Just like “Terminator 2” predicted way back in ye olden times of 1991, Judgement Day is upon us. Artificial Intelligence isn’t the future anymore; it’s the here and now. We’re not quite seeing cities being engulfed in Skynet nuclear flames quite yet, but AI is increasingly hitting fans of the best PC games bank balances hard. No wonder cloud gaming looks like the most sensible option for budget-conscious gamers going forward.
Make no mistake: RAMageddon is absolutely a thing (the individual who coined that phrase deserves all the flowers). The main takeaway for PC gamers looking to buy new sticks of memory (especially DDR5)? Thanks to the combination of a DRAM oligopoly controlling 95% of memory production and colossal demand from AI and data center companies, the cost of RAM has skyrocketed a bewildering 240% on Amazon based on our recent research.
Today’s big budget games normally require at least 16GB of RAM if you hope to hit 60 FPS at high resolutions. Now obviously GPUs and CPUs remain far more important components when it comes to eking out the best performance from your gaming PC. Yet RAM also plays a key part of the equation; especially in memory-intensive titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
The cost of RAM has skyrocketed a bewildering 240% on Amazon based on our recent research”
That’s why the best cloud gaming services are becoming more and more enticing for folks who don’t want to fork out absorbent amounts for a couple of sticks of RAM or an RTX 50-series Nvidia graphics card.
For years the notion of gaming through the cloud on a smart device was looked down upon by the tiny minority of the market lucky enough to own one of the best gaming PCs. Just look back to the disastrous, short lived tenure of Google Stadia. The subpar image quality and hideous latency of Stadia’s cursed legacy still informs snobbery against modern game streaming.
On cloud nine (gaming)
Up until a couple of years ago, I’d have been right there with fellow PC elitists turning my nose up at playing my favorite Steam games through the cloud, rather than cutting edge hardware. Just like Bob Dylan once warbled, though, “The Times They Are A-Changin”. And how.
When I mentioned the best game streaming services a few paragraphs back, I really meant one in particular. That would be Nvidia GeForce Now. Though we might currently rank Xbox Game Pass Ultimate as the cream of the crop for cloud gaming for most people, as a hardcore PC gamer, I couldn’t disagree more with that choice… short of grinding my teeth to enamel oblivion.
Now that the Ultimate tier of Microsoft’s cloud service has jumped from $19.99 to $29.99 per month, its value proposition is nowhere near as appealing as it once was. Especially when the far superior GeForce Now Ultimate sub costs $19.99/£19.99 every 30 days.
It’s commendable that the Xbox cloud service runs on such a wide variety of devices; from Amazon Fire TV Sticks, tablets, MacBooks to the best phones. Compare it to the highest quality version of GeForce now though, and the subsequent fight is about as competitive as pitting a Pomeranian against a polar bear.
When our Managing Editor of Computing Jason England first tested the RTX 5080 tier that recently became available to GeForce Now Ultimate subscribers, he wrote that the high-end cloud gaming service “made my $750 PS5 Pro feel old”. Short of myself and Jason’s consciousnesses being melded by a “Pluribus” style hivemind, I couldn’t agree more with that statement.
Steam vs stream
Out of pure, massively geeky interest, I’ve done a lot of testing comparing my mobile RTX 5080-powered Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) against the 5080 tier of GeForce Now Ultimate running on the same laptop. Often I’ve found the in-game differences are comparatively razor-thin.
This has brought up a cloud vs native debate that’s made me seriously requestion buying what we consider to be 2025’s best gaming laptop.
Doom: The Dark Ages is the shining poster child for the merits of cloud gaming I’ve seen so far. Setting my native Steam version to ultra settings, DLSS quality mode, with path tracing enabled at 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, bolstered by Nvidia’s X3 frame generation, I could easily hit well over 120 FPS.
On GeForce Now 5080 levels on the same settings via the cloud on my 1GB fiber optic connection? The results were virtually identical: the streaming and native versions of the Doomslayer’s mediaeval killing quest comfortably weighing in at less than 10ms of lag.
Holy smokes is the RTX 5080-level of GeForce Now incredible on Steam Deck OLED, too. Fully taking advantage of Valve’s palm-friendly gadget, it’s about the most eye-alluring advert for what we consider to be the best handheld gaming console I can think of.
Considering the OG Steam Deck is limited to 60Hz, being able to play modern triple-A games at console-shaming frame rates at 90 FPS on Valve’s pin-sharp screen is an utter delight. The previously mentioned Doom: The Dark Ages easily runs at the Deck OLED’s 90Hz refresh rate with top-tier graphical settings and ray tracing enabled.
The Doomslayer provides gobsmacking, demon-dicing delights in your hands should you have strong broadband/fiber optic. FYI, Valve recommends an internet connection of between 50-100+ Mbps to get the most out of GeForce Now’s RTX 5080 tier.
Great Circle of life
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is even more impressive on Valve’s handheld PC. Once you figure out how to install GeForce Now on Steam Deck (a fairly simple process, especially if you pair the little machine with a mouse and keyboard), Indy’s action-adventure will blow you away.
I distinctly remember first putting MachineGames’ initially super-taxing love letter to the whip-cracking icon through its paces when it first launched on Xbox Game Pass in December 2024. Despite rocking an RTX 4080 in my home-built desktop at the time, I could barely lock to 60 FPS at 4K during the incredibly demanding sun-dappled early Marshall College level.
Fast forward with GeForce Now Ultimate taking advantage of frame-boosting Nvidia DLSS 4 features (which were patched into the Great Circle a few months after its launch), and my Steam Deck OLED can run Indy’s adventure maxed out with full path tracing at 90 FPS. Just as impressively, GeForce Now’s overlay normally tells me the game is clocking in at a responsively low 16ms of lag/ping. It’s a beautiful, buttery smooth experience on Valve’s surprisingly sharp 800p (1280 x 800) screen.
The price isn’t right
More than any other factor, it’s the cost involved with cloud gaming that makes it increasingly attractive in an era where the perils of AI have made traditional PC components prohibitely expensive. A quick search on both Amazon US/UK shows that your average third-party RTX-5080 costs roughly $1,200/£1,200. While I may generally suck at math, even my Sesame Street Big Bird brain can work out that a single desktop 5080 would cost you around 60 months of a GeForce Now Ultimate subscription.
Does Cyberpunk 2077 natively run a little smoother on my Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2025) compared to GeForce Now Ultimate’s RTX 5080 tier? Yes, by a semi-noticeable amount if you’re obsessed with frame pacing. When it comes to image quality though, even my Terminator levels of committed pupils can barely tell the difference between native and Team Green’s highest level of cloud gaming.
Couple RAMageddon with the prohibitive costs of GPUs, and the prospect of cloud gaming has never been more appealing. Don’t get me wrong, the potential of the cloud hasn’t been fully realized yet. I recently retested the PlayStation Portal and I think its picture quality absolutely sucks.
But when it comes to GeForce Now Ultimate, you’re looking at a cloud service that genuinely shames both the PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X in several key metrics if you’re fortunate to have strong, stable Wi-Fi.
Couple RAMageddon with the high costs of GPUs, and cloud gaming has never looked quite so appealing”
Ultimately, I can’t forget the RAM-shaped Dumbo in the room. During researching this article, I revisited my Amazon UK orders from 2025. Skip back to May, and I paid precisely £99.95 (around $133 by current exchange rates) for two 16GB sticks of Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 RAM.
In the build up to Christmas as I write this, the only current option on the Big A (which is admittedly through a third-party seller) for said amount of the same Corsair memory costs £504. To my American friends, that’s around $674.
Perhaps it’s time to let the age of game streaming reign supreme… as long as Nvidia GeForce Now Ultimate keeps up its immaculate standards.
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