For GeForce NOW, NVIDIA wants an internet connection of at least 15 Mbps for 720p, 25 Mbps for Full HD at 60 FPS and 45 Mbps for 4K at 120 FPS. Besides speed, though, it sets a second requirement that people forget about: latency from your device to the data center must be under 80 ms. A connection with an impressive advertised speed that keeps fluctuating is therefore worse for cloud gaming than a steady line with half the speed.
Compared to watching video, there’s one fundamental difference here: game footage can’t be buffered in advance. Every button press travels to the server and the finished frame comes back, so a two-second dropout happens right in the game. How the whole model works is covered in the overview of what GeForce NOW is.
How many megabits each resolution needs
The table applies to the app on Windows, macOS and Linux. These are recommended download speeds for each combination of resolution and frame rate, not the minimum at which a session will start at all.
| Resolution and frame rate | Recommended speed |
|---|---|
| HD up to 60 FPS (1280×720) | 15 Mbps |
| Full HD at 60 FPS (1920×1080) | 25 Mbps |
| QHD and UW QHD at 120 FPS (2560×1440 or 3840×1440) | 35 Mbps |
| 4K at 120 FPS (3840×2160) | 45 Mbps |
| QHD and Full HD at 240 and 360 FPS | 55 Mbps |
| 5K at 120 FPS (5120×2180) | 65 Mbps |
NVIDIA lists two numbers only in its FAQ, and they’re missing from the system requirements table. For 1920×1080 at 360 FPS it gives 48 Mbps, which is less than the 55 Mbps the table assigns to 240 and 360 frames in general. And for Cinematic Quality Streaming mode it recommends a full 100 Mbps, the highest requirement the service has.
The top half of the table only matters if you have a plan that unlocks higher resolutions. The free membership is capped at 1080p and 60 FPS, so the service won’t pull more than 25 Mbps from your line anyway.
Mobile, browser and TV have different numbers
There’s no single universal table. NVIDIA has a separate one for each class of device, and they differ mainly in where they top out.
| Where you play | Recommended speeds |
|---|---|
| Browser and Android | 15 / 25 / 35 Mbps |
| Chromebook | 15 / 25 / 35 Mbps |
| iPhone and iPad | 15 / 25 Mbps |
| Gaming handhelds | 15 / 25 / 35 Mbps |
| Smart TV | 15 / 25 Mbps, 40 Mbps for 4K at 60 FPS, 45 Mbps for 4K at 120 FPS |
| Android TV and Fire TV | 15 and 25 Mbps |
| SHIELD TV | 15 / 25 / 35 Mbps and 40 Mbps for 4K at 60 FPS |
| Headsets in 2D theater mode | 15 / 25 / 35 Mbps, 45 Mbps for QHD at 90 FPS, 40 Mbps for 4K up to 60 FPS, 55 Mbps for 4K up to 90 FPS |
A shorter table for iPhone or Fire TV doesn’t mean a more economical stream, but a lower quality ceiling: you can’t go beyond Full HD at 60 FPS on them. What each platform can handle is covered in the overview of devices for GeForce NOW, and living room setups get their own guide to playing on a TV.
Latency under 80 ms is a requirement, not advice
NVIDIA phrases it as a requirement, not a recommendation: network latency between the gaming device and the data center must be lower than 80 ms. For handhelds, the Czech version of the page adds that for the best experience it’s better to stay under 40 ms.
For players in Czechia, this leads to one inconvenience. NVIDIA has no server of its own in Czechia or Slovakia. For Europe, the service’s status page lists the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Poland and Bulgaria, so the closest are Poland and Germany. If you have a long route to the backbone network or a slow last-mile connection, you may not fit under eighty milliseconds even if your speed has plenty of headroom. Rival Boosteroid has servers right in Czechia, in a Czech Radiocommunications data center, and that’s its main advantage over GeForce NOW.
Why hundreds of megabits alone won’t help
Speed is only one of four things GeForce NOW monitors on the network. The built-in network test measures throughput, packet loss, delay variation (jitter) and latency (ping), and NVIDIA adds that a good connection has zero packet loss and low jitter. Regular speed testers, meanwhile, test something other than the route to the server your game will run on.
In practice, this means the following. A lost packet isn’t a slowdown but a hole in the picture that the decoder has to fill with something. Fluctuating delay forces the service to keep a longer buffer, which shows up as lag between your hand and what’s happening on screen. Even a gigabit connection can do both when it’s running a cloud backup and two 4K videos at the same time.
What helps is a cable, or at least a router with 5 GHz Wi-Fi, which NVIDIA recommends directly. The network test itself reports when you’re on a 2.4 GHz network. You can try it without paying, because the test is available on the free membership too and you can run it before you buy anything. We’ve written up separately what the free tier can do, and if the stream keeps stuttering even after the test, a step-by-step process is in the article what to do when GeForce NOW isn’t working.
Mobile data and shared connections
NVIDIA itself warns that cloud gaming on mobile data can use up your data allowance quickly. You can do the math yourself: 25 Mbps for Full HD means roughly 11 GB per hour of gaming, so a typical monthly data plan is gone in a single weekend.
A shared connection is similarly treacherous. Evening peak hours, a second TV in the apartment and background backups eat into throughput exactly when you want to play. When you can’t raise the speed, what’s left is lowering the demands, which is covered in GeForce NOW settings.
Who won’t get their money’s worth from the cloud on their connection
- Anyone on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi through two walls. Not even the most expensive plan helps here. Either use a cable or stay within range of a 5 GHz network.
- Anyone using mobile data as their main connection. Data volume is only half the problem, the other half is fluctuating latency.
- Anyone who plays competitively. The trip to Poland or Germany and back gets added to your monitor’s response time, which you’ll notice in ranked games even when you meet the 80 ms.
- Anyone buying Ultimate for 4K on a 25 Mbps line. The resolution gets unlocked, the line can’t handle it and the extra money gets you nothing.
On the other hand, a stable fixed line of 25 Mbps or more with a cable to your computer is more than enough for Full HD and also solves most complaints about stuttering. Whether cloud gaming makes sense in general is discussed in the introduction to cloud gaming.
FAQ
15 Mbps for 720p at 60 FPS, 25 Mbps for Full HD at 60 FPS, 35 Mbps for QHD at 120 FPS and 45 Mbps for 4K at 120 FPS. The highest entries in the table are 55 Mbps for 240 and 360 frames and 65 Mbps for 5K. On mobile, TV and in the browser the caps are lower.
NVIDIA requires network latency to its data center under 80 ms. The Czech version of the page recommends less than 40 ms for the best results. Above 80 ms, the service doesn’t just feel slower, it becomes unusable, because the lag between controller and picture is then constantly noticeable.
Yes, but NVIDIA recommends a cable and, among wireless networks, only the 5 GHz band. The built-in network test also flags 2.4 GHz as a problem. Wi-Fi makes latency fluctuate, and in a game that hurts more than a speed a few megabits lower would.
Download speed is only one of four measured values. Stuttering is usually caused by packet loss and jitter, which a regular speed test won’t show. A congested line has the same effect when a download or a video in another room is running on it at the same time.
Technically yes, in practice with caution. NVIDIA itself warns that cloud gaming can use up your data allowance quickly, and on top of that comes the fluctuating latency of mobile networks. It works as a backup solution when traveling, not as your main connection.
You’ll find other articles about cloud gaming in the cloud gaming section on Gamers Together. NVIDIA adjusted its connection requirements together with its plans in 2026, so check the table against its website before you buy. Information verified as of 18 August 2026.