GeForce NOW is Nvidia's game streaming service, and starting today, the company is rolling out pre-orders for a new membership tier for Founders and Priority members. This new tier is called the GeForce NOW RTX 3080 membership, and as you can guess, Nvidia is using custom RTX 3080s as the backend for this tier. Six months will run you $99.99, with availability rolling out for the US in November and the EU in December. Subscribers can expect 1440p support at a max of 120FPS (this is the important bit since a high framerate should lower latency), and 4K HDR support is coming exclusively to the Shield TV.

GeForceNOWEcosystem

The new RTX 3080 membership is backed by the GeForce NOW SuperPOD, described as a "next-generation could gaming platform," which is essentially a group of tweaked 3080s that will offer 1440p support at 120FPS on PC, Mac, and Android (plus 4K HDR support exclusively on the Shield TV). Those that pony up $99.99 for six months will always play through the SuperPOD, and there is no stepping down (guaranteeing you get what you pay for), but since servers are a finite resource, availability will be limited at first, hence today's announcement for pre-orders, all so that Nvidia can properly judge just how many servers need to be spun up for the new tier. Founders and Priority members will be the first with access to these pre-orders.

GeForce_NOW_pricing

Ideally, the jump to 120FPS support means there should be much less latency when streaming, and since Nvidia has tied this high framerate support to the high FPS monitors/screens you're streaming on, there's a layer of adaptive sync tech that should bring latency as low as 60ms, which is actually comparable to consoles. While this has yet to be proven, the tech sure sounds promising.

Luckily the launch of the GeForce NOW RTX 3080 membership will not replace any of the old tiers (you can still subscribe to the monthly or 6-month Priority plan), so if you're happy with the current streams you get, there's no need to move to the new 3080 tier. Still, it's about time someone tackled the latency issue of streamed games, which means Google, Microsoft, and Sony might have some stiff competition on their hands really soon. So if you'd like to pre-order for a subscription to the newly-announced GeForce NOW RTX 3080 membership, you can do so here.

UPDATE: 2021/10/28 13:32 EST BY MATTHEW SHOLTZ

GeForce NOW RTX 3080 membership pre-orders are now open to everyone

Last week Nvidia announced the new 3080 tier for its GeForce Now game streaming service, with pre-orders (they want to know how many servers to spin up) available to Founders and Priority members. We knew a wider pre-registration rollout would happen soon, and that day is today. This means everyone and anyone can now pre-register for Nvidia’s upcoming 3080 streaming tier, which promises 120FPS streams at a maximum resolution of 1440p, all to cut down on latency while providing smooth streams. Keep in mind this tier will run subscribers $99.99 every six months.

So if you’d like to throw your hat in the ring to subscribe to Nvidia’s new 3080 tier, you can pre-order directly on Nvidia’s GeForce Now membership page.