The release of Doom: The Dark Ages has first-person shooter fans excited to dive into its immersive and expansive world. However, the game is proving to be quite demanding for portable play, as expected, since the system requirements revealed that a ray tracing-capable GPU is required. Performance reviews on the Steam Deck show a barely stable 30 FPS experience, even with FSR set to Ultra Quality or the resolution dropped to 540p.

The game also uses a significant amount of VRAM, once again suggesting that 8GB GPUs are quickly becoming outdated for AAA titles. With older graphics cards struggling to keep up with the updated visuals, Doom: The Dark Ages is starting to look more like a cloud gaming job, especially on handhelds. Steam Deck rivals also fail to deliver great performance on the go.

Doom: The Dark Ages arrives on May 15 on GeForce Now

With the game running poorly on the Steam Deck and other handhelds, the only real answer is cloud gaming. This is a similar situation to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, another title that requires raytracing as a minimum spec. Nvidia's GeForce NOW has become one of the most popular cloud gaming platforms, and with Nvidia announcing full GFN support for the Steam Deck, it's now more than a viable option for playing modern AAA titles without worrying about hardware limitations.

Doom: The Dark Ages is set to arrive on GeForce NOW on May 15th, meaning in just two days you'll be able to stream it directly from Nvidia's servers. Other cloud gaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming, Shadow PC, and CloudDeck are also said to support the game around the same time, though Amazon Luna is currently among those that won't have it available.

• GeForce NOW: Coming May 15, 2025
• Xbox Cloud Gaming: Coming May 15, 2025
• airgpu: Coming May 15, 2025
• CloudDeck: Coming May 15, 2025
• Highscore: Coming May 15, 2025
• Shadow PC: Coming May 15, 2025

Source: Cloud Dosage

Performance level when playing Doom: The Dark Ages on GeForce NOW will depend on your subscription tier. The Ultimate plan offers up to 4K streaming and 240 FPS, while the Performance tier should be enough for most users, delivering up to 1440p resolution and a solid 60 FPS. That said, despite the ongoing negativity surrounding GeForce NOW, we'd still recommend it for most users, especially those who want to enjoy single-player titles.

About the Author

Hassam Nasir

Hassam boasts over seven years of professional experience as a dedicated PC hardware reviewer and writer.