Ever since Nvidia announced plans to bring Blackwell to GeForce Now at Gamescom 2025, I began (im)patiently waiting to try the new RTX 5080 SuperPODS for myself. Now, after a week of testing of the service, my experiences have left me far more inclined than I ever have been to place my trust in the cloud for my gaming needs.
The introduction of RTX 5080 SuperPODS comes part and parcel with a dizzying amount of other changes to GeForce Now, such as the new ‘Cinematic Quality’ streaming mode and more. None of these, save for extra cloud storage, come at any additional charge.
You can find all the details on all the GeForce Now upgrades in my prior coverage of the announcement, and on Nvidia’s website. In short, though, we’re looking at greater performance, higher-quality streaming, more games, and additional features.
Game Performance
To get a taste of the performance upgrade RTX 5080 SuperPODS offer, I ran several games on them as well as existing RTX 4080 SuperPOD stock. As a reminder, the former will become the new default for ‘Ultimate’ GeForce Now subscribers.
Rather than run these games natively, I’ve chosen to use DLSS Super Resolution in ‘Performance’ mode across all titles, as this is how I prefer to configure GFN and my local rig. Doing so also provides breathing room to enjoy the visual splendour of path and ray tracing with playable frame rates.
| GFN RTX 5080 | GFN RTX 4080 | Diff. (4080 to 5080) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assassin’s Creed Shadows | 64 / 75fps | 55 / 66fps | +16% / +14% |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 61 / 69fps | 46 / 53fps | +33% / +30% |
| Doom: The Dark Ages | 47 / 75fps | 34 / 58fps | +38% / +29% |
Assassin’s Creed Shadows with ray tracing maintained a healthy average frame rate of 66fps on RTX 4080 SuperPODS, but a 55fps minimum is lower than I’d like. Shifting to RTX 5080 SuperPODs, that problem disappears thanks to 14-16% rise in performance.
Path-traced Cyberpunk 2077 needed a leg up in terms of minimum and average frame rates, as neither met that all-important 60fps threshold on RTX 4080 SuperPODS. The 30-33% improvement that RTX 5080 SuperPODS wrought blew me away, pushing both performance categories to ideal frame rates.
Similarly, path tracing in Doom: The Dark Ages wasn’t quite up to snuff on RTX 4080 SuperPODS with minimum frame rate proving particularly bothersome. RTX 5080 SuperPODS provide a welcome 29-38% boost, confidently pushing average frame rates north of 60fps. Minimums are still on the lower side at 47fps, but it’s an impressive result nonetheless.
| GFN RTX 5080 + FG | GFN RTX 4080 + FG | Diff. (4080 to 5080) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assassin’s Creed Shadows | 108 / 123fps | 90 / 103fps | +20% / +19% |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 106 / 117fps | 84 / 93fps | +26% / +26% |
| Doom: The Dark Ages | 83 / 116fps | 74 / 94fps | +12% / +23% |
Given that each game is confidently running above 60fps on average, I don’t think twice about engaging DLSS Frame Generation. Since I’m targeting 120fps, there’s little reason to venture about 2x in this instance, but I’d happily switch up to 3x or 4x at a higher refresh rate.
The performance gap between RTX 4080 and RTX 5080 SuperPODS shrinks slightly once DLSS Frame Generation enters the fold. However, the latency of the latter is lower thanks to the higher base frame rate and is noticeably better in-game.
Stream Performance
Fast as RTX 5080 SuperPODS are, cloud services including GeForce Now ultimately live and die by the reliability and speed of your internet connection. In my case, I’m fortunate to have a 1Gb connection for both downloads and uploads, which is well clear of the 65Mb minimum for the service’s highest-quality resolution and refresh rate combo (5K/120Hz).
However, like most folks, I don’t have a 5K screen of any kind at my disposal. In lieu of such niceties, I split my testing time between my Alienware AW3225QF, with a 4K resolution and 240Hz refresh rate, as well as my Steam Deck OLED.
PC
With my PC connected to the network via Ethernet, I started with GeForce Now’s new ‘Cinematic’ preset, which prioritises image quality above all. For my setup, this meant running with a maximum bit rate of 100Mb/s, 4K resolution, and 60fps.
Trudging through Temeria for hours in The Witcher 3, the experience was buttery smooth. In fact, any initial concerns I had about the quality or reliability of the stream quickly disappeared and I was soon enjoying my session without a second-thought.
Fuss-free as the ‘Cinematic’ preset is, however, there are greater experiences for the taking via a few custom tweaks. In my case, I turned up the frame rate limit to 120fps, allowing me to make greater use out of my monitor’s capabilities.
I also experimented with running the stream at 5K, meaning GeForce Now would downsample to 4K. This produced slightly sharper text elements, but wasn’t a noticeably large improvement.
Steam Deck
While Steam Deck does support wired internet connectivity via USB-C passthrough, I was more interested in using the system to test GeForce Now over WiFi. I spend the majority of my time with this handheld… in my hands, and so wireless reliability is a must for the service on such a device in my eyes.
Defaulting to GeForce Now’s ‘Balanced’ preset, the streaming experience was every bit as reliable as it was on desktop. In fact, I’d argue the experience was better on account of the system’s maximum resolution (800p) and refresh rate (90Hz) not going to waste.
Much as I’ll never tire of running Witcher 3 at maximum settings on my Steam Deck via streaming, the jump from 60Hz to 90Hz really does improve the experience. Both motion clarity and latency are far better with those extra frames in play.
Final Thoughts
Through the introduction of RTX 5080 SuperPODS and greater configurability, Nvidia cements GeForce Now as the premier game streaming service. There’s no alternative that provides system performance like this, nor one that has as diverse a portfolio of games available to play.
The best part of all these upgrades, though, is that they’re arriving at no extra charge. Existing ‘Ultimate’ tier subscribers will have access to RTX 5080 SuperPODS as soon as they become available, following a gradual global rollout, at no extra charge. The same is true for users new to the service too.
While Nvidia hasn’t explicitly discussed what it plans to do with RTX 4080 SuperPODS, I hope we see these systems drip down to the more-affordable subscription tiers. Though not as fast as their replacements, they still pack plenty of performance that I’m sure plenty of subscribers would be more than happy with.
Whether GeForce Now is the right fit for you ultimately comes down to your input device and internet speed. It can transform older, less-powerful rigs, laptops, and more into pseudo-powerhouses, but the best gaming experiences on this service will come at a premium. This applies both to the $20p/m cost of having access to RTX 5080 SuperPods and the cost of a system, be it a Steam Deck or a PC connected to a 4K monitor.
I’m not quite ready to swap my rig for the cloud, but this latest iteration of GeForce Now certainly does make the notion more appealing than it ever has been.
