{"id":973,"date":"2025-08-18T23:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/nvidias-geforce-now-is-upgrading-to-rtx-5080-gpus-and-opening-a-floodgate-of-new-games\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T23:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T19:30:00","slug":"nvidias-geforce-now-is-upgrading-to-rtx-5080-gpus-and-opening-a-floodgate-of-new-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/nvidias-geforce-now-is-upgrading-to-rtx-5080-gpus-and-opening-a-floodgate-of-new-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Nvidia\u2019s GeForce Now is upgrading to RTX 5080 GPUs and opening a floodgate of new games"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s been two and a half years since Nvidia\u2019s GeForce Now cloud gaming service<\/a> got a big boost in graphics, latency, and refresh rates \u2014 this September, Nvidia\u2019s GFN will officially add its latest Blackwell GPUs. You\u2019ll soon be able to rent what\u2019s effectively an RTX 5080<\/a> in the cloud, one with a whopping 48GB of memory and DLSS 4, then use that power to stream your own near-maxed-out PC games to your phone, Mac, PC, TV, set-top, or Chromebook for $20 a month.<\/p>\n

The news comes with some caveats, but a bunch of other upgrades, too, the biggest of which is called \u201cInstall-to-Play.\u201d Nvidia is finally bringing back the ability to install games without waiting for Nvidia to formally curate them. Nvidia claims that will double the GeForce Now library in one fell swoop.<\/p>\n

No, you can\u2019t just install any old PC game you own \u2014 but every game that\u2019s opted into Valve\u2019s Steam Cloud Play<\/a> will immediately be available to install. \u201cLiterally the moment we add the feature, you\u2019ll see 2,352 games show up,\u201d Nvidia product marketing director Andrew Fear tells The Verge<\/em>. After that, he says Install-to-Play will let Nvidia add many more games and demos to GFN on their release dates than Nvidia can manage on its own, just so long as publishers tick that box.<\/p>\n

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Currently, Steam is the only platform compatible with Install-to-Play, but Fear tells me many publishers tend to opt in through Valve\u2019s distribution network, including Ubisoft, Paradox, Nacom, Devolver, TinyBuild and CD Projekt Red.<\/p>\n

One important caveat is that Install-to-Play games won\u2019t launch instantly like curated titles; you\u2019ll need to download and install them each time, unless you pay Nvidia extra for persistent storage at $3 for $200GB, $5 for 500GB, or $8 for 1TB per month. Installs should be fast, though, since Nvidia\u2019s servers are linked to Valve\u2019s Steam servers. When GFN originally launched with a similar feature, I remember downloading games far faster than I\u2019ve ever done at home.<\/p>\n

And Nvidia has a new use for your home bandwidth, too. If you\u2019ve got enough, GFN will also now let you stream at 5K resolution (for both 16:9 monitors and ultrawides) at 120fps, or at up to 360fps at 1080p. <\/p>\n

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There\u2019s also a new optional Cinematic Quality Streaming mode you can toggle that Nvidia claims can reduce color bleed and restore detail to dark and blurry areas of a scene as it\u2019s streamed over the net, and you can now stream at up to 100Mbps, up from 75Mbps previously, to help maintain that quality. (It uses HDR10 and SDR10, with YUV 4:4:4 chroma sampling, streamed over AV1 with an added AI video filter and some optimizations for clearer text and HUD elements.)<\/p>\n

Plus, Steam Deck OLED owners will be able to stream at its native 90Hz refresh rate (up from 60Hz), LG is bringing a native GeForce Now app directly to its 4K OLED TVs and 5K OLED monitors \u2014 \u201cno Android TV devices, no Chromecast, nothing, run it directly on the television,\u201d says Fear \u2014 and Logitech racing wheels with haptic feedback are now supported too.<\/p>\n

How much more performance will you truly get from an RTX 5080 in the cloud? That\u2019s the real question, and we don\u2019t have a clear answer yet. For one thing, Nvidia isn\u2019t promising you\u2019ll always<\/em> have an RTX 5080-tier GPU for every game you play. The company\u2019s $20-a-month GFN Ultimate tier will still include RTX 4080-class cards too, at least for the time being.<\/p>\n

Fear says there\u2019s no ulterior motive there \u2014 it\u2019ll just take time for 5080 performance to roll out \u201cas we add the servers and bring up capacity.\u201d He also rattles off a laundry list of popular games that\u2019ll have 5080 performance right away, including Apex Legends<\/em>, Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows<\/em>, Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em>, Black Myth Wukong<\/em>, Clair Obscur<\/em>, Cyberpunk 2077, Doom: The Dark Ages<\/em>\u2026 you get the idea.<\/p>\n

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The other caveat is that while Nvidia claims its new Blackwell Superpods are up to 2.8 times faster at gaming, that\u2019s only if you have DLSS 4 generating three fake frames for every real frame (4x MFG) and being OK with any resulting lag. We weren\u2019t blown away with the uplift from RTX 4080 to RTX 5080 in our review<\/a> of the physical card, and latency is even more important when you\u2019re streaming over the net.<\/p>\n

That said, Tom and I have been impressed<\/a> with GFN\u2019s latency in the past. I\u2019ve parried Expedition 33<\/em> foes and Sekiro<\/em> bosses with it \u2014 and in lightweight games, Nvidia\u2019s latency may have gotten even better this gen thanks to partnerships with ISPs like Comcast, T-Mobile and BT for low-latency L4S tech and the new 360fps mode. The company claims the 360fps mode can deliver end-to-end latency of just 30ms in Overwatch 2<\/em>, a game where you don\u2019t need multi-frame generation (MFG) to get that many frames. <\/p>\n

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That\u2019s more responsive than a home console \u2014 assuming you\u2019re close enough and peered well enough to Nvidia\u2019s servers to get 10ms ping, like I do in the San Francisco Bay Area. <\/p>\n

The good news is, you won\u2019t have to pay an extra cent for the RTX 5080 performance boost either way. GeForce Now Ultimate will remain $19.99 a month for now. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to increase our price at all,\u201d says Fear, in a group briefing. When I ask him privately whether Nvidia will increase it later, he can\u2019t say, but claims GFN has only ever increased price when Nvidia saw a big increase in power usage or needed to rebalance currency exchange in some regions. \u201cNothing\u2019s written in stone, but we\u2019re saying for now no plans to make a price increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, Nvidia is trying an intriguing new experiment that bakes GeForce Now into Discord<\/a> so gamers can instantly try new games for free right from a Discord server, no GeForce Now login required. Epic Games and Discord are the first partners demoing the technology at Gamescom this week.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou can simply click a button that says \u2018try a game\u2019 and then connect your Epic Games account and immediately jump in and and join the action, and you\u2019ll be playing Fortnite<\/em> in seconds without any downloads or installs,\u201d says Fear. He tells The Verge<\/em> that it\u2019s merely a \u201ctechnology announcement\u201d as of today, but that Nvidia hopes game publishers and developers will reach out if they\u2019re interested in potentially adding it to their games. <\/p>\n

I hope so, as I\u2019ve been in awe of try-before-you-buy cloud gaming ever since Gaikai introduced the idea<\/a> 15 years ago, but Gaikai\u2019s founder told me years later<\/a> that publishers didn\u2019t necessarily want it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking forward to trying GeForce Now\u2019s 5080-class servers when they launch in September, alongside the new 90Hz mode for Steam Deck OLED, and I\u2019m curious whether the influx of games will finally make it feel like a true console alternative for me. One of my last big remaining reservations is how many of my Steam games are still missing<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Speaking of which, don\u2019t expect to see Sony or Rockstar games like Grand Theft Auto<\/em> on the service anytime soon. \u201cI have no updates, they have chosen not to be on GFN, and you should go ask them,\u201d Fear tells me.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been two and a half years since Nvidia\u2019s GeForce Now cloud gaming service got a big boost in graphics, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}