Earlier today, Nvidia finally unveiled the new RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 video cards based on the Ada Lovelace architecture. We’ve been experimenting with the RTX 4090 for the past few days and have been working hard on content with a focus on the firm’s latest AI-based frame-scaling technology – DLSS 3.
First impressions of the RTX 4090 itself? That’s one of the biggest gen-on-gen increases in performance we’ve seen, even based on limited testing. For higher refresh rate monitors and TVs, 4K gaming isn’t a problem with most modern titles – and besides, if you’re one of the crazy few (like me) with an 8K TV, 8K at 60fps is now affordable. Combine this performance boost with the new DLSS 3 – with its AI-powered frame generation – and suddenly the most demanding PC gaming workloads are handled with flawless fluidity.
We were hoping to have our full video ready for today, but we’ve already had a full weekend, we’re not done yet and need some extra time – so we’ve made a teaser video showing some of it. from what we have already done.
DLSS 3 essentially consists of three components: existing AI enhancement techniques from DLSS 2 working together with brand-AI frame generation technology using the new optical flow generator found in the new Ada Lovelace architecture. Basically, two frames are generated using existing rendering methods, then a third “interpolated” frame is inserted between them using a new frame generation technology. Buffering two frames in this way will obviously have latency consequences, meaning Nvidia’s input lag reduction technology – Reflex – is a mandatory third addition to the DLSS 3 suite. The idea is to reduce the additional delay by interpolating the frame with the use of Reflex.
So the main questions facing the new technologies are simple: what is the quality level of the interpolated frames, and how much is the input lag increased or decreased based on frame buffering, along with any mitigations that Reflex provides. It’s important to understand the limitations as well as the strengths: for example, esports players prefer higher frame rates to significantly reduce lag – where applications will likely be limited. However, at the same time, it was quite an experience to see most triple-A content running smoothly on the LG OLED CX at a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz.
We’ll aim to cover these topics and more in the content we’ll be releasing later this week, but for now, the trailer above should give you an idea of DLSS 3’s level of quality and some benchmarks. i ran Of course, 4K 120fps video delivery isn’t currently available, so we shot our footage at half speed so you can see every frame.
It was a very challenging project (not least because 4K 120fps capture wasn’t really available when we started), but the content we’re working on is shaping up nicely. Expect the final piece to go live later this week.
