The case with DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation

PC games today are technically demanding. Some of the latest graphical features that modern games incorporate to enhance visuals and realism put a lot of stress into a modern GPU. Examples include real-time ray-tracing, path tracing, global illumination, and physically-based rendering, just to name a few. Turning all these features to the max settings can literally cripple modern GPUs.

When Nvidia announced Multi Frame Generation for games, I noticed that reviewers on Youtube weren’t particularly positive about this feature. These so called ‘fake frames’ can deter the overall gaming experience, introduce unwanted artifacts, perhaps ghosting in sequences where there is a lot of unpredictable movements in a game world.

However, when I tried Multi Frame Generation for myself in certain games, it is actually not that bad. To an average gamer like me, playing at 1440p and switching DLSS quality mode setting, I hardly see any visual artifacts from the frames being artificially rendered. While it does make sense that switching on MFG on a video game where the base frame rate is less than 60fps will make the overall gameplay experience somewhat sluggish (due to latency and hence, input latency, I feel that it is perfectly fine to switch on MFG provided you fulfil two major criteria. First, make sure that once you are happy with the graphics setting that you set for a particular game, you can switch on MFG. But make sure that the base frame rate is above 60fps. Second, if the first criteria is fulfilled, and if you have a high-framerate monitor then I highly recommend turning on MFG. I have an OLED 1440p monitor that runs at 240hz. If my base frame rate is more than 60fps and MFG is supported in that game, I will turn on to enjoy smooth visuals without any noticeable downsides to latency. In my opinion, you should try to maximise the use of your high frame-rate monitor by turning on MFG to enjoy the monitor and the visuals the way it is meant to be enjoyed.

What I usually do is this; if a game supports DLSS4 and MFG, I will set DLSS to quality mode to minimise visual degradation due to upscaling and MFG, and then turn on MFG at 2x first and cranking all the way up to 4x if the visuals still looks ok to you. Everyone has their own preferences. Some people can notice artifacts presented on the screen when using MFG x4 while others hardly notice them all. Depending on your tolerance level, adjust accordingly. However, you should refrain from having an fps output that exceeds your monitor’s capability as any extra frames being generation will not be able to be presented on screen for you to enjoy. These will be wasted frames and a waste of computation that GPU is making. So find a sweet spot where visual artifacts are minimal and the boost fps you get from MFG do not exceed the refresh rate of your monitor.

I feel that the downsides of turning on MFG has highlighted by most content creators out there are simply overblown. With DLSS 4 and Transformer model of using AI to fill in the missing pixels, DLSS has come a long way to minimise visual degradation, while at the same time using AI for fill in fake frames to give you the visual impression that you are playing a game at very high frame rate.