DLSS 3 explained: How Nvidia’s AI-infused RTX tech turbocharges PC gaming

You would possibly spend high greenback for fancy new graphics card {hardware}, however one of many key elements to gaming efficiency is definitely software program. While the brute pressure of the {hardware} will get many of the glory (and is certainly important), the software program aspect is the magic that items it collectively. Without good software program, even the ferocious Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 is decreased to a elaborate paperweight—particularly when working Cyberpunk 2077‘s glorious new path traced Overdrive mode. 

Software may also considerably enhance the {hardware} efficiency. Enter Nvidia’s DLSS 3.0, or Deep Learning Super Sampling. Including each AI-powered body era and Nvidia’s wondrous latency-reducing Reflex technology, DLSS 3.0 makes for a potent recipe. 

This isn’t the identical outdated DLSS upsampling you’re used to, nevertheless. We’re going to go over some fundamentals of what DLSS 3.0 is, and its software to Nvidia’s RTX 40-series GPUs. We’ll let you understand how to make use of this function, and inform you about optimum settings on some standard supported video games. Let’s get cracking.

Further studying: The best graphics cards for PC gaming

How does DLSS 3 work?

DLSS 3 tremendously accelerates gaming body charges utilizing a combination of AI duties working on devoted tensor cores. It has three elements that make it tick. 

Super Resolution (a.ok.a. DLSS 2)

Also referred to as tremendous sampling, DLSS 3’s core “upscaler” performance is definitely the DLSS 2 know-how already built-in into numerous video games. DLSS renders recreation imagery at a decrease decision than your monitor runs at to extend uncooked gaming body charges, then makes use of AI tensor cores to reconfigure the picture with machine studying in order that it seems sharp in your display screen. This bypasses the efficiency penalty that your greater decision would impose, whereas maintaining graphics constancy excessive. 

Frame era

The novel ingredient to DLSS 3 is within the “Optical Multiframe Generation” AI know-how. After analyzing two photos from a recreation back-to-back, DLSS 3 makes use of this data to insert an additional AI-created body that doesn’t need to be rendered by the sport itself. This result’s in even greater body charges than normal DLSS 2. It may also assist dramatically improve the smoothness in CPU bottlenecked video games. 

Nvidia Reflex low latency

The third piece of the puzzle is in Nvidia’s Reflex know-how. Frame era shouldn’t be free. Those AI-generated frames aren’t managed by the participant, for the reason that recreation isn’t rendering them, so it could truly add latency (learn: scale back responsiveness) in video games. To fight this, Nvidia Reflex helps harmonize the GPU and CPU in order that latency is decreased. It helps to bypass the standard bottlenecks offered by each the GPU and CPU by deeper integration into the sport engine itself. Reflex was created years in the past to improve performance in esports games to amazing effect, however Nvidia now requires it in video games that help DLSS 3.

Speaking of…  

What do you must run DLSS 3?

An RTX 40-series graphics card

DLSS 3 is unique to Nvidia’s “Ada Lovelace” RTX 40-series graphics playing cards. It is on the market for each desktop and laptop computer choices, however not any RTX 30-series or prior GPUs. 

Nvidia says that’s as a result of the brand new Lovelace GPU structure contains extra highly effective AI tensor cores and, extra critically, a brand new “Optical Flow Accelerator” that gives scene motion information crucial to creating these AI frames. Performance on RTX 30 or older GPUs wouldn’t present a superb expertise, so for now this know-how is restricted to the extra highly effective {hardware}. Currently, 4 RTX 40-series graphics playing cards can be found that meet these necessities:

DLSS 3 shouldn’t be supported on rival AMD Radeon or Intel Arc graphics playing cards.

Certain Windows settings should be lively

You’ll additionally must activate “Hardware Accelerated GPU” in your Windows show settings.

Certain in-game settings should be lively

Only particular video games instantly help DLSS 3. You’ll need to activate “Frame Generation” settings after activating DLSS upscaling. This may also necessitate “Nvidia Reflex” being turned on, and most (however not all) video games will do that by default. You’ll additional have the choice to set Reflex to extra “Boost.” 

Supported DLSS 3 video games

There are at the moment over 25 video games which can be playable now, with many extra coming. High profile titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 5 have lately obtained DLSS 3 updates, together with new releases akin to Hogwarts Legacy. Rock Paper Shotgun maintains a useful information to all out there and upcoming DLSS 3 video games (they’re after the ray traced and DLSS video games within the listing).

Thiago Trevisan

What are DLSS 3’s drawbacks?

DLSS 3 is improbable for rising general visible smoothness, however because it develops throughout its early days, it additionally has a number of potential points to concentrate on. 

Latency

While Nvidia Reflex addresses lots of DLSS 3’s latency considerations, it’s additionally not the speedy response some customers might anticipate from esports titles. That’s why DLSS 3 is best suited to single participant video games akin to Cyberpunk 2077, Plague Tale Requiem, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and so on. Even with Reflex on, DLSS 3 can play a kind of trick in your thoughts in case you’re particularly delicate to how briskly body charges and responsiveness are intertwined, as PCWorld’s Brad Chacos defined throughout his evaluate of the RTX 4090:

“While the DLSS 3 expertise shines, it doesn’t at all times really feel extra responsive in your fingers. Running Cyberpunk 2077 at 138fps with each potential bell and whistle lively due to DLSS 3 seems completely beautiful, full cease. But one of many perks of sooner body charges is elevated responsiveness, and whereas Reflex tremendously helps with that, Cyberpunk 2077 working at 138fps doesn’t really feel considerably extra responsive than working it on the 77fps or so it hits in native 4K. Having twice as many frames seems improbable however these AI frames aren’t responding to your controls within the precise second, although it’s shut.

This shouldn’t be a unfavorable. This shouldn’t be a disadvantage. It can’t be after working Flight Sim at 120fps, and Cyberpunk 2077 with extremely ray tracing at 138fps (the RTX 3090 tops out at 48fps). But it’s value highlighting.”

Visual artifacts

Most of the DLSS 3 gaming expertise seems improbable. You gained’t discover any visible points or quirks. That mentioned, there are some video games that showcase some onscreen “artifacts” or abnormalities. UI parts may also not be displayed correctly in some titles, all areas which can be present process enchancment. The excellent news is that software program updates can treatment these points as players age. The Hardware Unboxed deep dive embedded under does an awesome job of strolling by means of DLSS 3’s visible high quality, together with highlighting potential quirks.

Needs highly effective {hardware}

DLSS 3 reveals a few of its greatest outcomes on already highly effective {hardware}, just like the Nvidia RTX 4080 or 4090. It additionally appears to do higher when it’s boosting an already-okay body charge to the next one, akin to 60 FPS to 120 FPS. Time will inform if upcoming weaker GPUs such because the RTX 4060 will nonetheless have the identical spectacular outcomes, however it ought to be promising. 

Settings overload

Console players have it simple with out as a lot customization typically! PC video games not solely have dozens of graphics settings, however it additionally has completely different ranges for every one. Add to that DLSS 3, which now has its personal hierarchy of graphic settings to study.

Thiago Trevisan

DLSS 3 settings defined 

Dozens extra settings variations have entered the fray – making it complicated for players when selecting your graphics settings. After activating DLSS, Frame Generation, and Reflex, you may have a number of extra decisions to make.

DLSS function choices

• DLSS Auto: This will attempt to hold the frames as greatest it could to your monitor’s refresh charge
• DLSS Quality: The greatest visible efficiency, with modest or not a lot FPS uplift 
• DLSS Balanced: A great mixture of upper frames and sustaining graphical constancy. 
• DLSS Performance: You’ll discover considerably much less spectacular visuals, however FPS frames are significantly greater. 
• DLSS Ultra-performance: Better FPS, however worse visuals – sometimes whenever you actually wish to overreach present {hardware} or to hit a particular FPS at the next decision. (8K Gamers, you’ll wish to study this one!) 
• DLSS Frame Generation: This setting will simply be a easy “On or Off” toggle in your recreation settings. Remember, you’ll want Ada Lovelace RTX 40 collection GPUs to work. 

Nvidia Reflex and Boost

These are sometimes discovered close to DLSS choices, however could also be elsewhere in a video menu as effectively (as in Cyberpunk 2077). Nvidia Reflex will typically be turned on routinely in most video games with Frame Generation being lively. That’s not at all times true, nevertheless, and lots of video games allow you to disable Reflex manually even when working DLSS 3 Frame Gen. (We don’t advocate doing that.) You’ll even have the choice for a “Boost” function in lots of video games. Reflex Boost overclocks your GPU so it could assist in CPU restricted situations much more. 

Even extra choices

To make issues a bit extra difficult, some video games even will let you choose solely Nvidia’s DLAA together with Frame Generation and Reflex. Plague Tale’s Requiem is one such title. DLAA mainly runs DLSS at your native monitor decision for enhanced visible sharpness and readability. When given this selection, it presents the best potential graphical setting you may obtain, balanced out by the apparent efficiency value. You can often select DLSS as an alternative if the DLAA efficiency is just too low. 

In most video games, akin to Hogwarts Legacy, DLAA will routinely be grayed out when you choose DLSS. 

The greatest DLSS 3 settings

Here’s how we use DLSS 3 settings in our personal rigs. For essentially the most highly effective {hardware}, such because the RTX 4080 and 4090, DLSS Quality ought to hold respectable frames in most video games, even at 4K, and doubly so with DLSS Frame Generation enabled.  If you like a bit extra pep in efficiency, DLSS Balanced could be the following supreme step.  You may also at all times simply set DLSS to Auto and see in case you’re pleased with the outcomes, as they may fluctuate from game-to-game. 

If you may have barely much less highly effective {hardware}, such because the RTX 4070 or some cell RTX 40 GPUs, DLSS Balanced and DLSS Performance grow to be good settings to be sure to’re hitting good frames, with the nod nonetheless going to DLSS Balanced as most popular. We’d sometimes advocate avoiding DLSS Ultra Performance, because it upscales from such a low decision picture that it degrades visible constancy a noticeable quantity. 

Some video games are simply extra demanding than others, so that you’ll be capable to choose if modifications are wanted, particularly when including ray tracing. 

DLSS 3: Let’s play some video games! 

Time to place this idea to observe. We’re going to play some significantly intense video games and see how DLSS 3 may also help. These video games have been examined at 4K, usually with Ultra or related max settings, and ray tracing on. The {hardware} is an MSI Titan GT77 laptop with a 4090 inside, which has similarities to an RTX 3090 Ti desktop GPU in efficiency. 

Keep in thoughts that that is at 4K, so folks taking part in at decrease resolutions akin to 1440p or 1080p will at all times see greater FPS generally. Ray tracing additionally considerably lowers body charges when on, so disabling that’s one other manner you may obtain greater numbers. The concept with DLSS 3 is that we are able to have our cake and eat it too! You can expertise ray tracing on Ultra, then flip on DLSS 3 to realize higher efficiency with out compromising on different visible settings. 

DLSS 3: Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 has been round for a number of years now, and lately it obtained DLSS 3 help. This recreation is infamous for crushing virtually any GPU when ray tracing is on Ultra so it’s welcomed information.

Thiago Trevisan

Let’s go over how among the settings have an effect on the general efficiency by actually pushing the system. On the MSI GT77 Titan, ray tracing on Ultra with none DLSS offers us a measly 27 FPS on this portion. That body charge is just too low to truly play, so let’s see how DLSS 3 may also help us with out having to cut back another graphics settings.

Thiago Trevisan

Next, let’s activate DLSS to Balanced, however with out switching on Frame Generation or Nvidia Reflex. Our body charge jumps to 61, a significantly better end result. The recreation nonetheless seems nice and behaves a lot smoother with this additional FPS enhance.

Our subsequent choice may have us as soon as once more setting DLSS to Balanced, however this time we’re additionally going to activate Frame Generation within the menu. Nvidia Reflex, on the adjoining “Video” menu, may also be on. The end result right here is considerably higher—a whopping 87 FPS. Remember that we began with simply 27 FPS earlier than turning on any DLSS options. 

How does it play with DLSS 3 Frame Gen lively? Quite effectively, truly. It feels superior in each approach to native rendering, or with simply common DLSS on. The recreation play is clean, and no obviously apparent artifacts or points current themselves. (They can nonetheless occur, nevertheless, akin to UI parts being a bit quirky at instances.) 

The solely draw back right here is that you just’re rising latency, which is considerably by Nvidia Reflex. The latency on this recreation is appropriate, because it’s largely a single participant recreation the place you’re exploring and sometimes participating in sooner scenes. 

A sooner paced recreation, akin to a web based multiplayer esports title, shouldn’t be a perfect match for DLSS 3 on account of this latency issue.  In Cyberpunk 2077, it really works superbly. You may also activate Frame Generation and Reflex with out DLSS, supplying you with FPS of round 47, however right here the higher profit appears to be pairing it with DLSS so you may obtain most body charges.

Brad Chacos

In Brad Chacos’ RTX 4090 desktop GPU review, we are able to see that even this ferocious flagship will get huge assist from DLSS 3. Playing it at 4K decision with ray tracing at Ultra pins the sport to 42 FPS, however DLSS efficiency with Frame Generation brings it to 138 FPS. These are staggering numbers—with ray tracing nonetheless on!

DLSS 3: Hitman 3

Thiago Trevisan

Hitman 3 is a well-liked recreation that additionally taxes methods fairly closely. With ray tracing on and DLSS off, this scene gave us solely round 30 FPS at maxed-out 4K settings. This recreation is very like Cyberpunk 2077, within the sense that it’s a slower paced model recreation, so DLSS 3 is usually a huge assist right here.

Thiago Trevisan

Switching DLSS on to Balanced, however maintaining Frame Generation Off, wielded 64 FPS. That’s certainly a big enhance, and makes the sport really feel tremendously extra playable and clean.

Thiago Trevisan

Finally, switching DLSS to Balanced, however turning on each Frame Generation and Reflex, give us actually spectacular outcomes. We’re now round 91 FPS, a giant leap from the unique 30 FPS with out DLSS 3. The recreation feels a lot smoother, and behaves very effectively. It’s troublesome to even discover the DLSS course of occurring until you’re pixel-peeping for it.

Like with the opposite video games, latency may also be elevated, and helped with Nvidia Reflex. This title is one which advantages way more from the upper FPS and higher efficiency, and any extra latency shouldn’t be very noticeable. You may also choose solely Frame era and Reflex with out DLSS, supplying you with round 50 FPS. We’d nonetheless advocate going all the way in which with DLSS Quality or Balanced nevertheless, so that you get the entire mixed DLSS 3 advantages. 

DLSS 3: Hogwarts Legacy

Thiago Trevisan

Continuing the development of extremely taxing ray traced titles, we arrive at Hogwarts Legacy. Without any DLSS, and when set to Nvidia DLAA, this scene in Hogmeade netted us solely 36 FPS at 4K. Ick. Ray tracing and all settings are set to Ultra.

Thiago Trevisan

We see higher outcomes with DLSS set to Balanced, with body charges hitting round 59. The recreation feels significantly better already, and even the body charge time appears extra constant. (You may also activate simply Frame Generation with out DLSS, getting round 56 FPS, however your latency may also improve extra that manner, so higher to pair it with DLSS.)

Thiago Trevisan

DLSS Balanced alongside Frame Generation and Reflex give us 82 FPS, an enormous enhance from the 36 FPS we first noticed. The recreation performs significantly higher, with way more constant and clean efficiency. Without DLSS 3, we’d need to decrease ray tracing or modify different settings to realize higher outcomes, so that is actually a way more preferable choice. Reflex stored the sport feeling good and responsive.

DLSS 3: Flight Simulator 2020

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is a notoriously troublesome recreation to max out due to its superbly expansive open world. It’s a extremely CPU bottlenecked recreation, making an ideal pairing with DLSS 3.

Brad Chacos

The outcomes listed here are nothing wanting spectacular. With the desktop RTX 4090 and a Ryzen 9 5900X processor, 4K native hits a playable 65 FPS—an ordinary end result for this closely CPU-bottlenecked recreation. Turning on Frame Generation and bypassing that bottleneck brings us to 122 FPS, virtually doubling the visible smoothness by blowing previous the bottleneck with AI frames. Nvidia Reflex helps to maintain the latency in verify, and it is a recreation usually effectively suited to DLSS 3 enhancements. 

This title additionally has quite a few detailed UI and in-cabin graphics that need to be generated correctly, so it’s an awesome check of how DLSS 3 can render minute particulars in sharp readability. While it’s not at all times excellent, the enhance in FPS and bypassing CPU bottlenecks are greater than a win right here. 

DLSS 3: Final ideas 

Nvidia’s DLSS 3 combines the good advantages of DLSS, together with Frame Generation and Nvidia Reflex. While help continues to be restricted to pick video games and {hardware}, and there are typically niggling artifacting and textual content points, it’s terribly promising. By permitting GPUs to stretch their legs effectively past conventional {hardware} limits, we are able to expertise greater and higher frontiers in video games as builders benefit from the know-how. 

Sure, you’re getting some extra latency, however Nvidia Reflex does a superb job at maintaining it underneath management. Often, it makes DLSS 3 video games even extra responsive than working at native decision. While you’re not prone to wish to play Counter-Strike or the like with it on, DLSS 3 is a large enhance to video games akin to Cyberpunk 2077.

With every thing working effectively, DLSS 3 looks like black magic. Games shouldn’t run this good or look this clean. If your PC helps it, we extremely advocate checking it out.