The new DLSS boosts performance by up to five times.
With the arrival of the new RTX 4000 graphics line, we have a new innovation in performance-boosting technology.
DLSS 3 adds AI frame generation to its existing DLSS 2-based spatial upscaling.
Nvidia has shown a promotion video with RTX 4090 running the game at 200fps.
Unfortunately, we are not able to show our own frame-rate numbers in this content - only performance multipliers.
This is joined by DLSS frame generation.
This had a similar increase in latency, but without the mitigation of Reflex.
Extremely fast motion - particularly close to the camera - may cause artefacts.
Also, HUD elements have no motion vectors for the technology to track, which also has issues.
In actual gameplay though, the problems are minimal.
Acceleration is taking most games to 120fps or in excess of that, meaning per-frame persistence is very low.
Meanwhile, remember those generated frames are sandwiched by ‘perfect’ traditionally rendered ones.
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Improved performance is the point of the exercise - but also its utility in enabling new experiences.
Essentially, Remix is integrated into older titles, allowing for fully path-traced renditions of classic PC games.
The whole process is completely indepedent of the processor.
The vast majority of the action in that trailer will be CPU-constrained at around 100-120fps.
DLSS 3 frame generation is effectively doubling the frame-rate.
Even so, with just a 36 percent boost to performance, we still hit the CPU limit.
Frame generation continues to increase frame-rate, however.
Even so, the game is so fast that the latency figures are extremely low across the board.
The final title provided for testing was a preview build of Cyberpunk 2077 fromCD Projekt RED.
You’ll get an idea of the fluidity there.
This has water in full view, along with two portals facing one another.
DLSS 2 on Ampere vs DLSS 3 on Ada Lovelace essentially provides a three-times increase to performance overall.
Let’s conclude the piece by getting down to brass tacks, tackling the obvious questions.
First of all: does image quality from the AI generated frames hold up?
This depends on the speed of the action and the ability of the DLSS 3 algorithm to track movement.
Switch to full-screen view for each image and move between frames one, two and three.
The answer is… not really.
Now look at the third-person Spider-Man image comparison to the left of it in the zoomer block.
This represents something closer to normal motion within the game.
Played out on a 120Hz screen, this presents as a touch of flicker.
The only alternative for older cards I could imagine would be a lower quality version for older cards.
Next up, let’s tackle how frame generation overcomes the CPU limit.
However, frame generation can also be called frame amplification.
If the CPU isn’t supplying good frame-times, stutter can be magnified too.
The frame-rate increased dramatically with frame generation, but the stutter was amplified too.
However, the work ended up being more comprehensive than we imagined.
At the extreme level, could DLSS 3 actually work in making a 30fps game look like 60fps?
Are there inherent weaknesses in the image interpolation that are common from game to game?
This is pioneering stuff that we’ve never seen from a GPU before.
This is a game transformed, with all lighting in the game achieved via ray tracing.
In effect, it’s a path-traced rendition of one of the most demanding PC games on the market.
Consoles could never do this - it’s way beyond their capabilities.
It’s an enticing thought and we’ll be returning to DLSS 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 in future content.
