You can finally use GeForce Now on a MacBook Pro at its native aspect ratio. When Nvidiaannounced the RTX 3080 tierfor its GeForce Now cloud gaming service, the company said streams would run at the native resolution of 1600p. Now, that’s available as part of thelatest GeForce Now update.
The M1 Max andM1 Pro MacBook Prosfeature beefy GPUs, but they’re not tuned for gaming. The list of thebest Mac gamesisn’t too large, either. That’s where GeForce Now comes in, allowing you to play any supported PC game on your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, or iOS device without worrying about performance or compatibility.
In the case of GeForce Now, MacBooks actually have a slight edge over PCs. The RTX 3080 tier tops out at 2,560 x 1,440 at 120 frames per second (fps) on PC. The MacBook Pro uses a 16:10 aspect ratio for a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600, which the RTX 3080 tier can now fully take advantage of.
The RTX 3080 tier is theclosest we’ve seen cloud gamingget to native gaming. It’s not perfect, as the “magic of PC gaming” is still washed in a layer of video compression, but it’s much closer than any other cloud gaming service has gotten. It’s the most expensive GeForce Now subscription Nvidia offers, offering 1440p on PC, 1600p on Macs, 120 fps streaming, and eight-hour session lengths.
There should be a big asterisk next to the frame rate. Although the RTX 3080 tier is capable of 120 fps streaming in most titles,Nvidia caps the frame rateon a number of popular games.Cyberpunk 2077, for example, is capped at 45 fps.Valheim, a game that’s not demanding whatsoever, is also capped at 50 fps.
The RTX 3080 tier runs $99.99 for six months, and Nvidia is currently offering it alongside a copy ofCrysis Remastered.Below that is the Priority tier, which is $49.99 for six months. It tops out at 1080p at 60 fps with six-hour session lengths, and it also comes with a copy ofCrysis Remastered.Nvidia offers a free tier, though free users are limited to hour-long sessions without RTX features.
In addition to native MacBook Pro resolution, the new GeForce Now update includes integration with Ubisoft Connect. Similar to the Epic Games Store, you can now save your sign-in info for your Ubisoft Connect account in the app. That will skip the log in process whenever you boot up a Ubisoft game.
As usual, Nvidia also announced several new games joining GeForce Now as part of its weekly GFN Thursday. Here are the new games for this week:
