What is DLSS ve Why It's Important for Gaming? Nvidia DLSS Everything you need to know about. Nvidia's DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, is among the most controversial topics in PC gaming today: some love it, some hate it, and others are confused. The battle often devolves into good old-fashioned flame wars between AMD and Nvidia fans, which can make understanding the truth about DLSS even more difficult.
Yet the reality of DLSS is simple, once the hype and nonsense are put aside. DLSS is a great feature that can significantly improve performance, but it's only useful if the PC games you enjoy support it.
What is DLSS?
Nvidia DLSS is an acronym for Deep Learning Super Sampling. However, this acronym is outdated because DLSS now includes features far beyond supersampling. DLSS has evolved into a set of neural processing techniques that use deep learning to improve image quality and performance.
The most basic implementation of DLSS, often called DLSS 2 today, examines frames and predicts what they should look like at a higher resolution (which is why Nvidia originally called this technique “supersampling”). It improves gaming performance by rendering games at a resolution below a display's native resolution and then using artificial intelligence to upscale the result.
Cyberpunk 2077 is an ideal example. If you choose 4K resolution and select DLSS Quality mode, the game will be rendered at 1440p resolution. DLSS upscales the result to 4K. 1440p resolution requires less GPU power to render, thus increasing the frame rate of the game.
However, it is important to understand that DLSS uses neural processing to upscale the image. This is a big change from older techniques such as checkerboard rendering. Therefore, DLSS can add details that are not visible when the game is rendered at native resolution with DLSS turned off, preserving details lost with other upscaling methods. This is an impressive trick.
Beyond Supersampling: DLSS 3 and DLSS 3.5
Supersampling isn't the only trick Nvidia has up its sleeve. New versions of DLSS bring new features: DLSS 3 adds Frame Generation and DLSS 3.5 improves ray tracing.
DLSS 3 Frame Generation uses existing frames and deep learning to predict what a new frame should look like. When this feature is on, DLSS 3 can insert a new frame between each local frame.
It is no different from popular text-to-image applications such as Dall-E 2 and Stable Diffusion. Although these applications work primarily with text input, they can also be used to upgrade, expand, or replace existing images. That's what DLSS 3 does. It uses locally rendered frames as the basis for new frames created by the AI.
DLSS 3.5 (announced but not yet released) will use deep learning to improve ray tracing performance. Modern ray tracing, while impressive, does not emit enough rays to fill every pixel of a screen – that would be overwhelming. To get around this, games use “denoising” techniques to guess missing information.
It works, but the results are imperfect, which can lead to a grainy or chunky appearance. DLSS 3.5 solves this problem with deep learning, which can learn what a scene should look like and better predict the outcome. DLSS 3.5 hasn't been released yet, so the scale of the improvement remains to be seen, but Nvidia's preview shows a huge improvement in the clarity of ray-traced elements like reflections.
What is DLSS and Why is it Important for Gaming?
Understanding how DLSS works can be confusing, but the results are easy to understand. DLSS significantly improves performance and, in some cases, image quality.
IGN's review of the RTX 4090 Founders Edition recorded an average frame rate of 2077 FPS in Cyberpunk 4 at 42K resolution and with the Ultra Ray Tracing preset turned on. This is playable, but well below the 60 FPS that most PC gamers prefer.
But when you turn on DLSS, the story changes. DLSS 2 increased performance to 84 FPS. This is already excellent, but DLSS 3 overclocks the game, increasing the average frame rate to an incredible 136 FPS. That's a 300 percent improvement over native imaging. Who wouldn't want this?
There are some caveats to this. DLSS 3 may experience latency issues with V-Sync turned on or when used on entry-level hardware that cannot natively render the game beyond 30 frames per second. Still, DLSS 3 is an impressive technology and worth using in most games.
DLSS can also improve image quality. DLSS 2 supersampling can provide small image quality benefits in some scenarios because, as mentioned before, Nvidia's deep learning can reveal normally invisible details. This often occurs along thin, high-contrast edges such as power lines or chain link fences. However, this is not a guaranteed success and exact results vary from game to game.
DLSS 3.5 is where image quality can really take a leap. Nvidia's sample images for DLSS 3.5 show obvious improvements in the clarity of ray tracing. The light seems to disperse more naturally, and the mirror-like reflections are much closer to what they would “really” look like. However, this feature hasn't been released yet and will probably take some time to appear in a large number of games.
The key takeaway is this: DLSS can greatly increase a game's performance and, in some cases, slightly improve image quality. Given these advantages, DLSS should be used as often as possible.
DLSS vs. AMD FSR vs. Intel XeSS
Nvidia's DLSS has competitors. AMD's alternative is FideltyFX Super Resolution (FSR), while Intel's answer is Xe Super Sampling (XeSS).
DLSS has a significant advantage over its competitors thanks to its unique ability to create new frames. In contrast, Intel XeSS uses machine learning to enhance images from a lower rendering resolution to match your display's native resolution (like Nvidia's DLSS 2), while AMD's FSR 2.0 uses a temporal upscaling method. AMD FSR 2023, scheduled for release in late 3.0, will add frame rendering, but the method AMD will use to achieve this has not yet been revealed.
Overall, Nvidia's DLSS has an edge in terms of quality and performance. It boosts frame rates more aggressively than Intel XeSS and AMD FSR, and improves image quality in ways they can't. In direct comparisons between DLSS, FSR and XeSS, DLSS consistently wins. But the news isn't all good.
Hardware and game support are obvious issues for DLSS. It's only supported on new Nvidia graphics cards, and DLSS 3 requires the latest Nvidia RTX 40 series hardware. Game support is also limited. The number of PC games with DLSS 2 support is expressed in the hundreds, although this may sound like a lot, there are thousands of games that do not support DLSS. DLSS 3 support is even less common.
Nvidia's approach contrasts with its rivals. AMD's FSR does not require AMD hardware, so it can run on Nvidia or Intel graphics. However, FSR requires support from the game developer, so it is not universally available.
Intel's XeSS also runs on AMD and Nvidia hardware, but runs best on Intel hardware. It also requires gaming support and the list of supported games is quite short.
Nvidia's DLSS can, in a best-case scenario, increase performance by up to 300 percent compared to native rendering, and does so without noticeably degrading image quality. On the contrary, it can sometimes improve image quality; It's a boon that will become especially noticeable when Nvidia's ray-tracing-enhancing DLSS 3.5 begins shipping in fall 2023.
DLSS is superior to AMD FSR and Intel XeSS. None of Nvidia's rivals can match the image quality, and they offer a less significant performance increase. However, this may change when AMD FSR 3.0 is released in late 2023.
However, you need new Nvidia hardware to use DLSS, and the game you're playing must support it. This is a pretty big problem. DLSS is not useful if it is not available in your favorite PC games.
That aside, DLSS is an excellent technology for PC gamers, and those with Nvidia hardware should use it as often as possible. It can noticeably improve performance with little or no downside.
What do you think about this subject? Do not forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments section. For all our content The Gamer Station All Contents
The products discussed here have been independently selected by our editors. If you purchase something featured on our site, The Gamer Station may receive a share of the revenue.
The original language of the articles is Turkish. We broadcast in 18 different languages. If you see a wrong sentence or word in the content, please feel free to inform us in the comments!