Nvidia has announced higher resolution and frame rate support for its GeForce Now cloud streaming service running on Edge and Chrome browsers. Previously Chrome support peaked at 1080p and 60 fps (Edge is based on Chromuium), but now Nvidia has updated both to be on par with its dedicated app, featuring 1440p support at 120 frames per second.
But, before you dash to your Chromebook to test this new feature out, beware that it only works on Nvidia's RTX 3080 gaming plan. The free and $9.99 Priority plans are still limited to 1080P/60 fps and feature weaker server hardware to boot.
Nonetheless, if you are a user of Nvidia's RTX 3080 plan, you can now play games on a multitude of platforms which lack a dedicated app (Linux come to mind), at the plans near maximum supported resolution and maximum frame rate.
GeForce Now is a streaming service Nvidia released several years ago for gamers to stream video games directly to their computers and other devices from the cloud. The setup works by physically running the game in a virtual environment inside server hardware, with the video playback encoded and streamed directly to your monitor.
For more details on the platform, check out our GeForce Now coverage of the RTX 3080 plan here. But long story short, we were impressed by the cloud service's capabilities, with good video quality and playable to nearly imperceptible input latency. But the latter will depend on how your network connection and how close you are to Nvidia's cloud servers.
Nvidia's membership plans include a free basic plan, featuring what Nvidia calls a "basic rig", and a one hour session at a time, which is good if you want to test Nvidia's cloud service on your setup.
Next is Nvidia's Priority membership starting at $9.99 a month, this gives you access to what Nvidia calls a "Premium Rig" with RTX support including ray tracing and DLSS. You also get Priority access to Nvidia's servers, and a much higher six-Hour session limit.
Finally, there's Nvidia's RTX 3080 membership plan starting at $19.99 a month, which gives you access to 3080 like performance featuring up to 4K and 1440p resolutions with a frame rate jump to 120 fps.
