NVIDIA Updated Its GeForce Now Ultimate Membership and I’m in Love

In 2023, I became a big fan of NVIDIA’s GeForce Now Ultimate membership. Now it’s getting an upgrade to Blackwell RTX for a significant performance boost. With powerful new 5080 GPUs, a new Cinematic Mode, and better low-latency streaming, this membership turns almost any computer into a high-end rig.

NVIDIA

Highest Resolution

UP to 5K with 120fps

Compatibility

PC, Mac, Steam Deck; (NVIDIA SHIELD TV and mobile will get a subset of features)

Price Per Month

$19.99

Cloud Storage

100GB of single-session cloud storage

NVIDIA GeForce NOW Ultimate with Blackwell RTX upgrades the cloud gaming service’s highest membership tier with RTX 5080 GPUs, up to 5K streaming, and ultra-low-latency performance. The new Cinematic Mode visuals bring stunning, immersive graphics, while Competitive Mode gets ultra-low frame rates, so you can prioritize your needs and game smoothly on almost any PC or Mac.

Pros & Cons

• Cinematic Mode offers brilliantly crisp graphics without sacrificing gameplay
• Ultra-low-latency gaming (up to 360fps) in Competitive Mode
• Over 2,300 games added to library with Install-to-Play
• 5080 RTX GPUs greatly upgrade performance
• NVIDIA DLSS4 Multi-Frame Generation upgrades fps

• Limited feature roll-out might not be worth it to some
• Most people won’t be able to achieve 5K streaming on their rig

Price and Availability

NVIDIA’s GeForce Now Ultimate membership is getting the upgrade to Blackwell RTX, which brings an RTX 5080-class GPU performance to your cloud gaming experience. According to NVIDIA’s website, server space for this membership tier will be limited. The server upgrades will continue to roll out through September 2025.

If you sign up before a server upgrade near you, it’ll lock in your spot. Existing Ultimate members will also be included in the roll-out. Currently, the servers with the upgrade include San Jose, Los Angeles, Chicago, Newark, Paris, and Frankfurt, with additional server updates to follow in other locations.

Performance Upgrades for NVIDIA GeForce NOW Blackwell RTX

When I reviewed NVIDIA’s launch of the GeForce NOW Ultimate membership upon its launch in 2023, I was stunned by its ability to turn my old dinosaur of a laptop into a pleasant gaming rig. At the time, I was using an old HP from Costco (a leftover from college) to really push the boundaries and see how well I could eke out gameplay using the membership. The performance then was astounding.

So, as to be expected, what I found in reviewing the update to Ultimate membership was pure gaming bliss. Although I didn’t use a dinosaur of a laptop this time, the gist is the same. If you sign up for the Ultimate membership with the new Blackwell RTX, you’ll experience some really solid gaming on almost any PC or Mac. Of course, there are some caveats here. To reach a specific resolution, such as the 5K max with the Blackwell upgrade, you’ll need a display that can output that resolution.

Even if you can’t hit 5K, though, you’ll see what I saw, which was a buttery-smooth gaming experience playing any game included in the membership and the ability to customize your gaming experience to your needs.

NVIDIA claims that the server upgrades to 5080 GPUs (along with DLSS4) increase gaming frame rates by 2.8 times the rates available on the previous servers. I found this claim accurate.

The upgrade to Blackwell architecture also boosted ray-tracing (again, DLSS4 is incorporated with the update compared to the previous servers using DLSS3). NVIDIA also mentions that this update delivers an enhancement to AI-powered rendering, which I also noted. I experienced rich game graphics with plentiful, realistic textures and ray-traced lighting and refractions. Included is 62 teraflops of compute performance and a 48GB frame buffer (aka VRAM, which is essentially dedicated memory for rendering image data). That large a buffer gave me the smoothest gaming experience I’ve ever had with a cloud gaming service when playing resource-heavy games with complex graphics.

All of these elements in the Blackwell architecture significantly boosted performance for me, and it wasn’t subtle.

I regularly played resource-heavy titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Cyberpunk 2077, and Baldur’s Gate 3. Even when I curtailed the settings in custom mode or applied Cinematic Mode for a graphics boost (more on this soon), I didn’t experience stutters, game freezes, glitches, crashes, or latency.

This server upgrade not only makes it possible to achieve 5K streaming at up to 120fps (something, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test on my laptop) and up to 90fps while playing on Steam Deck. It’s not a big con, but most people won’t have a rig that can achieve 5K cloud gaming, so that’s something to consider if that’s the main reason you’d sign up.

I’d also discourage people from signing up if the upgrade’s latest features don’t make much of a difference to them. While the 5080 RTX does significantly upgrade gaming performance, the rollout of Blackwell RTX really doesn’t include many new features for people who are content paying for one of GeForce NOW’s lower-priced memberships.

GeForce Now’s New Cinematic Mode

Cianna Garrison / How-To Geek

Although this new setting for gaming with GeForce NOW Ultimate won’t necessarily appeal to competitive gamers who want the highest frame rates available, Cinematic Mode was one of my favorite additions to the membership.

If you love graphics like I do, you want to eke out the best eye candy you can to fully immerse yourself in your game’s universe. This mode prioritizes graphics settings above all else.

Cinematic mode granted me up to a 4K resolution with decent frame rates (averaging 60fps in the games I tested). Every game I played in this mode looked fantastic. I opted to keep the graphics settings as is for most games, but I was also able to up the ray tracing to higher settings in some games without any noticeable performance issues (Cinematic Mode also boasts a 100Mbps streaming rate).

Using this mode, Control: Ultimate Edition looked like a dystopian paradise (yes, I know it’s a paradox). Cut scenes especially came through vividly, with crystal-clear graphics, sharpness, and colors so rich that I physically couldn’t look away.

My laptop achieved a 3.5K stream (the best possible resolution detected by Cinematic Mode) with an average of 60 to 70fps. I also set ray-tracing to high on both this Control: Ultimate Edition and Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight. Everything from the texture quality to the colors to the lighting was beautiful. From vivid, eerie reds and blacks to vivid colors of southern foliage to the sheen and sparkle on marble pillars, the combination of well-executed ray-tracing and color contrast was enough to keep me playing for well beyond my testing time. Cinematic Mode supports the YUV color model with 4:4:4 chroma sampling and 10-bit high dynamic range which, in simpler terms, explains why I was enthralled with the rich colors, sharpness of the picture, and gorgeous color contrast.

When I compared games tested in Cinematic Mode to Balanced Mode or Competitive Mode, there was a significant difference in graphics fidelity. Cinematic mode gave them a noticeable boost of clarity, crystal clear reflections, and a quality I never thought achievable on a cloud service.

Low-Latency Upgrades in Competitive Mode

Cianna Garrison / How-To Geek

The revamped Competitive Mode is probably the stand-out feature of the GeForce NOW server upgrades. This mode’s enhanced performance makes the largest jump (aside from the possibility to stream games in 5K). While the previous-gen servers could hit a max of 240fps, NVIDIA’s 5080 RTX upgrade makes it possible to hit up to 360fps.

I’m confessedly not a die-hard esports player, but I can appreciate ultra-smooth gameplay like anyone else, and the increased frame rates make every action count. I liken this mode to a glassy lake—no ripples, no currents, no annoying lag.

Acolytes of stutter-free, smooth-as-butter gameplay will find this upgrade the most helpful of all. I got such pleasurable gameplay, I forgot that I was cloud gaming.

Yes, Competitive Mode trades a little resolution in the process. I wasn’t getting 3.5K, of course. But Competitive Mode still delivers a 1900 x 1200 resolution, and the trade-off is lightning-speed frame rates. I hit up to 320 FPS in Overwatch 2, with gameplay so consistent it almost felt local. While playing Apex Legends, I got 1920 × 1200p and frame rates up to 240fps, which meant that high-stakes moments like battles, combat, or stealth were silky smooth.

I even tested this with Anno 1800 (a game where blisteringly high frame rates don’t really matter so much) and clocked between 120 and 150fps at 1920 × 1200p.

More demanding games aren’t going to hit that 360fps, but still, clocking between 120 to 150fps on some resource-heavy titles felt like an absolute godsend.

New Install-to-Play on Steam

Cianna Garrison / How-To Geek

I don’t have a lot to unpack when it comes to GeForce Now Ultimate’s new Install-to-Play feature with Steam. This feature lets you directly install a Steam game you own onto your GeForce NOW server using its included storage (rather than streaming NVIDIA’s copy of a game).

This meant I had immediate access and a faster launch time. For some games, I could also install updates (not wait on NVIDIA’s server to update a game) and personalize settings that would repopulate for my next streaming session.

NVIDIA added over 2,300 Steam games to Install-to-Play that were already opted into cloud streaming, which gives members more control and speed when launching these titles.

DLSS4 and Support for HDR

GeForce NOW Ultimate’s Blackwell RTX brings an upgrade from DLSS3 to DLSS4, which not only gives visual fidelity a sharper, more lifelike feel but an increase in AI rendering.

I tested this feature most with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and DLSS 4 helped deliver smooth 60 FPS gameplay while keeping environments well-balanced between color, contrast, life-like lighting behaviors, and texture detail. I also played Cyberpunk 2077 with graphics settings for DLSS on high. Even in high-stakes shootouts, the game ran at around 120 FPS at 1440p.

The ray-traced neon lights, reflections, and other light refractions were vivid, crisp, and resembled true-to-life light behavior.

DLSS4 combines a stunning graphics experience with no lag or stutters. The only time I noticed any issues while gaming was when my own Wi-Fi connection dropped out.

Should You Subscribe to NVIDIA GeForce Now Ultimate (Blackwell RTX)?

While I’d love to say that NVIDIA’s GeForce Now Ultimate membership with Blackwell RTX is worth the upgrade to a $20 per month membership, I can’t say it would be for everyone. If you’re not a hyper-competitive gamer, the new features (which are few) and performance upgrade might not be worth paying extra bucks per month.

However, if you want to turn any PC or Mac into an efficient gaming rig without having to spend a lot to build your own, this membership is worth the price. NVIDIA has built something that’s essentially the top-tier in cloud gaming, and the Blackwell server upgrade adds some extra perks. With streaming up to 5K, up to 360fps in Competitive Mode, and the gorgeous visuals you can achieve with Cinematic Mode, you might just never look past your computer screen.

NVIDIA

Highest Resolution

UP to 5K with 120fps

Compatibility

PC, Mac, Steam Deck; (NVIDIA SHIELD TV and mobile will get a subset of features)

Price Per Month

$19.99

Cloud Storage

100GB of single-session cloud storage

NVIDIA GeForce NOW Ultimate with Blackwell RTX upgrades the cloud gaming service’s highest membership tier with RTX 5080 GPUs, up to 5K streaming, and ultra-low-latency performance. The new Cinematic Mode visuals bring stunning, immersive graphics, while Competitive Mode gets ultra-low frame rates, so you can prioritize your needs and game smoothly on almost any PC or Mac.