u/psmfthrowaway

Just wanted to share my thoughts and experience on GeForce Now Ultimate. I've been loosely following it for years. The summer sale and some other recent reviews I had seen pushed me to give it a go. I'm close to the Oregon server farm so let that be what it's worth.

Background - I'm a full time father with 5 kiddos in the home, full time husband, and I have a career that also takes it's pound of flesh. I've been building PC's for decades (child of the 80s and built my first 386 with my dad) and have always been someone who enjoys the ancient arts. That being said my current build of a 5800x3d, 32gb DDR4 and Rtx 4080 was beginning to feel longer and longer in the tooth. I was also getting more and more fatigued of having to wait for updates, patches, and longer and longer install times. After evaluating the market to move to a 9800x3d build with a 5080 I just didn't see dropping the $3,000+ being worthwhile for what is a relatively incremental upgrade. That led me to look at GeFroce now especially with the most recent upgrade to the SuperPod/5080 systems under ultimate.

I don't do multiplayer, MMO, or competitive stuff like anymore (again, kids/family/work). My gaming is often for 1-2 hour sessions, sometimes less, sometimes more, and sporadic. What matter's more to me in any given moment is the ability to get in, play, and get out with minimal effort and this was where my traditional PC experience was beginning to get heavier and heavier. GeForce ultimate providing an almost "console like" experience is a major factor in my valuation. I have no concern about needing more than 100 hours in a month, I'm not super concerned that every game ever isn't necessarily available on the service. The majority of games I plan ARE on the service, and many that aren't I can still run locally either on my G14 5070ti laptop or my desktop described above. But when I can load up Pragmata, Doom Dark Ages, or Forza with darn near maxed out settings, 2x frame gen (to each their own, I find it more beneficial than detrimental) and get 120hz with G-sync cloud? It's basically as good as local, with higher fidelity than either of my machines can render locally, and without the heat or noise. I play most games with a controller (again the "console" like experience is what im chasing), and this puts PC gaming on a level with my PS5 Pro (again for quick, minimal effort gaming).

For $10ish a month I was able to get that upgrade from my 4 year old 5800x3d rig. It's not perfect, but it's way better than I expected. The latency with a controller at 120hz and G-sync cloud is imperceptible to me. The minor annoyances are far outweighed in my use cases by the positives. I no longer have to waste half my "game time" waiting for windows updates and reboots, I no longer have to stare at steam for 15 minutes for the patch to download, I no longer have to juggle 60-80gig installs because my 1TB ssd is filling up and a 2TB drive had quadrupled in price in the last year. Everyone's use case will be different and rely heavily on things like quality of internet connection but as someone who lives close to a data center with greater internet service, I was truly shocked.. This wasn't just "okay" or "good enough", it was for me a comparatively BETTER experience than local.

Is it my forever solution? No. But in this crazy moment where PC's have only gone up in cost and the incremental performance increases have diminished I am finding it to be a perfect stop-gap. It's not for everyone but if you are on an older machine and struggling to justify upgrading in today's market you might find it just good enough to get you through this storm.