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Nvidia GeForce Now with RTX 5080 is a console killer — I played 5K at 120 FPS and it blew my mind
Nvidia GeForce Now was already the best cloud gaming service you can get — it won a Tom’s Guide Award this year, after all. But with its next-gen RTX 5080 upgrades, I think we’re looking at the ultimate console killer of a service.
I mean, think about it. What is needed for cloud gaming to take on the likes of the PS5 Pro, Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S?
- Pretty visuals: Top-tier fidelity to tell great single player stories, and buttery smooth refresh rates to make you competitive in multiplayer.
- Low latency: There can’t be any delay between your inputs and what happens on screen (something every cloud gaming service suffers from at times).
- The best experience across multiple devices: On a TV, at your computer, or on the go, it has to make the most of the system you’re using.
- Games, games and more games: You’ve got a collection, and it should be used to the max.
- Peripheral support: Controller support is great and all, but what if you have a more specialist way of controlling a game like sim racing?
In one fell swoop, Nvidia has tackled all of these with huge updates to its server-side technology, optimizing the way it delivers cloud gameplay to your device, and adding quality-of-life features. And the company did all of this while keeping the price of GeForce Now Ultimate exactly the same.
The company reps here at Gamescom 2025 might be modest in what they say, so I’ll say it instead — this has a very real chance to upend the entire idea of a games console. September will be a breakthrough moment for cloud gaming.
Unmatched visual fidelity
To explain this, I need to get geeky here. Nvidia GeForce Now runs off what the company calls SuperPODs. There’s a network of them across the globe, and in Europe specifically, Nvidia did say that you are no further than 200 kilometers away from one.
The secret sauce to this generational shift is the upgrades made to them. There’s a server-grade RTX 5080 in each one, double the RAM, a new AMD CPU (the company won’t say which one, but the specs sound suspiciously identical to the Ryzen 7 9800X3D in my test bench), and a ConnectX 7 interface.
In theory, this ups the performance, increases the bandwidth of transmitting gameplay, and makes the way gameplay is streamed more efficient. And in practice, Nvidia can pull off some stunning results on an up to 125 Mbps connection (just want to emphasize the internet speed I tested with clearly).
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle looks spectacular at 5K 120 FPS — so crispy with detail and depth. Black Myth: Wukong is a night and day difference with Nvidia’s “Cinematic-Quality Streaming” (CQS: basically 10-bit color and HDR). And when compared to the outgoing version of GeForce Now, CQS delivers a remarkable difference.
Whether it’s directly through GeForce Now on the best mini PC, on an LG TV via the app or on a SteamOS gaming handheld (more on that later), the gaming experience looks jaw-dropping and feels immediate with your gameplay inputs.
Lower latency than a home console
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There are internet connectivity technologies that Nvidia is taking advantage of here (provided your provider supports them). Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable Throughput (L4S) is basically the broadband equivalent of paying for priority delivery on Uber Eats — it marks the packages of data that require super low latency, like gameplay, as a high priority.
Then there’s DOCSIS, which Comcast is using in the U.S. to enhance GeForce Now, too. Combine these with Nvidia Reflex, and you’ve got gameplay that feels snappier than the console you probably have in your TV stand. Just be sure to upgrade to the best wi-fi router to take advantage of these.
I got to demo this in two ways. First, with Cyberpunk 2077 running on a PS5 Pro (with an LG OLED TV) and that same LG TV running GeForce Now. The first thing you notice is that fidelity difference — Night City is so rich with tiny details to every texture on GeForce Now, and DLSS 4 continues to be an industry leader in AI upscaling. Throw in multi-frame gen, and you’re getting a rock-solid 120 FPS, whereas the PS5 Pro is rigidly stuck to 30.
Then I got to doing snap controller inputs to put that latency to the test, and every input is so much more immediate on GeForce Now than it is on the PS5. I know some of this will be because of that higher frame rate, but any fears of multi-frame gen causing additional latency on top of any network-based delay were quickly extinguished.
And second, the esports test. Now, for competitive PC gaming, it’s all about turning down the resolution and textures to extract as high a frame rate and lowest latency as possible. GeForce Now can do 1080p at 360 FPS, and we had latency testing hardware literally attached to the screen — timing from a button press to the flash of a gun firing.
10-20ms is good click-to-photon latency, and while Nvidia touts 30ms in its press materials, I was seeing speeds of 17ms…on a damn cloud gaming service. That’s basically witchcraft!
Nintendo Switch who?
GeForce Now has become my primary way to game on Steam Deck — primarily because it’s given me my battery life back. But one small gripe I have is the lack of optimization of the picture for docking into a 4K TV. The aspect ratio didn’t scale correctly.
Now, beyond upping the frame rate to 90 FPS on Steam Deck OLED, you can stick it in a dock and get 4K 120 FPS gaming. This is one critical fix that is making my desire for a Nintendo Switch 2 a very distant memory.
Quality of life improvements
As you can see, I’ve addressed three of the five points that would make a cloud gaming service a console killer. Now to the other two.
First of all, you’re no longer limited to games that have been pre-installed on Nvidia’s service, as “install-to-play” allows you to (as the name suggests) install your own games to GeForce Now.
This is done by buying additional cloud storage (up to 1TB), and provided the game has been opted into Valve’s Steam Cloud Play, it will immediately be available to install. Once September rolls around, over 2,200 more games will be available to play, and those GFN Thursday updates are about to get much longer lists.
And second, there is now Logitech sim wheel support for racing games. This is an important first step towards allowing for more specialized gameplay inputs, and I’m currently setting up a prayer circle for light gun support further down the line!
Oh, and a special shout-out to the partnership between Nvidia and Discord/Epic Games, which allows you to jump straight into a Fortnite match within Discord — no GeForce Now account required, and you can get 1440p 60 FPS gameplay. It’s a tasty demo of what you can get with the full service!
Traditional gaming is now on-notice
Look, I know I’m being a little dramatic with that headline. Game consoles will always have a special place in the hearts of billions for their exclusives, and the hardware is a much more direct and easy-to-use portal to your games.
But with Nvidia GeForce Now’s big generational upgrade, we are basically at a point where this could be a legitimate better option than buying a PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo system.
With RTX 5080 performance under the hood, ground-up optimization of the average internet connection bandwidth to deliver insanely high fidelity performance with unnoticeable latency, and genuinely useful additions like the beginning of peripheral support, cloud gaming is no longer a “plan B” — it’s a viable primary way to play.
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