NVIDIA Image Scaling technology, DLSS It may not have the same level of graphics boosting technology as, but it has similar functionality. The image scaling feature aims to increase frame rates by rendering games at a lower resolution and then expanding them to native resolution.
Unlike DLSS, there is no requirement to have one of NVIDIA's RTX series graphics cards to use the NVIDIA Display Scaling feature. All you need is a Maxwell generation or next generation NVIDIA graphics card. Therefore, this technology can be used by many more people.
How NVIDIA Display Scaling Technology Works
The way NVIDIA Display Scaling works is more like AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology than AI-powered DLSS. Because this feature by itself doesn't include any intelligent anti-aliasing, it only applies a resolution boosting algorithm with a sharpening effect to reduce visible blur.
However, in order to activate the NVIDIA Image Scaling technology, you are required to make adjustments such as DLSS and FidelityFX Super Resolution before entering the game, not in-game. The good thing about this approach is that the image scaling feature can potentially work with any game, not just games with developer-made support.
How to Enable NVIDIA Image Scaling Technology?
There are two different ways to enable NVIDIA Image Scaling. One of these GeForce Experience application, and the other is the NVIDIA Control Panel. Using NVIDIA GeForce Experience may make more sense for people using other features, but it can also cause some compatibility issues. Because in a game that cannot be "optimized" with NVIDIA GeForce Experience, Display Scaling is not available unless you set it in NVIDIA Control Panel.
Before we explain how you can enable and use Display Scaling technology, let's also remember this: Whichever of the two methods you use, first make sure your NVIDIA graphics drivers are up to date.
How to Use Image Scaling Technology with NVIDIA Control Panel
- My name: Open NVIDIA Control Panel and click “Manage 3D Settings” from the menu on the left side of the window. The "Image Scaling" setting should be at the top of the General Settings menu. If the image scaling setting is not available, update your graphics card drivers to the latest version.
- My name: After clicking Image Scaling, click “On (GPU Scaling and Sharpening)” and leave the “Overlay Indicator” box checked as well. You can use the sharpening slider to set the global sharpening filter intensity. However, later on, you may want to set different sharpening values for different games. It is recommended to leave the sharpening slider in the 60-70% range as a start. Because this ratio often makes high-end games look more vibrant without looking overly processed.
- My name: Click “OK” and then “Apply” at the bottom of the window to save your changes. Then exit the NVIDIA Control Panel and start a game.
- My name: Considering that you left the "Overlay Indicator" box checked in the second step, you should see a blue "NIS" indicator in the upper left corner of your screen. This indicator means that the sharpening component of the image scaling feature is active, but the image scaling is not active. To improve the display performance, you must enable the image scaling feature. Log into the game's display settings menu and set the screen resolution to a value lower than your native resolution but using the same aspect ratio. For example, if you are using a 3840×2160 monitor, set this value to 2450×1440 or 1920×1080. The lower you set the resolution, the greater the performance gain. However, we still need to point out: Although doing this will increase performance in the games you play, the image quality will be lower than the original version even if the image scaling feature is enabled.
- My name: After changing the resolution in the game's display settings menu, the color of the NIS indicator should change from blue to green. This color change means that both the image scaling and sharpening components are active. If the color of the NIS indicator does not change, exiting and restarting the game may be a solution.
- My name: As you experiment with NVIDIA Image Scaling with different games, you may find that the global sharpening value may be too high or too low for certain games. In such a case, you can go back to the NVIDIA Control Panel and click "Manage 3D Settings" and then open the "Program Settings" tab.
After selecting a game from the drop-down list of applications under the “Select the program to customize” section at the top of the “Program Settings” tab, click “Use general settings (On)” opposite the Image Scaling feature and set a different sharpening value using the sharpening slider.
Finally, click “OK” and then “Apply” to save the changes. Also note that you can only make this sharpening setting change if the "Image Scaling" feature is enabled in the "General Settings" tab. While you can customize the sharpening intensity for each game individually, the NVIDIA Control Panel does not allow you to simultaneously enable “Image Scaling” for certain games and disable it for others.
How to Use Image Scaling with GeForce Experience
- My name: Open NVIDIA GeForce Experience and open the “General Settings” menu by clicking the gear icon at the top right of the application window, just to the left of your username.
My name: Scroll down the page to find the “Image Scaling” section and click the toggle button at the top right of the Image Scaling section to activate this feature. - My name: This method differs from the method we use in the NVIDIA Control Panel in that you select a render resolution outside of the game. In the “Image Scaling” section, click on a resolution option available to you. And then apply the settings to all your games at the same time by clicking the green “Optimize” text in the pop-up window that appears at the bottom left of the screen. Alternatively, after selecting a resolution in the “Image Scaling” section, instead of clicking on the “Optimize” text in the pop-up window that appears at the bottom left of the application screen, you can also do the following: Click on any game in the “Home Page” tab and then click on the green color on the right side of the screen. You can click the “Optimize” button.
- My name: Don't forget to adjust the sharpening filter. Sharpening can be adjusted with the slider just below the “Rendering Resolution” options in the “Image Scaling” section in the “General Settings” menu. This setting seems to work fine for most games, somewhere in the 60-70% range. However, if you are not satisfied, you can change this setting at any time later.
- My name: Finally, launch any game optimized through the NVIDIA GeForce Experience application and check if the NVIDIA Display Scaling feature is working. A green "" in the corner of your screenNIS” indicator and the screen resolution should be set to match the rendering resolution you selected.
If the NVIDIA Image Scaling feature is not working, exit the game and follow the same steps to choose a different resolution. If the NIS indicator is blue, it means that sharpening is applied but no image scaling is applied.
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