There are some eye-raising changes coming to the Nvidia GeForce Now service, including changes to membership tiers and a new monthly playtime cap for gamers. The new playtime limit is already seeing negative feedback on social media, even though the company suggests that only a small number of GeForce Now members are affected.
GeForce Now uses Nvidia’s own GPUs, like the RTX 4080, to power the service, giving users an experience that mimics owning one of the best graphics cards you can buy. The streaming service from Nvidia is one of the few ways to play the latest games without needing to invest hundreds, or even thousands, in a brand new gaming PC.
In a new blog post, Nvidia outlined the changes to the service, starting with the changes to membership tiers. Nvidia is renaming the middle Priority tier to Performance and is boosting the available resolution to Performance members from 1080p to 1440p at 60fps at no extra cost, along with adding ultrawide support for Ultimate members. Performance and Ultimate members will also be able to save their in-game graphics settings across different sessions.
As part of the change, Performance members will gain access to GeForce RTX GPUs to help power playtime sessions, although it doesn’t state which GPUs it offers to customers. Nvidia is making an even bigger change to how gamers use the service, however, with both Performance and Ultimate users now expected to see a maximum hourly cap on how often they use the service, set at 100 hours, although the change won’t take place until the new year.
According to Nvidia, this cap will “comfortably accommodate” the typical playing requirements of 94% of their members, and the change is being introduced to allow GeForce Now to “continue providing exceptional quality and speed, as well as shorter queue times” for everyone. To soften the blow, Nvidia is automatically rolling over up to 15 hours of unused playtime each month to the following month, while an additional 15 hours of session time can be purchased, costing $2.99 for Performance members and $5.99 for Ultimate members.
This change won’t affect the OGs, though. If you’re a Founders member, you’ll continue to enjoy unrestricted playtime hours. You’ll temporarily lose those rights should you upgrade to an Ultimate membership, but you’ll be free to downgrade back to a Founders membership at any time and resume your previous privileges.
Nvidia is also offering new and existing members the chance to lock in unlimited playtime for a full year, as long as they sign up by December 31, 2024 and their membership remains uninterrupted. If you’ve never tried GeForce Now out before, the company is offering 25% off for discounted day passes so you can trial the service out for yourself.
It’s safe to say that the change isn’t universally popular so far, however. In a Reddit post in the official GeForce Now subreddit, the sentiment from users has been largely negative, focusing on the change as a deterioration in the quality of the service as a whole. It’s not all bad news, though, as Nvidia has just announced seven new games that you can play through the service, including the brand-new Planet Coaster 2, Starcraft II, and Starcraft Remastered.
GeForce Now is a service that continues to grow and evolve, and so must the costs, so while this change from the world’s most valuable company wasn’t expected, it’s probably unsurprising in the long run if the service is to remain cost effective for the company. GeForce Now offers one of the best ways to play top games without a graphics card, whether it’s on an old PC, a tablet, or even one of the best handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck OLED.
Of course, if you don’t fancy paying to stream your games, you might need to think about a new PC that can handle them. Take a look at our best gaming PCs shortlist next and check out some of the pre-built gaming rigs we’d recommend instead.