GeForce now on a laptop

WARburton · 13 Dec 2025 at 16:33

I used this service when it first came out but not for years.

The system requirements are very low but as we all know there normally total poo.
What hardware would you guys say is really need to play at 1080p with GeForce Now

My sister is a uni and struggling to get a new laptop to play games right now she as a laptop with intel 12th gen i5
I’ll get the full spec latter

WARburton · 13 Dec 2025 at 16:45

Cpu is a 12450h, 16gb ddr4 3200 with a gtx2050

Scrutinize · 13 Dec 2025 at 17:40

I've been using GeForce Now for ages and been a big advocate. Ultimate is amazing, any device support (phone, tablet, laptop, handheld, browser or app) and I use it enough. Xbox game pass, Steam integration plus others..

Remote using mobile broadband hotspot works well too....

Played via browser and I get 10 hours plus game time on battery on an ultra portable laptop. Via the app and it's still close to that. Gaming laptops on battery don't come close and you don't lose any performance on battery.

The top paid plans are night and day to the free plan.

Cost vs equivalent laptop vs performance is considerably less than depreciation.

You can play via browser on virtually any laptop if not the app.

Yours will be fine. I have an hp omen older and lower spec than that (prob previous gen to yours) and it runs it fine.

Gray2233 · 13 Dec 2025 at 18:05

Only a tenner for a month of Ultimate with the sale, I'm actually tempted to grab it myself purely to test some things with.

Given the price of components at the moment and the number of people I know wanting to get into PC gaming it might be a viable alternative while offering 5080 perf.

WARburton · 13 Dec 2025 at 18:08

This is really good to hear I don’t mind paying the subscription for her

WARburton · 13 Dec 2025 at 18:10

Gray2233 said:
Only a tenner for a month of Ultimate with the sale, I'm actually tempted to grab it myself purely to test some things with.

Given the price of components at the moment and the number of people I know wanting to get into PC gaming it might be a viable alternative while offering 5080 perf.

100% looks like the way forward right now, I was looking at buying her a pc / laptop when I stumbled onto a GeForce now link when looking at gpus

sandys · 14 Dec 2025 at 01:57

It works well, I even use it via my smart TV app paired with a Playstation 5 controller (these can be paired to 4 machines so are well handy for switching between devices)

Scrutinize · 14 Dec 2025 at 10:28

WARburton said:
100% looks like the way forward right now, I was looking at buying her a pc / laptop when I stumbled onto a GeForce now link when looking at gpus

sandys said:
It works well, I even use it via my smart TV app paired with a Playstation 5 controller (these can be paired to 4 machines so are well handy for switching between devices)

If you look at NVIDIAs structure now, c88% of revenue is data centre (inc AI) derived.

This includes cloud gaming capability.

They have been heading this way for a while.

sandys · 14 Dec 2025 at 15:22

The obvious thing that has not been mention is you need good latency and stable bandwidth, there computer hardware almost seems irrelevant but the internet connection will determine the experience, how is that in her uni?

And of course are the games she wants even on geforce now, they aren't all there.

WARburton · 15 Dec 2025 at 08:12

I got her to run a speed test last night and all looks good

Mbps upload
120.0

Mbps download
21.6

Mbps upload
Latency: 12 ms
Server: City of London

sandys · 15 Dec 2025 at 08:51

I assume you switched upload and download typing it in, if not the experience will be marginal but a generic speedtest is not sufficient, you need to test via the app to Nvidia servers at the times she'd likely play on it, she can test the free tier anyway to get a feel if it is going to work.

NVIDIA Support

nvidia.custhelp.com

WARburton · 15 Dec 2025 at 09:10

Yes my bad..
120 download

Scrutinize · 15 Dec 2025 at 15:18

sandys said:
The obvious thing that has not been mention is you need good latency and stable bandwidth, there computer hardware almost seems irrelevant but the internet connection will determine the experience, how is that in her uni?

And of course are the games she wants even on geforce now, they aren't all there.

WARburton said:
Yes my bad..
120 download

There's always that one title isn't there!!!

Almost every game in my steam library and xbox games pass I play is on GFN. Some older or obscure games aren't but they happily run on integrated or older gtx1050 era graphics so pre 2018 graphic card equipped laptops anyway (I have a fair collection of quasi retired laptops I have tested on).

Current Arc140v runs most games inc some modern at lower res/detail. MS Surface Pro 9 with Iris XE graphics handles a surprisingly good number of games too.

Only downside of those not in the GFN library is you can't then run on mobile/tablet via GFN and battery takes a hit.

As for network performance. Ultimate plan GFN is pretty good on an average connection and high latency via mobile broadband. For online games / esports then network performance does make a difference.

I just plan my mobile gaming round venue, network and game requirements. If I am really compelled to play something requiring integrated/dgu graphics (RDR2 for example) not on GFN then I just take a power bank or plug in.

I don't go anywhere to game needing GFN but with no reception or without wifi. At home it's no issue.

If I'm on a train I just pick a steam library game that works offline etc or watch a film.

Any nominal inconveniences are far offset by GFNs benefits and flexibility.

I imagine it won't work for everyone but for me gaming on a 1.2kg ultra portable with no battery anxiety is infinitely better than power use/noise/weight disadvantages of a gaming laptop when trying to be mobile.

At home then I have a choice of GFN, Xbox sX, gaming laptop rtx5070, gaming handheld etc.

For those who are gaming on high end rigs, and the steam survey shows how relatively niche a group it is, then GFN would never be a replacement at the moment anyway.

sandys · 15 Dec 2025 at 15:48

I've never tested battery life whilst gaming on GFN, never considered using it on mobile data, I might have to see how that goes, if it is as light as web/media, I'd probably have 24hrs, no battery anxiety as you say

I'm not as ultra portable as you these days with 17 inches @ 1.4kgs but even with a 90Wh battery you have to pick your battles, like you say it's about choosing the right games for the scenario, on my old One netbook x1Pro 65Wh, I could get a massive 10+ hours really restricting the TDP, keeping to stuff like stardew or retro games etc, GFN would probably last longer on that, that was a great portable, still pretty heavy though ~800g to 1kg with detachable keyboard.

Scrutinize · 15 Dec 2025 at 21:26

17" at 1.4kg is a fair offset to 14" at 1.2kg.

The game that convinced me GFN was the future was X4 Foundations, which at the time was gaming laptop and desktop crippling.

Playing X4 at ultra settings on battery on laptop in silence was pretty memorable.

WARburton · 15 Dec 2025 at 21:54

Scrutinize said:
17" at 1.4kg is a fair offset to 14" at 1.2kg.

The game that convinced me GFN was the future was X4 Foundations, which at the time was gaming laptop and desktop crippling.

Playing X4 at ultra settings on battery on laptop in silence was pretty memorable.

That’s solid super. I’m seeing my sister tomorrow so going to sort her laptop out and set up GFN

sandys · 16 Dec 2025 at 01:23

Scrutinize said:
Almost every game in my steam library and xbox games pass I play is on GFN. Some older or obscure games aren't but they happily run on integrated or older gtx1050 era graphics so pre 2018 graphic card equipped laptops anyway (I have a fair collection of quasi retired laptops I have tested on).

I guess I am unlucky as I am mainly playing PlayStation on my PC at the moment :rolleyes:

The PS5 next to my PC is looking at me going "I'm right here!!!"

and the titles I checked aren't there, TLOU2 which I just completed yesterday :cool:

Stellar Blade and Ghost of Tsushima, the other game I am playing is Anno 117 that is there. I guess this is because PS have their own service.

I wonder if that would be better for me as a catch all streaming service, might have to try it out, though I would not be able to access cheap PC titles I suppose.

Scrutinize said:
Ultimate plan GFN is pretty good on an average connection and high latency via mobile broadband

Thought I would try it out via my phone, it is surprisingly good even on something like counterstrike, though I am the limiting factor on those games these days.

Certainly leaps and bounds ahead of the last service I tried that on, Onlive, but that was a long, long time ago.

WARburton · 16 Dec 2025 at 16:49

so just had my first experience of GeForce now and i have to say its very good

WARburton · 27 Dec 2025 at 21:14

So after running a few benchmarks on a few games ive found that on GeForce now performance specs are...

CPU 8c/8t Ryzen CPU
Ram 28gb
GPU RTX 3060

Scrutinize · 28 Dec 2025 at 17:49

WARburton said:
So after running a few benchmarks on a few games ive found that on GeForce now performance specs are...

CPU 8c/8t Ryzen CPU
Ram 28gb
GPU RTX 3060

Which verson have you got?

If on ultimate then I think it scales to game requirements ie the minimum needed to run at the settings you require esp if playing at 4k, and you will then see the full spec offered ie 16 vCPU cores 56 GB DRAM + 4080/5080. If on a low demand game at 2k/1440p then I think it uses the lower tier machines.

If on performance plan then you get your spec reported as max although think you will see a 4060 as I recall this being offered for a time.