Nvidia GeForce Now launches in South Africa
Rain has announced the official launch of Nvidia’s GeForce Now service in South Africa, with prices starting at R200 per month.
The launch follows the service’s successful beta testing over the past few months.
“GeForce Now Powered by Rain cloud gaming is here,” the network operator said in a statement provided to MyBroadband.
“South Africans can now get their game on anywhere, on any device. Rain has brought the world’s leading cloud gaming service to the African continent for the very first time. ”
GeForce Now is the first cloud gaming service officially available in South Africa, offering users without a high-end gaming PC the ability to play the latest titles.
The service is available on Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS smartphones, smart TVs, and certified Android TV boxes.
The most affordable option available in South Africa is the Priority Plan, which was available with more limited features during the beta testing period.
Priced at R200 per month, the Priority plan limits gaming sessions to 3 hours and lets users benefit from Nvidia’s RTX ray tracing technology for applicable titles.
The Priority plan lets subscribers play games at a maximum 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second via a dedicated gaming server with an RTX 3060 graphics card.
Once the session time is done, you will have to restart whatever game you were playing and might be placed in a queue if no gaming servers are available.
Rain also offers a higher-end Ultra tier, priced at R400 per month.
The Ultra plan supports 8-hour gaming sessions and gives users access to GeForce RTX 3080 servers.
The Ultra plan enables gameplay at up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second or 1440p resolution at 120 frames per second.
Rain and non-Rain customers can sign up to use the service, with the network operator’s customers receiving a 20% discount on the monthly subscription fees.
Rain subscribers will pay R160 for the Priority plan and R320 for Ultra.
However, Rain has advised that sign-ups are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Those who sign up for the service can stream games they already own from various digital gaming stores, including Steam, the Microsoft Store, the Epic Games Store, and Ubisoft’s store. Microsoft’s “Netflix for games” subscription service, Game Pass, is also supported.
The invitation-only beta testing ran from late September to 4 December 2023.
MyBroadband received an invitation to the Nvidia GeForce Now beta, and our testing revealed that it could be a game-changer for gamers in the country.
We played several online multiplayer and single-player titles, including Apex Legends, Atomic Heart, Counter-Strike 2, and Starfield, on the Priority plan.
MyBroadband tested Starfield during the beta.
Playing Apex Legends and Counter-Strike 2 on the highest-possible graphics setting provided an impressive experience.
We experienced frame rates between 100 and 120 frames per second, with a typical latency of 4ms during gameplay.
In Atomic Heart, we used the highest “Atomic” preset, which provided a constant frame rate of 60 frames per second.
However, our testing of Starfield — a newer and far more graphically intense title — was less impressive.
With settings maxed out in 1080p resolution, we saw frame rates between 15 and 22 frames per second.
Dropping the graphics did show some improvements, with the “High” graphics profile on native rendering producing about 20–25 frames per second and 25-30 frames per second at the Medium preset.
However, it should be noted that only the Priority plan was available during beta testing, and Starfield will likely perform far better with the dedicated RTX 3080 server offered in the Ultra plan.
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