fidelity, and super-long play sessions of those tiers. Pricing for other currencies wasn’t mentioned.
You also get the privilege of not seeing the pre-session advertising that Nvidia, a company now valued in the trillions of dollars, decided was necessary on the free tier. Not that we’re salty about that or anything.
$4 and $8 a day seems a bit stiff next to monthly subscriptions that are $10 and $20, respectively, but consider that these day passes are useful for more than just a preview of Nvidia’s more premium offerings. Gamers who are traveling and don’t have access to their home hardware can spend a bit to stream games that they already own, provided that those games are on the long list of titles supported by GeForce Now (and that they can access a high-speed broadband connection). Compared to, say, an hour or two of gameplay at one of those airport gaming centers, it’s not a bad deal.
The new G-Sync features are a little more situational. First, it requires that pricey Ultimate tier, probably because it’s the only one that can really benefit from it. Nvidia’s remote servers can generally be relied upon to hit 60fps (the bottom rung for monitors and TVs) without issue, with speeds able to go much higher thanks to the Ultimate tier’s RTX 4080-level grunt. Speaking of which, you’ll need a display that supports variable refresh rates.
Nvidia
Nvidia
Nvidia
And secondly, while G-Sync works on MacOS with any recent Apple computer that uses its ARM-based chips and a few older Intel-powered models, Windows users get some bigger restrictions. In order to use G-Sync with GeForce Now, a Windows machine needs an Nvidia GPU, a GTX 1650 or better. And if you’re already using a computer with a discrete Nvidia GPU…why would you pay extra to stream anything?
Nvidia’s support page for G-Sync in the cloud says that the Windows app doesn’t support Intel or AMD-based graphics hardware “at this time,” so it’s possible that the feature might come later. Still, it’s a strange omission considering that Mac support seems to be much more universal, at least for recent hardware.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.