Nvidia’s cloud streaming gaming service GeForce Now recently added a new plan called the RTX 3080. At twice the price of what used to be the best tier (called priority), the new plan is designed to deliver the performance of a high-end model gaming computer.
While Nvidia is busy promoting the RTX 3080 plan, existing GeForce Now Priority members have found that their games are not rendering at 60 frames per second (fps) as promised. Following this discovery, Nvidia confirmed that while no games on the RTX 3080 plan are limited, the company admits to intentionally limiting fps in certain games for players using the priority level. We tested several games to see their performance when using Nvidia GeForce Now.
The priority level costs $ 50 per month and promises gaming performance equivalent to using a premium gaming rig, priority access to gaming servers, up to six hours of gaming at the same time, and most importantly, up to 1080p gaming at 60 fps. However, it seems that not all of the 1,100 games supported can deliver this performance, although Nvidia does not state it in any way on the member’s site.
The situation was made public when a Reddit user contacted Nvidia customer service and found that Guardian of the Galaxy limited to 50 frames per second. This cannot be changed in the game menu. This prompted Nvidia to confirm that certain titles are being prevented from exceeding a certain fps threshold.
Tests show different results
We ran some of our own tests to see if Guardian of the Galaxy, as well as some other AAA titles, are limited to GeForce Now. Guardian of the Galaxy is a DLSS game and has a rendering resolution of 50% regardless of whether the setting is on or off. Optimizing the setting does not seem to affect image quality or performance.
Our in-game benchmark produced an average of 80 frames per second, which is much higher than the 50 fps that the aforementioned Reddit user experienced. Regardless, Nvidia confirmed that the game is capped at 50 fps.
“Some games on GFN are limited to certain fps, such as Cyberpunk (at 45 fps) and others. To the Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s limited to 50 fps so it’s not a bug, ”said Nvidia’s rep in an email.
Nvidia has has released a full list of GeForce Now games with limited frame rates for priority users. According to Nvidia, the premium systems of the priority members could not maintain a stable 60 frames per second for these titles.
The company decided to limit the frame rates by adding a new setting instead of improving the performance of these rigs for priority users. This setting is known as the Optimal Playable Settings (OSP) and can be overridden in most, but not all, Nvidia GeForce Now games. Nvidia claims that capping the fps on some games will ensure a consistent, high quality experience for all priority members, but Nvidia also ensures that the games will continue to be streamed at 60 fps.
We tested several other games from Nvidia’s list to verify the FPS capabilities made available to Priority members. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey should be limited to 45 fps, but the limitation is switched off and the game produces an average of 59 fps. That is interesting Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is not on the adjacent list Odysseybecause both games run on the same engine.
Cyberpunk 2077, is supposedly capped at 45 fps even though I recorded 60 fps in the video stream using a local frame rate tool. It seems that GeForce Now is actually still streaming at 60 frames per second, even if the game itself doesn’t render that many frames.
Valheim and Way of exile are also on Nvidia’s list, and that’s another surprising example of Nvidia’s weird FPS capping pattern. Both titles aren’t very demanding in terms of system requirements, so it’s curious why Nvidia decided to limit them to 50 fps each – just like the well-known resource-intensive ones Cyberpunk 2077.
DLSS switched on
We also found that Nvidia DLSS is enabled in most of the supported games. As a founder, you generally cannot change the settings, however DLSS is an exception. Switching it off leads to a massive improvement in image quality.
It’s hard to tell if all of these frame rate restrictions affect every single user. As our tests show, some games achieve higher fps than Nvidia intended. Additionally, it is likely that $ 100 per month members of the RTX 3080 tier will not suffer from these limitations, although Nvidia has not disclosed whether games at this tier have an FPS limit.
Despite the discrepancies that Nvidia has not disclosed, GeForce Now remains a solid alternative in times of persistent graphics card shortages. However, it would certainly be preferable for Nvidia to inform future members about possible FPS caps early on.
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