Tested: Nvidia’s new RTX feature makes ugly videos delightfully beautiful

The first time I ever noticed Nvidia’s AI-infused DLSS 2 expertise in motion, I mentioned it works like black magic. Leveraging the devoted AI tensor cores in GeForce RTX graphics playing cards let Nvidia run supported video games a lot sooner than earlier than with little to no visible downgrade. Today, Nvidia is unleashing those self same tensor cores on net movies with RTX Video Super Resolution after unveiling the function at CES 2023.

I spent the weekend enjoying round with the expertise and I’m thrilled to report that whereas there are a couple of minor DLSS-like caveats to pay attention to, RTX Video Super Resolution is an absolute sport changer on par with DLSS. If you watch net movies commonly, it’s a compelling cause to think about Nvidia over AMD when you’re shopping for a new graphics card and use Chrome or Edge. But higher but, it’s coming to present RTX 30-series GPUs in addition to Nvidia’s new RTX 40-series choices.

What is RTX Video Super Resolution?

Let’s begin with a fast recap of how RTX Video Super Resolution—launched right now in Nvidia’s new Game Ready Driver (531.14)—works.

As PCWorld’s Keith May explains within the video under, after you activate RTX Video Super Resolution within the Nvidia Control Panel (extra on that later), it runs any video displayed in Chrome or Edge by way of an AI algorithm designed to drastically enhance the ultimate picture.

“It runs [your video] by way of an algorithm that softens the darks and the blacks that get crushed and blown out and blocky, after which it’s going to take your whole high-contrast areas—like person interface components—and make them actually sharp,” Keith defined. “The final image isn’t going to be a true representation of what [native 4K video] would look like, because you’re working with a 1080p source, but it’s going to look substantially better.”

And it completely does.

There’s a bit extra taking place behind the scenes although. While Keith centered on upscaling a 1080p picture to 4K in his CES video, RTX Video Super Resolution can mechanically upscale a variety of video resolutions, from lowly 360p all the best way as much as 1440p. It doesn’t upscale at mounted resolutions both, as a substitute adjusting to suit the scale of the show window. “Your 480p video will upres to 1080p on a 1080p screen (in full-screen mode) or somewhere between 480p and 1080p depending on the size of the playback window,” Nvidia’s Jordan Dodge instructed me, and my exams affirm the actual fact.

RTX Video Super Resolution works like black magic…often

Remember the primary time you ever performed a sport on an adaptive sync G-Sync or FreeSync monitor? The distinction in moment-to-moment sport really feel was monumental, but it surely doesn’t come throughout very effectively in screenshots that solely seize a static picture in time. RTX Video Super Resolution is analogous, however you can spot some variations in freeze-frames. (I obtained entry to the function late Friday, when our manufacturing staff was busy engaged on Ryzen 9 7950X3D coverage, and was unable to seize video footage of RTX Super Resolution in motion.)

First, although, I need to speak concerning the expertise of utilizing RTX Video Super Resolution. Once you’ve tried it, you’ll by no means need to return to plain net video. I watched all kinds of 1080p movies on my 4K shows, alternating between Firefox (which doesn’t help VSR) and Chrome to see the distinction between native 1080p and VSR-upscaled 4K in actual time, and it’s flat-out revolutionary.

The greatest distinction might be seen in movies with a crisp, clear, production-quality 1080p picture at a excessive bitrate. Watching Holey Moley on Hulu and Drink Masters on Netflix with RTX Video Super Resolution Active was transformative, even on VSR’s lowest high quality preset. (It provides 4 completely different high quality ranges, with various ranges of GPU efficiency impression. More on that later.) On Firefox, the 1080p video seems to be blurry and blocky in full-screen stretched throughout my 4K panel; turning on VSR in Chrome instantly ended that, delivering a crisp, clear picture that left my jaw on the ground.

Unfortunately, neither Netflix nor Hulu allows you to take screenshots attributable to copyright protections. I used to be in a position to take some screenshots of Drink Masters’ trailer on YouTube that considerably spotlight the potential of VSR, however YouTube’s blockier decrease bitrate native picture means you gained’t see the total, borderline magical impact of RTX Video Super Resolution within the screenshots under.

Here’s an image from the trailer introducing the contestants. (I like to recommend right-clicking these photographs and choosing “view image in new tab” to see them at full 4K decision.) At native 1080p in Firefox, you see a whole lot of blurriness and blocky, jagged edges:

Here’s the identical nonetheless, taken in Chrome with VSR’s highest high quality preset enabled. Not solely is many of the blurriness gone—and what’s left might be attributed to plain movement blur—however the edges now look extremely crisp, and the improved readability helps the colours pop extra too. (Pay shut consideration to how the brightly-shirted contestants look so a lot better, the smoothness across the rightmost individuals, and even the legibility of the bottles within the again and the Netflix brand within the nook.)

Brad Chacos/iDG

In shut inspection, this static picture could look overly crisp and smoothed out, with extra sharpening than you’d often anticipate to see. It’s one thing widespread to all of the screenshots I took. But don’t be fooled; RTX Video Super Resolution seems to be beautiful in movement in comparison with commonplace net video, and also you don’t discover these potential nitpicks in anyway when a video is enjoying. Like DLSS, VSR might be pixel-peeped in particular person frames however the general in-motion impact seems to be excellent.

RTX Video Super Resolution additionally cleans up gameplay video on YouTube and Twitch to noticeable impact, however their decrease bitrates considerably stunt the impression. Watching a video of Stodeh’s favorite Call of Duty: MW2 DMZ moments undoubtedly seems to be higher general with VSR energetic, but it surely has extra problem eliminating a number of the blockiness and blurriness, particularly in fast-moving scenes with advanced gameplay occurring (comparable to when Stodeh failed a helicopter extraction and wanted to pop smoke grenades with bullets whizzing by across the 1:35 mark of the linked video). It’s nonetheless completely value activating VSR, although.

…however there are limits to its effectiveness. I additionally watched the Top Gun Maverick trailer on YouTube, manually setting the decision to 480p (a.ok.a typical VHS definition) and watching it full-screen on my 4K show. As with DLSS, VSR’s AI tensor cores can battle when it’s attempting to upscale video with exceptionally low native pixel counts.

Brad Chacos/iDG

Here’s a screenshot of the native 480p video operating in Firefox. It’s blurry, such as you’d anticipate, however the whole lot seems to be proper.

Brad Chacos/iDG

And right here’s the identical nonetheless upscaled by way of RTX Virtual Super Resolution. Open the pictures in a brand new tab and pay specific consideration to the precise facet of the man’s face. It seems to be even blurrier than the native 480p Firefox feed, with Nvidia’s AI including important distortion to his cheek and even the form of his eye. The fringe of his hairline seems overly harsh as effectively. This is not only pixel peeping. Using VSR to upres 480p video to 4K seems to be worse than native, each in stills and in movement.

Brad Chacos/iDG

…however all shouldn’t be misplaced. Here’s the identical 480p nonetheless upscaled to 1080p as a substitute. This far more cheap leap in decision leads to a a lot clearer image general, as soon as once more delivering the identical black magic-like leap in visible high quality we noticed when upscaling Drink Masters and Holey Moley from 1080p to 4K. All of the beforehand witnessed AI distortion is gone and the trailer seems to be implausible in movement.

Bottom line? Treat it moderately and RTX Virtual Super Resolution is an absolute sport changer. Get excessive and issues can begin to go off the rails. Fortunately, most individuals gained’t be upscaling 480p video to 4K fairly often.

But how does RTX Virtual Super Resolution truly change your video games?

RTX Video Super Resolution efficiency impression

Virtual Super Resolution makes use of your Nvidia RTX graphics card’s GPU and tensor core muscle to attain its results, so it stands to cause that activating it might probably hinder gaming efficiency. The excellent news: It’s solely a priority whenever you’re actively gaming and watching a video concurrently. The much less excellent news? RTX VSR will ship efficiency plummeting when you do this, so that you gained’t need to depart YouTube movies enjoying on a second display screen when you’re slaying noobs in Call of Duty.

Nvidia truly provides 4 high quality preset ranges with VSR, with various ranges of visible effectiveness and efficiency impression. Level 1 is the least strenuous (whereas nonetheless offering a large visible high quality enhance), whereas degree 4 is probably the most. I repeatedly watched the primary chapter of Stodeh’s video with Windows 10’s Task Measure operating to get a really feel for what every setting wanted, maintaining a tally of how a lot the RTX GPU was being utilized through the run.

Actual GPU utilization can fluctuate relying on the complexity of the scene being upscaled, I found, however right here’s a broad have a look at the outcomes:

• RTX VSR off – between 4 and 33% GPU utilization, principally 17-19%
• VSR 1 – between 25 and 33%, often 32%
• VSR 2 – 24 to 35%, constant 30-34%
• VSR 3 – 29 to 35%, constant 34 to 36%
• VSR 4 – 44 to 46% constant

So turning on VSR even at its lowest degree makes use of a considerable chunk of your GPU, however there’s little or no efficiency distinction between VSR preset 1 and 3. Using preset 4 makes use of probably the most grunt, but additionally delivers by far the very best visuals.

Brad Chacos/iDG

But what does that imply in follow? To measure VSR’s impression, I ran Cyberpunk 2077’s strenuous benchmark at 4K decision and the Ultra graphics preset, to saturate the GPU, whereas additionally enjoying Episode 3 of Netflix’s Drink Masters full-screen on my second 4K show, upscaling the native 1080p video with VSR on. I examined with each VSR 1 and 4 presets, and in addition examined whether or not activating DLSS and DLSS Frame Gen damage efficiency much more, since each DLSS and RTX Video Super Resolution lean on Nvidia’s tensor cores. Both the common body fee and the minimal body fee matter right here, as minimal body charges have an effect on the general feeling of smoothness in a sport. The outcomes:

• Native Cyberpunk, no video enjoying – 83.29 avg, 54.23 min
• Netflix video enjoying, VSR off – 81.78 avg, 40.40 min
• Netflix on, VSR 1 on – 48.74 avg, 39.66 min
• Netflix on, VSR 4 on – 44.55 avg, 36.97 min

As you may see, enjoying a video on a second monitor whereas operating Cyberpunk with out VSR on doesn’t actually have an effect on the common body fee, however sends the minimal body fee plummeting. That’s to be anticipated whenever you’re operating a background video like that although. Flipping on VSR immediately tanks the common body fee nevertheless, sending the frames per second plummeting by roughly 40 %, on prime of the usual drop in minimal body charges that merely streaming a video entails.

There’s no actual efficiency distinction between VSR 1 and 4, nevertheless. But does that maintain true when the tensor cores are being lit up by VSR and DLSS alike? Nope.

• Native Cyberpunk, no video enjoying – 83.29 avg, 54.23 min
• Netflix on, VSR off, DLSS 3 (balanced) Frame Gen on – 110.48 avg, 72 min
• Netflix on, VSR 1 on, DLSS 3 (balanced) Frame Gen on – 106.44 avg, 69.86 min
• Netflix on, VSR 4 on, DLSS 3 (balanced) Frame Gen on – 87.27 avg, 61.66 min

Turning on DLSS 3 Frame Gen instantly supercharges Cyberpunk’s common and minimal body charges alike, even with Nvidia Reflex disabled (as I did for my testing). With half the sport frames being generated by Nvidia’s AI cores, releasing stress from the GPU cores, flipping on VSR 1 barely impacts efficiency in anyway. But each the common and minimal body instances undergo with the extra intensive VSR 4 enabled. It’s value declaring that VSR’s efficiency impression is lessened with DLSS 3 Frame Gen turned on, nevertheless, and even the worst-case DLSS/VSR 4 outcomes ship considerably higher efficiency than Cyberpunk operating with out DLSS energetic.

All in all, I wouldn’t run a VSR-upscaled video in a browser whereas gaming, as a result of its efficiency impression might be tangible. It gained’t be a difficulty when you aren’t gaming and watching concurrently, nevertheless. If you need to watch vids whereas gaming, flipping VSR on or off is fast and straightforward.

How to activate RTX Video Super Resolution

Now that you know the way RTX Video Super Resolution works, it’s time to point out you how one can flip it on. You can’t merely press a keyboard shortcut or flip a button in GeForce Experience. Instead, you could dive into the sluggish, long-overdue-for-an-update Nvidia Control Panel.

First although, be sure you have what you want. Update your GeForce GPU to the most recent Game Ready Driver, as right now’s launch consists of VSR help, and ensure both Chrome or Edge are absolutely up to date as effectively. Your GPU drivers and browser each must be on a contemporary construct with VSR help for it to work. You’ll additionally have to have an Nvidia GeForce RTX 30- or 40-series GPU.

Nvidia

Once that’s executed, right-click in your desktop and choose Nvidia Control Panel. In the window that opens, choose the Adjust Video Image Settings choice within the Video part of the left-hand pane. Select the monitor you need to use VSR with, verify the Super decision field within the RTX video enhancement part, and select a high quality preset—I like to recommend 4, because it delivers the very best expertise and also you don’t need to run VSR movies whereas gaming in any case. Then click on Apply and begin your VSR upscaling engines.

If you need to disable VSR whereas gaming—and once more, it’s best to when you depart movies operating in a browser when you play—simply disable that checkbox and hit Apply as soon as extra.

Bottom line: RTX Video Super Resolution is a sport changer

That’s a whole lot of phrases to say: Nvidia’s new RTX Video Super Resolution completely rocks.

You gained’t need to hold it continuously energetic when you watch movies whereas gaming, and I want there was a neater approach to flip it on and off by way of GeForce Experience or a hotkey, however these are minor gripes. Watching net movies with RTX Video Super Resolution energetic is like leaping from VHS tapes to Blu-ray discs. Once you attempt it, you gained’t need to return to the best way issues have been. If you watch a whole lot of movies in your browser, RTX Video Super Resolution is correct up there with Nvidia Broadcast and DLSS as a killer GeForce function, and a compelling cause to think about an Nvidia GPU over rivals. Bravo.