The topic remains largely unaddressed due to limited public discussion around Nvidia's image upscaling features.
The topic remains largely unaddressed due to limited public discussion around Nvidia's image upscaling features.
I discovered a new capability in Nvidia's display settings that can automatically upscale games and Windows without needing a dedicated RTX card. I found this information on the RandomGaminginHD channel, which covers it extensively. The feature is quite straightforward to locate—it appears as the second option under advanced settings. On my GTX 960 with 2GB of VRAM, it improved Dying Light 1 performance from 40fps to about 60fps while keeping visual quality mostly intact. Many people are unaware of this benefit.
It's known as DLSS and was mentioned a while back. Nowadays it's mostly discussed alongside RTX graphics cards since those are the latest. It could refresh many older cards that don't have enough VRAM to run modern games at 1080p. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/...coattails/ It seems DLSS needs additional hardware, but FSR still functions.
Nvidia Image Scaling operates independently from RTX cards like DLSS and functions at the driver level without needing game support. However, Nvidia has provided an SDK for it, allowing developers to incorporate it directly into their games if desired. Its purpose is more similar to FSR, focusing on traditional scaling rather than AI or temporal effects.
Many folks dismissed going below Native Res before DLSS. It's easy to overlook this point, but there are others who completely ignore it. Some simply don't understand it at first. Nvidia didn't always present its features clearly, leaving users confused with limited guidance and a confusing list of options plus a sharpening slider. As a result, people rarely took the time to explore optimal settings for each game. Nvidia has been using NIS for years, especially during the Turing era (2000 series), with Nvidia 5-Tap filtering. After rebranding, more attention is being paid to it. I view NIS as a predecessor to FSR, offering more choices which is beneficial.
It's rarely discussed because the quality is quite poor. Lowering the resolution usually works just as well while maintaining better clarity. Avoiding complex sharpening filters is smarter. FSR appears to perform slightly better, though it's only been tested in RPCS3 so far. It provided acceptable results for games like Heavenly Sword and Lolipop Chainsaw at around 60fps.