Ultimate Gaming on Mac, iPad, iPhone with GeForceNow Ultimate – See How!

It’s no secret that navigating the Apple ecosystem can often be a source of frustration. Despite having powerful Macs and incredibly capable iPads and iPhones, there are surprisingly few games truly optimized for these devices. Thus, we decided to try out the Ultimate tier of GeForce Now on our usual gear (MacBook Air, iPad Pro, iPhone) with the goal to run major AAA PC games in 4K, with Ray Tracing on, in complete silence. So, what’s the verdict?

Introduction: The Mac, a Beautiful Machine That Couldn’t Game

The story is as old as the Mac itself. Gorgeous, powerful machines built for creation, equipped with stunning displays… and a nearly deserted AAA game library. Apple users often have to settle for rare ports, indie games, or overly complex virtualization solutions that most of us eventually give up on.

NVIDIA’s GeForce Now aims to blow up this barrier. This isn’t a “Netflix for games” like Xbox Cloud Gaming; GFN is a “Bring Your Own Games” (BYOG) service. You link your Steam, Epic, Ubisoft, or Battle.net libraries, and GFN “rents” you a monstrous gaming PC (with an RTX 4080 in the Ultimate offer) to stream your own games.

For Apple users, the appeal is twofold. First, instant access to a massive PC game catalog. Second, video streaming is a task that Apple’s M-Series chips handle with baffling energy efficiency. Say goodbye to screaming fans and melting batteries.
But can theory hold up in practice? I’ve put it to the test.

Our ‘Full Apple’ Testing Protocol

We opted for a 100% wireless setup, to truly embody the typical Apple user experience. Our main desktop was a MacBook Air M4 connected to an Apple Studio Display 5K 60 Hz. On the go, we used the MacBook Air M4. For the tablet part, we chose the iPad Pro M4 with its 120 Hz OLED Tandem display, and my iPhone 17 Pro Max was used for mobile tests. Controls were handled by an Apple keyboard and mouse, along with an 8BitDo controller (you can read my review on this at Korben.info). Everything was connected to our fiber optic network, solely via a Wi-Fi 7 router (note, only your iPhone is compatible, the iPad and MacBook used are limited to Wi-Fi 6E).

All tests were conducted wirelessly to push the stability of the service, supplemented by some tests on 5G with the iPhone. We tested the Ultimate offer, the only one promising 4K, 120 FPS, and access to RTX 4080 servers with NVIDIA Reflex. Setting it up on a Mac was a breeze, just install the dedicated app. On the iPad and iPhone, however, everything goes through Safari, but that wasn’t a problem either.

Putting Games to the Test

Doom: The Dark Ages (via Xbox connected to GeForceNOW Ultimate)

This was the scare test. Our protocol had us playing on the MacBook Air M4, with a mouse (Logitech MX Master 4), all via Wi-Fi 6E, since, unfortunately, the MacBook Air M4 isn’t equipped with Wi-Fi 7. An id Software FPS demands near-zero latency. Launching Doom on a Mac, wirelessly, through the cloud… felt almost blasphemous. Yet, it worked.

With NVIDIA Reflex enabled, which is supposed to ensure good responsiveness, the experience was absolutely astonishing, I can’t get over it. The game ran perfectly smooth on the Mac’s display. The targeting was sharp, immediate, and within 30 seconds, you forget you’re streaming. Even on Wi-Fi 6E, there were no stutters, no visible artifacts even in the most chaotic fights. And the Mac stayed perfectly silent. Incredible. This is 100% approved.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows (via Steam connected to GeForceNOW Ultimate)

Here, we were after the visual wow factor. The protocol took us to the MacBook Air M4 connected to the Studio Display 5K, with a keyboard and mouse. We set GFN to 4K 60 FPS, with all game details (including Ray Tracing) maxed out. The result on the Studio Display was flawless. The 4K streamed image was perfectly clear, truly doing justice to feudal Japan.

Upon close inspection, there was a very slight compression in very dense foliage or very dark night scenes, and sometimes a bit of ghosting, but this was a minor detail given the performance. Playing such a blockbuster title, with a MacBook Air in 5K, is a luxury that only GFN allows. Here too, it’s completely okay and playable.

Diablo IV (via Battle.net connected to GeForceNOW Ultimate)

This was the “silence and endurance” test, conducted on the MacBook Air M4 in laptop mode with a mouse. After two hours of intense farming, the verdict was clear: the MacBook Air M4 was barely warm. The M4 chip decoded the GFN’s AV1 video stream without breaking a sweat, and the lack of a fan was a game-changer. Battery life was also preserved (similar consumption to streaming Netflix in 4K).

Connecting to Battle.net was seamless. For fans of long gaming sessions, the MBA M4 + GFN combo is simply unbeatable. And trust me, I’m a Diablo IV aficionado, I never thought I’d be able to play it on a Mac with such fluidity.

I, of course, found all my characters linked to my Battle.net account, pure joy.

Forza Horizon 5 (via Xbox connected to GeForceNOW Ultimate)

This test on the iPad Pro M4 with the 8BitDo controller turned out to be the ultimate mobile test. The iPad Pro’s OLED screen, combined with the ultra-smooth stream from GFN (perfectly managed via the Safari Web App) and the visual quality of Forza, offers a striking visual experience. It’s super beautiful, super playable, nothing to complain about here either.

The latency of the 8BitDo controller in Bluetooth, coupled again with Wi-Fi 6E, was imperceptible for a racing game. The only downside is inherent to the iPad: the 4:3 screen ratio imposes black bars at the top and bottom. A small price to pay for one of the best portable gaming experiences on the market.

Here too, the iPad didn’t heat up, and the battery was barely taxed. Here too, I was able to retrieve the save of my ongoing game on my Xbox console.

Chiaroscuro: Expedition 33 (via Xbox connected to GeForceNOW Ultimate)

We continued on the iPad Pro M4 with the 8BitDo controller for this RPG running on Unreal Engine 5. It’s a pure artistic marvel. On the iPad’s OLED display, the rendering is sublime. Since the game is turn-based, latency isn’t really an issue.

The iPad Pro transforms into a luxurious next-gen console, and it’s pretty awesome. Here too, the interface (designed for 16:9) accommodates the black bands but remains perfectly legible. A premium console experience thus.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (via Xbox connected to GeForceNOW Ultimate)

Strangely, it was Age of Empires that gave me the most concern, yet… The test was therefore conducted on the MacBook Air M4 with the Studio Display and a mouse. While Doom was playable thanks to Reflex and the nature of the game’s flow, an RTS requires a different precision with the mouse.

For micro-managing units, one might have felt a very slight heaviness of the mouse, but not at all. It’s smooth, precise, and mouse movements suffer no latency or slowdown, it’s perfect. Nothing to complain about once again, and I think I’ll spend hours on it.

Vampire Survivors (via Xbox connected to GeForceNOW Ultimate)

For the pure mobility test, we used an iPhone in tactile mode on 5G. The game launches in seconds. Vampire Survivors is perfect for this use case: simple, super playable on a small screen, and does not require latency to the millisecond. The game is perfectly stable, without any interruptions. It’s the ideal companion for commuting, provided you have a good plan with a bit of data, because streaming does consume.

Has the Mac Become a Gaming PC?

GeForce Now Ultimate doesn’t turn macOS into Windows. It does something better: it makes the question obsolete. On a MacBook Air M4, but it would be the same on any Mac, the experience is revolutionary. Being able to launch Doom: The Dark Ages or AC Shadows in 4K with all settings maxed out, while maintaining absolute silence and remarkable battery life, is something no gaming laptop (noisy and hot) can offer.
On the iPad Pro M4, the OLED 120 Hz display offers one of the finest images of cloud gaming available today.
Wi-Fi 7 turned out to be quite unnecessary, if only because Apple is reluctant to implement it in its hardware, even high-end. But no matter, even on Wi-Fi 6E, the Ethernet cable is almost superfluous for 95% of use cases. Only RTS or ultra-competitive FPS players will still find something to complain about regarding mouse latency.
For the frustrated Apple user I’ve been for years, the GeForce Now Ultimate subscription is not a gimmick. It’s the missing piece, the obvious and mature solution that finally unlocks the full gaming potential of a hitherto closed ecosystem.

But at What Cost?

The question of cost is often a sticking point. Or, in this case, what seals the deal. The GeForce Now Ultimate subscription costs €21.99 per month, or €109.99 for 6 months (an annual package is also offered around €219.99). For this price, the service promises access to servers equipped with RTX 4080, 8-hour sessions, 4K, DLSS, and even, for some games, RTX 5080-class performances up to 5K. Compare this to the alternative: a physical gaming PC. To achieve equivalent power, just the next-gen graphics card (like RTX 5080) alone goes for around €1100. That’s, in a single component, the equivalent of five years of GFN Ultimate subscription. If you add the rest of a coherent setup (a processor like 9800X3D at €539, 32 GB of DDR5 RAM at €200, a powerful PSU, an SSD, a motherboard…), the bill for just the tower well exceeds €2500.

All this, of course, without a monitor (which the Mac user already owns, let’s say), without peripherals, and assuming you assemble it yourself. GeForce Now doesn’t just sell you access; it sells peace of mind, as NVIDIA updates the hardware behind the scenes with each generation. You never have to worry about obsolescence again. However, keep in mind that you will still need to purchase the games, whether on Xbox, Steam, Battle.net, etc. We are really looking at a hardware replacement solution, not a game rental service.

To subscribe to the GeForceNOW Ultimate service, click here!