- Price: free for the Basic tier, $10 per month for the Performance tier, or $20 per month for the Ultimate tier
- What you can play: any of more than 1,500 supported games that you already own or purchase
- Compatible devices: Android, iOS, Mac, PC, web browser, handheld consoles, select VR headsets and smart TVs (visit Nvidia’s FAQ page for the complete list of supported devices)
Nvidia’s GeForce Now lets you stream select digital games that you already own. This service doesn’t make sense for most people, because Nvidia doesn’t offer its own library of available games as Xbox, PlayStation, and Amazon do. Instead, you pay twice: You purchase PC versions of the games you want to play from other online retailers, and you also pay Nvidia a monthly membership fee to play those purchased games through its service.
In May 2023, Xbox and Nvidia announced that select titles from the PC version of Game Pass would become available via GeForce Now, but details are still in short supply on how that will work in the future and what games will qualify.
The free tier is nice but limiting. It also doesn’t serve as a reliable trial for the experience of using Nvidia’s paid tiers. The free tier lets you stream your games for only one hour before requiring you to restart your session. It also provides lower-quality game streaming and puts you through longer wait times when you queue up to launch a game, so you may not know for sure whether the paid tiers are right for you based on the free tier’s limited performance.
You can play only games you already own. To use GeForce Now, you have to sync your libraries from other stores, such as Epic Games, Steam, and Ubisoft Connect. But more important, not every game you own on these services is compatible with GeForce Now—publishers must choose to include them on a case-by-case basis and frequently don’t. GeForce Now does support many free-to-play games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends, and you can check Nvidia’s library in advance to see if your games are supported.
Your device must be hardwired into a router for the best performance. On GeForce Now’s Performance and Ultimate tiers, we saw stunning performance only over a wired connection. But most devices we would want to stream on, such as phones and tablets, don’t have this option.
Most people shouldn’t pay for the Performance or Ultimate tier. If you have an older PC with a wired connection, and you’re not ready to upgrade your rig yet, either the Performance or Ultimate tier might make sense for you. But if you’re interested in GeForce Now for the option to play your games on any device, we don’t think the membership prices are worth the trade-off in performance.
