With the launch of the new GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards kicking off with the formidable RTX 4090 one of the big advances that comes with the shift to the new Ada architecture is the beefing up of AI hardware and Tensor Cores found within. Specifically, a new Optical Flow Accelerator that leads to a brand-new bit of DLSS tech called Frame Generation.
DLSS as we know it today is effectively DLSS 2 or DLSS Super Resolution, the AI-based rendering that boosts performance without sacrificing much in the way of visual fidelity. It’s available, and will continue to be available, for all GeForce RTX owners.
So then, what’s DLSS 3? And why is it exclusive to the new GeForce RTX 40 Series? Well, it’s simple. The 3 in DLSS 3 is a reference to the combination of DLSS 2 Super Resolution, NVIDIA Reflex, and the new Frame Generation. The latter requires the new Optical Flow Accelerator.
“If a game already has DLSS 2 Super Resolution, upgrading to DLSS 3 is a simple process and will make both Super Resolution and Frame Generation available,” writes NVIDIA. “DLSS 3 leverages the same integration points as DLSS 2 (color buffer, depth buffer, engine motion vectors, and output buffers), making upgrades from these existing SDKs easy.” It’s already available for developers using Unity, Unreal Engine, and Frostbite Engine, and its implementation doesn’t interfere with the current DLSS version. It is backwards compatible.
How does it work? Well for that, here’s a breakdown of DLSS 3 from Bryan Catanzaro of the NVIDIA Applied Deep Learning Research team.
As you can see the AI actually creates frames to boost overall DLSS 3 performance over native rendering by a factor of 2X or even 4X. It’s something we tested in our review, and although not perfect, the results were impressive. Mind-blowing even.
Essentially it makes the impossible possible, and even though Frame Generation and DLSS 3 are limited to the new RTX 40 Series (because of the new hardware), the technology has already been confirmed for 35+ games and apps including Cyberpunk 2077, A Plague Tale : Requiem, Dying Light 2, and more.
One of the most impressive examples comes with Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is both a GPU and CPU intensive game because it simulates the entire planet.
“Creating a lifelike digital twin of our entire planet is incredibly CPU intensive,” Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Xbox Game Studios says. “DLSS 3 is a GPU technology that tackles the performance limitations of the CPU, making it the perfect way to experience Microsoft Flight Simulator.”
We’ll be digging into DLSS 3 more and more in the coming weeks as more games add the option, and will provide a more extensive breakdown when the highly anticipated GeForce RTX 4080 launches in November.
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