PC World - USA (2021-06)

(Maropa) #1
JUNE 2022 PCWorld 55

GeForce Now

PROS


  • Very smooth and responsive experience.

  • The Free plan.
    CONS

  • Games are not included.

  • Limited time on gaming sessions.

  • Inconsistency in compatibility of games and platforms.
    BOTTOM LINE
    GeForce Now is a great option for gamers who are
    waiting out the GPU market crunch. As the only cloud
    gaming service with a solid Free plan (as opposed to
    a free trial), it’s an excellent way to get your gaming
    fix—provided you have a compatible games library of
    your own. The paid plans are also good, with the
    same bring-your-own-games caveat.
    From $9.99 per month


(Remember, however, your experience may
vary depending on your internet
connection and proximity to the servers.)
Interestingly, I was able to modify some of
the display settings in some games, so I did
get a look at a Far Cry 5 High versus Ultra
benchmark, for example.
Some games were able to give me insight
into the actual hardware running the GeForce
Now systems. According to my tests, via
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the Free and
Priority services seem to be running with Intel
CC150 CPUs at 3.5GHz and the graphics are
listed as Nvidia Tesla T10, which by my
estimation would be the T10-8s, as those are
the RTX series T10 cards for this kind of server
environment. The RTX 3080 systems seem to
be running AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro
3955WX CPUs and Nvidia A10G GPU,
resulting in an overall more impressive


experience, both in resolution
and performance.

VERDICT
Long story short, playing a
game at any plan tier is a
genuinely solid experience as
long as your internet
connection can handle it.
While having to bring your own
games may be a bit of a
bummer compared to other
cloud gaming options
out there, the overall
performance and quality of GeForce Now is
impressive. At the very least, they have a
Free plan, so give it a whirl if you can—
especially if you’ve had trouble dredging up
a new graphics card over the last year.

Playing a game at any plan tier is a solid experience.

Free download pdf