Nvidia GeForce Now is capping FPS for Priority tier users

Nvidia’s game streaming service, GeForce now, has been caught limiting frame rates for players on its priority tier service.

After noticing their session of Guardians of the Galaxy was limited to a hard 50 frames per second via the in-game menu, a Reddit user decided to ask Nvidia what was going on. After escalating to level 2 customer support, they received a confirmation from Nvidia that this limit in frame rate is intentional, and in fact is common amongst quite a few AAA games on the service.

It’s what Nvidia has called the Optimal Playable Settings, or OPS. It’s essentially a limit on the FPS, according to Nvidia’s new support page explaining the deliberate measure. Members of the two paid tiers of GeForce Now, Priority and RTX 3080, should have options to change this for most games. However, a fair few new games also listed in the document, have been limited for Priority tier users due to performance issues. 

The Priority tier GeForce Now service boasts a premium rig with RTX On, that will deliver up to 1080p at 60FPS for those who subscribe. All of the games listed are still above 45FPS with most sitting over 50, so it’s not like users are seeing snail paced action compared to what they expect. But it’s still a bit worrying that these premium rigs aren’t up to the task, especially given that the limitations are not due to anything on the player side of this equation.

The contents of the list are also a little off. For starters Guardians of the Galaxy, the game the reddit user was originally investigating and had confirmed to be limited to 50FPS, isn’t even there. Seeing a game like Dying Light limited to 50FPS while Outriders can still run a little higher at 55 also induces a bit of head scratching.

It could well be that Nvidia’s rigs are also suffering due to the chip shortages which even the CEO doesn't see ending anytime soon, and just aren’t living up to what the company expected but it’s still a bit odd. Still, those shortages also mean that even with some games playing at a few less frames per second, GeForce Now may be one of the only options for people wanting to have a top tier PC gaming experience at the moment. Especially given it even works on Xbox. Even after doubling in price earlier this year, around $50 USD for six months of Priority GeForce Now is significantly cheaper and easier to get than a new GPU.