Nvidia has a new way for gamers to use its GeForce Now streaming service in the form of a Day Pass.
Team Green previously announced that this was going to happen with GeForce Now back in January, but the passes are actually available now.
Before now, you had to sign up for a subscription to experience the full power of the cloud gaming service – as opposed to the cut-back freebie service which is very limited, with long queuing times (and it now has adverts to boot).
However, the Day Pass allows you to use the full GeForce Now service – and even the top-tier RTX 4080-powered offering – for, well, a day as you might guess, for a small outlay.
How much? Nvidia is charging $7.99 for an Ultimate Day Pass and $3.99 for a Priority Day Pass in the US (or £7.99 and £3.99 in the UK).
Those passes correspond to the existing Priority and Ultimate subscriptions (which come on a monthly basis, or you can sign up for 6 months with a discount).
For those unfamiliar with the plans, Priority is the standard offering for GeForce Now offering 1080p cloud gaming at up to 60 frames per second (fps) with a maximum 6-hour session length. Ultimate ups the ante with an RTX 4080 cloud-based rig that can do 4K gaming at up to 120 fps (or 240 fps if you’re not running 4K) and a slightly longer 8-hour session length.
Bear in mind that what you’ll get in terms of streaming quality will obviously be reliant on the quality of your internet connection and how fast it is (or isn’t, as the case may be).
However, it’s also worth noting that Nvidia tells us: “Day Passes are available in limited quantities each day, so grab one before the opportunity passes.”
Analysis: Hard day’s gaming
This is a welcome development for those thinking of dipping their toes into the world of cloud gaming, as it allows you to test the water for just a day.
By a day, Nvidia does mean 24 full hours, so those prepared to go without much sleep can really get their money’s worth. (We wouldn’t suggest a 24-hour marathon gaming session, mind you, for so many reasons – not unless you’re doing it for a good cause like charity or something).
Being able to trial the full service in this way for a few bucks (for the standard offering) is a great idea, because no matter how much you research or read about how good GeForce Now may (or may not) be, there’s no substitute for actually giving it a lengthy run on your own internet connection to see how the service performs.
The Ultimate (RTX 4080) Day Pass may be priced a bit too richly for the comfort of some gamers, mind.
As the day passes are only available in ‘limited’ quantities from day to day, what this could be from Nvidia’s point of view is a useful way to offload unused gaming server capacity, perhaps.
The downside for existing GeForce Now users might be that if the Day Pass proves popular, that might mean longer queue times for them. (And if waiting periods are prolonged, we’d hate to imagine what that’ll mean for freebie users who already need the patience of a gaming saint).
Remember that with GeForce Now, you’re renting the hardware to game on, but not the games themselves – you must own them (on Steam, or the Epic Games Store for example) too, and they must be supported by Nvidia’s cloud service, of course.
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