At Gamescom 2025, Nvidia announced the largest upgrade to its GeForce Now cloud gaming service, giving top-tier subscribers an experience comparable to an RTX 5080 card, along with full support for DLSS 4 features and major improvements in latency and image quality.
Article contents:
- Introduction: A qualitative leap in cloud gaming
- Blackwell power in the cloud: The RTX 5080 experience
- Massive performance boost and 5K resolution
- CPU and memory upgrade
- Combating latency: The key to success
- Cinematic Quality Streaming (CQS)
- The new “Install-to-Play” feature
- Pricing and availability
- Conclusion: The future of gaming in the cloud
- Frequently asked questions
Introduction: A qualitative leap in cloud gaming
For over a decade, Nvidia’s GeForce Now service has brought PC gaming experiences to a wide range of devices via cloud streaming. Today, at Gamescom 2025, the company announced the arrival of Blackwell-architecture-powered servers to its service, alongside a suite of other enhancements aimed at significantly improving latency and image quality.
Blackwell power in the cloud: The RTX 5080 experience
The biggest upgrade coming to GeForce Now is the rollout of new Blackwell SuperPod servers. The company promises an RTX 5080-class experience on its Ultimate service tier, compared to the current RTX 4080-class experience. Moving to this more powerful shared GPU unlocks all the features players already expect from Blackwell GPUs, including a full suite of DLSS 4 features and Multi Frame Generation in supported games.
Massive performance boost and 5K resolution
The company claims its RTX 5080 servers are good for up to a 2.8x increase in frames per second (FPS) compared to current RTX 4080 hardware, though this figure relies on Blackwell’s multi-frame generation capability as part of the overall boost.
This performance increase supports new 5K output settings at 60 and 120 FPS, as well as a new 360 Hz low-latency mode for competitive gaming.
CPU and memory upgrade
Alongside the GPU, Nvidia is upgrading the host systems running GeForce Now servers. Every Ultimate-tier server is now built around a “new Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPU” that will provide each user with eight cores and 16 threads of processing power. Nvidia says this upgrade also allows it to double the system memory per server.
Combating latency: The key to success
Low latency is key to a good GeForce Now experience, and Nvidia highlighted all the ways it keeps latency low from server to client. The high performance of Blackwell GPUs and Threadripper Pro CPUs provides one layer of latency reduction, and each server uses the company’s ConnectX 7 SmartNICs.
Although Multi Frame Generation (MFG) adds some latency, Nvidia believes the higher server performance and overall optimizations will help offset this delay. Nvidia emphasizes that players have full control over game settings, and if a player decides that MFG adds too much latency, they can turn it off.
Cinematic Quality Streaming (CQS)
Nvidia is also introducing a new global quality setting called Cinematic Quality Streaming (CQS). This feature includes a set of improvements, most notably the use of per-pixel YUV 4:4:4 color data, the efficient AV1 codec, and a streaming bandwidth of up to 100 Mbps. The company says this combination of improvements should deliver much sharper motion visuals to high-end users.
The new “Install-to-Play” feature
Finally, Nvidia is expanding the GeForce Now game library with a new feature called “Install-to-Play,” which adds thousands of potential new titles to the service. Assuming the publisher agrees to support the feature, Steam users can purchase a game for their library and then download those titles onto the GeForce Now server during their gaming session. The feature provides 100 GB of caching storage per session, and users can purchase permanent storage if they want to play the same game in the future without downloading it again.
Pricing and availability
All Blackwell-powered GeForce Now enhancements will come to the Ultimate tier starting in September, with no price increases to current service tiers. The Ultimate tier will continue to cost $19.99 per month, $99.99 for six months, or $199.99 per year.
Conclusion: The future of gaming in the cloud
This upgrade represents a massive step forward for GeForce Now, bringing the cloud gaming experience closer than ever to playing on a high-end local PC. By combining cutting-edge graphics hardware, processors, and network improvements, Nvidia continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of cloud gaming, making it an increasingly attractive option for players who do not own powerful PCs.
Frequently asked questions
Q1: What is the main upgrade for the GeForce Now service?
A: The Ultimate tier will get new servers powered by RTX 5080-class GPUs (Blackwell architecture) and new AMD Threadripper Pro processors.
Q2: What benefits will subscribers receive?
A: They will get significantly higher performance (up to 2.8x), 5K resolution support, a new 360 Hz mode, lower latency, and improved streaming quality.
Q3: Will prices increase?
A: No, Nvidia announced that prices will remain the same for current service tiers.
