GeForce Now, Nvidia’s PC-focused game streaming service, will begin calling time on its most muscular of power users. A post on the GFN subreddit announced the introduction of a 100-hour monthly cap (or “allowance”), effective from January 1st 2025 for anyone who signs up after that date. Existing streamists, or anyone who signs up by the end of 2024, will get a year’s grace period before the limit kicks in from January 2026.
Nvidia claim the vital importance of this hitherto completely unnecessary limit involves “providing exceptional quality and speed — as well as shorter queue times”, and that 100 hours per month will “comfortably” accommodate 94% of current users. Obviously, if you are part of that remaining 6%, your newfound constraints won’t be reflected in any kind of subscription price cut or discount. But hey, you can always pay Nvidia more cash to unlock extra time. $6 for 15 hours on the Ultimate tier, to be exact, or $3 for 15 hours on the Priority tier, which is being renamed Performance.
15 hours of any unused time will also carry over each month, though even with these small concessions, I’m not sure that they’ll be enough to convince both heavy users and potential new customers to get on board. Would you sign up for any subscription service knowing it’s going to become materially worse in a year’s time? And for what purpose? Nvidia cite the relatively small proportion of users who’d exceed a 100-hour limit as justification for imposing it, but by that same logic, it’s only a handful of people jostling for that extra bandwidth. Anecdotally, I sometimes use GeForce Now for playing Steam Deck games that the handheld itself can’t handle, and I’ve never had trouble with queue times or streaming quality. If these 6% are a drain on the system, they’re being awfully polite about it.
What’s also a shame is that this “allowance” is being foisted alongside a range of other changes that, largely, sound quite good. The Performance-née-Priority membership will start offering 2560×1440 and ultrawide resolution options, with ultrawide previously being exclusive to the Ultimate tier, and both types are gaining the ability to save custom graphics setting configurations across different streaming sessions. Alas, the march of service decay continues, with the only way to continue enjoying unlimited streaming time being a GeForce Now Founders subscription – and those haven’t been available for new signups since 2021.
In other news, Nvidia this week surpassed a market value of $3.6 trillion, a global first that cemented their position above Apple as the world’s most valuable company.