Video games are getting prettier. But the price that comes with more realistic graphics, ray tracing, and other fancy systems is more demanding hardware requirements.
It used to be that even the latest AAA titles would recommend a GTX 1060 or 1650, the top two most popular cards on the Steam survey. Several recent games, however, have started to recommend newer, more powerful GPUs like the RTX 2070 (Dead Space) or even the RTX 3070 (Plague Tale Requiem).
Buying a new graphics card is more expensive than ever before, especially if you’re aiming for a high-end GPU. But there may be another option, one that supposedly allows you to play games on an RTX 3080 (and eventually an RTX 4080) on a subscription model…
Game streaming: How is GeForce Now different?
Game streaming services are still relatively new, but in their short life you could say none have really exploded in popularity, and some have completely failed, like Google Stadia. However the concept itself is a compelling one in theory. Stream your games instantly to a device of your choice, no setup or download necessary.
GeForce Now is Nvidia’s take on game streaming that lets users play the games they own from the cloud with all processing taking place on their hardware. There are three tiers: a free one that uses a “basic rig,” a Priority level for $9.99 per month that offers hardware capable of 1080p resolution at 60 FPS, and the $19.99 per month Ultimate tier that offers RTX 3080-like hardware, up to 4K resolution, and up to 120 FPS.
