DLSS: What Is It Anyway - And Does Nvidia Technology Make Sense?

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DLSS: What Is It Anyway - And Does Nvidia Technology Make Sense?
DLSS: What Is It Anyway - And Does Nvidia Technology Make Sense?

Video: DLSS: What Is It Anyway - And Does Nvidia Technology Make Sense?

Video: DLSS: What Is It Anyway - And Does Nvidia Technology Make Sense?
Video: What the Heck is DLSS?! 2024, March
Anonim

The abbreviation DLSS stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling and is a graphics technology from Nvidia that ensures higher gaming performance through the use of AI algorithms. It is a kind of upscaling technology, in which the image is calculated in a lower resolution and then scaled up using the AI algorithms.

So that the AI knows how to scale up the corresponding game scenes so that they look as good as possible, the algorithm has to be “taught”. Therefore, the DLSS team from Nvidia creates numerous screenshots of all games in which DLSS is to be supported. At the same time, each screenshot creates a significantly higher resolution image using supersampling.

Now both images are made available to a supercomputer. His task: to improve the weaker-resolution image via anti-aliasing so that it looks as similar as possible to the extremely high-resolution image. This process will be repeated later, but now the supercomputer should calculate additional pixels instead of anti-aliasing in order to make both images look as similar as possible - the image resolution is therefore increased.

In practice, DLSS uses both techniques after teaching the algorithm in order to offer full screen resolution, but at the same time higher gaming performance. This is reflected in a higher frame rate (FPS) compared to "normal" rendering in full resolution.

Then why not just generally render the game in a low resolution and scale it up directly via the engine? This video shows you why DLSS can be worthwhile:

DLSS: Which graphics cards support the technology?

So far, DLSS has only been available to users of an RTX graphics card - and for good reason. Nvidia only installs the tensor cores necessary for the AI algorithms in these cards. The more powerful the graphics card, the more of the AI-compatible computing cores are on the board. The following Nvidia GeForce graphics cards support DLSS:

  • RTX 2060
  • RTX 2060 SUPER
  • RTX 2070
  • RTX 2070 SUPER
  • RTX 2080
  • RTX 2080 SUPER
  • RTX 2080 Ti
  • Titan RTX

Further to the topic: Which graphics card do I have? How to find out!

By the way, you don't need an internet connection to use DLSS. The calculated game profiles of the supercomputer are made available to the graphics card via a framework, a kind of programming framework called NGX. This is installed at the same time as the graphics card driver is installed.

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DLSS: When is it worth using graphics technology - and when isn't it worth it?

DLSS works best when the highest possible resolutions are to be achieved and the natively rendered frame rate is below 60 FPS (frames per second). In other words: If the graphics card becomes a real bottleneck, the use of DLSS is most worthwhile.

View RTX graphics cards at Mindfactory

For example, Nvidia states that using DLSS in BioWare's third-person shooter Anthem offers up to 65 percent more performance:

Anthem: NVIDIA DLSS provides a decent performance boost

As a rule, however, the increase in performance should be lower. There are also scenarios in which the use of DLSS may not be worthwhile. For each image to be calculated, DLSS needs a fixed time to access the data of the neural network. This can sometimes take longer than the native calculation of the image - provided the graphic requirements (settings, resolution or quality) are not too high. So if it is not the graphics card but the processor or another component that is the bottleneck, DLSS usually offers no added value.

DLSS: Which games support graphics technology?

Although the new Nvidia graphics cards have been on the market for more than a year, many developers are still reluctant to integrate DLSS. Here you can find all games that already support DLSS and also the titles for which support has been announced:

Games that already support DLSS:

  • Battlefield 5
  • Final Fantasy 15
  • Monster Hunter World
  • Metro Exodus
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider
  • Anthem
  • Deliver Us The Moon: Fortuna
  • SCUM

Don't confuse it: Raytracing: what is it, how does it work - which games support graphics technology?

Games in which DLSS should still be implemented:

  • Ark: Survival Evolved
  • Atomic Heart
  • Dauntless
  • Fractured lands
  • Hitman 2
  • Justice
  • JX3
  • Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries
  • PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
  • Remnant: From the Ashes
  • Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass
  • The Forge Arena
  • We Happy Few
  • Darksiders III
  • Fear the Wolves
  • Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
  • KINETICS
  • Outpost Zero
  • Stormdivers
  • Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

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