Nvidia’s new DLSS 3 Frame Generation technology, introduced alongside the GeForce RTX 40-series, is gaining traction seven times faster than DLSS 2 did, the company announced ahead of the annual Game Developers Conference today. And several high-profile games will soon hit the streets with DLSS 3 Frame Generation enabled on day one.
The long-awaited Diablo IV (June 6), Arkane’s Redfall (May 2), and The Finals (beta available) will all ship with DLSS 3 out of the gate, while Forza Horizon 5—still the best arcade racer available—will add Frame Generation on March 28. Indie titles Deceive Inc., Gripper, and Smalland: Survive the Wilds will debut with DLSS 2’s performance-boosting upscaling available.
DLSS 3 is actually a suite of technologies that builds atop the bones of DLSS 2’s fantastic AI-powered image upscaling, which increases gaming performance. To support DLSS 3, a game has to include separate options for DLSS 2; the Frame Generation feature, which inserts an AI-generated frame between every GPU-generated frame to supercharge performance and potentially blow past CPU bottlenecks; and Nvidia’s fantastic Reflex technology, which lowers the latency introduced by inserting all those AI-generated frames you aren’t actually controlling.
Acting in concert, DLSS 3 can deliver fantastically smooth-looking experiences even at the highest resolutions, though those AI frames can sometimes create slight visual irregularities and reduced responsiveness, as Steve from Hardware Unboxed explains in his analysis video below.
I’m a big fan of DLSS 3’s potential, however, and can’t wait to play around with it in some of the games I’m most looking forward to playing this year.
You’ll need a new GeForce RTX 40-series graphics card to take advantage of Frame Generation though; only Nvidia’s new Ada Lovelace architecture includes an “Optical Flow Accelerator” fast enough to handle the cutting-edge task. The GeForce RTX 4090 is a juggernaut, while the RTX 4070 Ti could be appealing to 1440p gamers despite its sky-high price. Avoid the RTX 4080—the price is simply absurd.
Author: Brad Chacos, Executive editor
Brad Chacos spends his days digging through desktop PCs and tweeting too much. He specializes in graphics cards and gaming, but covers everything from security to Windows tips and all manner of PC hardware.