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

Software also can considerably enhance the {hardware} efficiency. Enter Nvidia’s DLSS 3.0, or Deep Learning Super Sampling. Including each AI-powered body technology 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This isn’t the identical outdated DLSS upsampling you’re used to, nonetheless. We’re going to go over some fundamentals of what DLSS 3.0 is, and its utility to Nvidia’s RTX 40-series GPUs. We’ll let you know the way to make use of this characteristic, and inform you about optimum settings on some common supported video games. Let’s get cracking.

Further studying: The best graphics cards for PC gaming

How does DLSS 3 work?

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

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

Also referred to as tremendous sampling, DLSS 3’s core “upscaler” performance is definitely the DLSS 2 expertise already built-in into numerous video games. DLSS renders sport 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 appears sharp in your display. This bypasses the efficiency penalty that your increased decision would impose, whereas conserving graphics constancy excessive. 

Frame technology

The novel factor to DLSS 3 is within the “Optical Multiframe Generation” AI expertise. After analyzing two pictures from a sport back-to-back, DLSS 3 makes use of this data to insert an additional AI-created body that doesn’t must be rendered by the sport itself. This result’s in even increased body charges than commonplace DLSS 2. It also can 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 expertise. Frame technology is just not free. Those AI-generated frames aren’t managed by the participant, because the sport isn’t rendering them, so it might really add latency (learn: cut back responsiveness) in video games. To fight this, Nvidia Reflex helps harmonize the GPU and CPU in order that latency is diminished. It helps to bypass the normal bottlenecks introduced 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 it is advisable to run DLSS 3?

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An RTX 40-series graphics card

DLSS 3 is unique to Nvidia’s “Ada Lovelace” RTX 40-series graphics playing cards. It is accessible 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 consists of extra highly effective AI tensor cores and, extra critically, a brand new “Optical Flow Accelerator” that gives scene motion data vital to creating these AI frames. Performance on RTX 30 or older GPUs wouldn’t present an excellent expertise, so for now this expertise 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 is just not supported on rival AMD Radeon or Intel Arc graphics playing cards.

Certain Windows settings must be energetic

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

Certain in-game settings must be energetic

Only particular video games straight help DLSS 3. You’ll must activate “Frame Generation” settings after activating DLSS upscaling. This may even 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 further “Boost.” 

Supported DLSS 3 video games

There are at the moment over 25 video games which are 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 accessible and upcoming DLSS 3 video games (they’re after the ray traced and DLSS video games within the record).

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What are DLSS 3’s drawbacks?

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

Latency

While Nvidia Reflex addresses plenty of DLSS 3’s latency considerations, it’s additionally not the speedy response some customers could count on from esports titles. That’s why DLSS 3 is best fitted 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 form of trick in your thoughts for those who’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 experience shines, it doesn’t always feel more responsive in your hands. Running Cyberpunk 2077 at 138fps with every possible bell and whistle active thanks to DLSS 3 looks absolutely stunning, full stop. But one of the perks of faster frame rates is increased responsiveness, and while Reflex greatly helps with that, Cyberpunk 2077 running at 138fps doesn’t feel substantially more responsive than running it at the 77fps or so it hits in native 4K. Having twice as many frames looks fantastic but those AI frames aren’t responding to your controls in the actual moment, though it’s close.

This is not a negative. This is not a drawback. It can’t be after running Flight Sim at 120fps, and Cyberpunk 2077 with ultra ray tracing at 138fps (the RTX 3090 tops out at 48fps). But it’s worth highlighting.”

Visual artifacts

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

Needs highly effective {hardware}

DLSS 3 exhibits 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 a better 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, but it surely ought to be promising. 

Settings overload

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

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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’ve gotten a couple of extra selections to make.

DLSS characteristic choices

• DLSS Auto: This will try to preserve the frames as greatest it might to your monitor’s refresh charge
• DLSS Quality: The greatest visible efficiency, with modest or not a lot FPS uplift 
• DLSS Balanced: An excellent mixture of upper frames and sustaining graphical constancy. 
• DLSS Performance: You’ll discover considerably much less spectacular visuals, however FPS frames are significantly increased. 
• DLSS Ultra-performance: Better FPS, however worse visuals – sometimes whenever you actually need to overreach present {hardware} or to hit a particular FPS at a better decision. (8K Gamers, you’ll need to study this one!) 
• DLSS Frame Generation: This setting will simply be a easy “On or Off” toggle in your sport 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 properly (as in Cyberpunk 2077). Nvidia Reflex will usually be turned on robotically in most video games with Frame Generation being energetic. That’s not at all times true, nonetheless, and plenty of video games allow you to disable Reflex manually even when working DLSS 3 Frame Gen. (We don’t suggest doing that.) You’ll even have the choice for a “Boost” characteristic in lots of video games. Reflex Boost overclocks your GPU so it might assist in CPU restricted situations much more. 

Even extra choices

To make issues a bit extra sophisticated, some video games even can help you choose solely Nvidia’s DLAA together with Frame Generation and Reflex. Plague Tale’s Requiem is one such title. DLAA principally runs DLSS at your native monitor decision for enhanced visible sharpness and readability. When given this feature, it affords the best attainable graphical setting you possibly can obtain, balanced out by the plain efficiency value. You can often select DLSS as a substitute if the DLAA efficiency is just too low. 

In most video games, akin to Hogwarts Legacy, DLAA will robotically 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 probably the most highly effective {hardware}, such because the RTX 4080 and 4090, DLSS Quality ought to preserve respectable frames in most video games, even at 4K, and doubly so with DLSS Frame Generation enabled.  If you favor a bit extra pep in efficiency, DLSS Balanced could be the subsequent superb step.  You also can at all times simply set DLSS to Auto and see for those who’re pleased with the outcomes, as they may differ from game-to-game. 

If you’ve gotten barely much less highly effective {hardware}, such because the RTX 4070 or some cell RTX 40 GPUs, DLSS Balanced and DLSS Performance turn out to be good settings to ensure you’re hitting good frames, with the nod nonetheless going to DLSS Balanced as most well-liked. We’d sometimes suggest 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 have the ability to choose if adjustments 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 notably intense video games and see how DLSS 3 may also help. These video games had 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 enjoying at decrease resolutions akin to 1440p or 1080p will at all times see increased FPS basically. Ray tracing additionally considerably lowers body charges when on, so disabling that’s one other means you possibly can obtain increased 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 couple of years now, and lately it obtained DLSS 3 help. This sport is infamous for crushing nearly any GPU when ray tracing is on Ultra so it’s welcomed information.

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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 scale back another graphics settings.

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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 consequence. The sport nonetheless appears nice and behaves a lot smoother with this further FPS enhance.

Our subsequent choice could 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 even be on. The consequence 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 energetic? Quite properly, really. It feels superior in each strategy to native rendering, or with simply common DLSS on. The sport play is clean, and no obviously apparent artifacts or points current themselves. (They can nonetheless occur, nonetheless, akin to UI components being a bit quirky at instances.) 

The solely draw back right here is that you just’re growing latency, which is considerably by Nvidia Reflex. The latency on this sport is suitable, because it’s largely a single participant sport the place you’re exploring and infrequently partaking in quicker scenes. 

A quicker paced sport, akin to an internet multiplayer esports title, is just not a perfect match for DLSS 3 attributable to this latency issue.  In Cyberpunk 2077, it really works fantastically. You also can activate Frame Generation and Reflex with out DLSS, providing you with FPS of round 47, however right here the better profit appears to be pairing it with DLSS so you possibly can 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 large 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

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Hitman 3 is a well-liked sport 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 sport is very similar to Cyberpunk 2077, within the sense that it’s a slower paced fashion sport, so DLSS 3 generally is a massive assist right here.

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

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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 sport feels a lot smoother, and behaves very properly. 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 even be elevated, and helped with Nvidia Reflex. This title is one which advantages way more from the upper FPS and higher efficiency, and any further latency is just not very noticeable. You also can choose solely Frame technology and Reflex with out DLSS, providing you with round 50 FPS. We’d nonetheless suggest going all the best way with DLSS Quality or Balanced nonetheless, so that you get the entire mixed DLSS 3 advantages. 

DLSS 3: Hogwarts Legacy

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Continuing the pattern 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.

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

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DLSS Balanced alongside Frame Generation and Reflex give us 82 FPS, an enormous enhance from the 36 FPS we first noticed. The sport performs significantly higher, with way more constant and clean efficiency. Without DLSS 3, we’d must decrease ray tracing or alter 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 sport to max out because of its fantastically expansive open world. It’s a extremely CPU bottlenecked sport, making an ideal pairing with DLSS 3.

Brad Chacos

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

This title additionally has quite a few detailed UI and in-cabin graphics that must be generated correctly, so it’s an amazing check of how DLSS 3 can render minute particulars in sharp readability. While it’s not at all times good, 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 nice 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 properly past conventional {hardware} limits, we are able to expertise increased and higher frontiers in video games as builders reap the benefits of the expertise. 

Sure, you’re getting some extra latency, however Nvidia Reflex does an excellent job at conserving it underneath management. Often, it makes DLSS 3 video games even extra responsive than working at native decision. While you’re not prone to need 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 properly, DLSS 3 seems like black magic. Games shouldn’t run this good or look this clean. If your PC helps it, we extremely suggest checking it out.