Nvidia is adding a new RTX 3080 tier to its GeForce Now game streaming, which will offer subscribers access to what the company says is “the most powerful gaming supercomputer ever built,” The Verge reports. The new tier is set to be up and running by the end of the year, with Founders and Priority level subscribers being offered first access to the 3080 option.
The new service will be a step up in price from the existing $10 a month Priority tier, with the 3080 service offered as a six-month membership for $99.99, around $17 per month. The new tier will offer performance that doesn’t currently exist in other game streaming services, however, with Nvidia also promising a dramatic reduction in latency.
Now Playing: Nvidia RTX 3080 Review
The RTX 3080 service doesn’t actually use RTX 3080 graphics cards, rather the data centers will make use of chips with equivalent performance that were designed to fit into a server. The new tier will allow streaming at up to 1440p with 120fps on PC and Mac. A 4K 60fps option is also available, but initially will only be offered for Nvidia’s first-party Shield TV device, as not all streaming devices will handle h.265 decoding. The plan seems to be for Nvidia to eventually expand 4K options to other devices, however.
Nvidia’s marketing promises a “giant performance upgrade” from the RTX 3080 cloud option, boasting a performance increase of 70 times that of the average Steam user’s laptop, and the seven times that of an average Steam desktop.
Nvidia also hopes to improve latency with the new hardware, helped along by its Adaptive Sync technology. The company claims its 3080 cloud tier results in just 56ms of latency when running Destiny 2 at 120fps, comparing it to 93ms of latency from an Xbox Series X running the same game at 60fps.
Those figures are usually based on a best-case scenario, of course, with latency also affected by where you’re playing in relation to Nvidia’s data centers. The good news there is that the company is opening four new data centers–one in Singapore, two in Australia, and one in Brazil. Nvidia is also rolling out Adaptive Sync for all GeForce Now tiers, meaning even players who don’t upgrade should see an improvement in latency.
Players will need a minimum download speed of 35Mbps to play at 1440p 120fps, and a minimum speed of 40Mbps for 4K play on the Shield TV.
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