Lossless Scaling FrameGen Detailed Guide

[Apathiam]

Edit: Updated the guide to be more instructional and informative.

Before you buy it, you should know that "minimum" requirements are for "upscaling" feature only. Although there is no official requirements for "frame generation" feature, you should at least meet the GPU specs under "recommended" for frame generation to work without issues. These specs are currently on par with gtx1060 and rx580. You can still attempt to use frame generation on older GPUs by following the troubleshooting section below.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR FRAMEGEN

After you buy it you need to follow 3 steps before enabling Lossless Scaling Frame Generation (LSFG) properly.

‎ ‎ 1 ➜ You need to set your game to windowed or borderless windowed mode.

‎ ‎ 2 ➜ You need to limit your frame rate with a third party app or if you have it, through in-game fps limiter. LSFG works best if you limit your frame rate to half, 1/3 or 1/4 of your monitor's max refresh rate. The frame rate limit should be 20-30% below your usual in-game frame rates. It should be a stable frame rate, meaning you shouldn't see frame rate drops. I recommend monitoring this at a low fps area.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎➽ I recommend using Riva Tuner Statistics Server as frame rate limiter. You can create profiles for different games on the app for different limits.

‎ ‎ 3 ➜ You need to disable all other overlays. This includes but not limited to Geforce Experience Highlights, AMD Instant Replay etc. G-sync is supported with latest version, make sure to enable it for windowed mode on Nvidia Control Panel.

Once you are done all you need to do is to press ALT+CTRL+S while on the game screen.

TROUBLESHOOTING

➠ If you see an immediate fps drop when you enable LSFG, this most likely means that your GPU isn't powerful enough to run both LSFG and the game together.

➠ If you meet the recommended specs or close to these specs but still not getting exactly 2x or 3x frame rates, follow the steps below. The order of steps is to make sure you retain best visual quality.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ 1➽ Check your GPU load on task manager (Performance Tab > GPU) or HWiNFO to see the % load.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ 2➽ If it is above 95%, try "enabling performance mode" and start lowering your fps limit in increments of 5 until you reach at least 60% GPU use while in-game. Keep LSFG enabled to monitor the difference.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎3➽ If you are still having issues, try lowering in-game graphics settings to lower GPU usage.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎4➽ If the above doesn't help, try lowering in-game resolution to lower GPU load further. You can compensate for this by using the upscaling feature "Auto" setting. If "Auto" doesn't work for you, you can switch to "Custom". If you are unsure what "scaling factor" you should be using, you can ask ChatGPT "What is the scaling factor from (your in-game resolution) to (your display's max resolution)?"

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ 5➽ If none of these help, it means your GPU is not powerful enough to run both LSFG and the game. You can still try on older less demanding games or try using LSFG for non-gaming applications.

➠ Some systems with 4k screens have unusual performance issues with LSFG. Frame generation will always generate frames in the resolution of your screen and not your in-game resolution. Please try to match your in-game resolution with your screen resolution (by lowering it if you need to) if you have issues.

➠If you are still having issues despite meeting the specifications please create a ticket over on the official Discord of Lossless Scaling on #Support channel and please make sure to include "bug report" on your title.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

➠ You can use "frame generation" and "upscaling" feature either seperately or together. If you don't want to use upscaling, you can switch "Scaling Type" to "Off" to disable it. If you want to disable frame generation, you can switch the box under "Frame Generation" tab to "Off".

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ➽ AMD FSR and LS1 are currently the best options for upscaling for games.

➠ If you have in-game options for frame generation or upscaling, these may offer better performance and visual quality.

➠ Using any kind of frame generation adds input lag to your gaming experience. If you have Nvidia GPU, you can use Nvidia Reflex frame rate limiter option on RTSS to reduce input lag greatly. On the app, "Setup" bottom left, scroll down to "Compatibility properties" > "Enable framerate limiter" > "async" to "Nvidia Reflex". For AMD, you can use anti-lag on AMD Adrenalin to reduce input lag.

➠ LSFG will be using a portion of your GPU's power and VRAM. Limiting your fps below what you usually play your games at helps reduce this load to make space for frame generation. LSFG isn't meant to double or triple your frame rates as is.

➠ You can use LSFG (and the upscaling feature) virtually on everything. Some of the popular uses besides gaming are emulators, movies, anime, consoles with capture cards, remoteplay, Geforce Experience etc.

➠ You can use in-game plugins. The most popular of these plugins is ReShade.

➠ You don't need to use frame rate limiter if you like to use LSFG for non-gaming applications like movies. LSFG will capture the frame rate of whatever is on the screen and will apply the frame generation on top of it. If you like to use it for movies, especially if you are using VLC, make sure to fullscreen by double clicking before enabling LSFG.

EXTRAS

➠ You can read what most options do if you hover over them.

➠ LSFG works like a screen overlay. It captures the top most element on your screen and applies frame generation over it. This is why you need to disable other overlays, if there are other overlays LSFG may capture these instead of the game and this might cause issues. This is also why you need to set your games to windowed mode as fullscreen prevents screen capture.

➠ If you like to use upscaling feature only, overlays are not an issue.

➠ Lossless Scaling doesn't inject any code to games or applications. It works like an overlay, it is no different than capturing your screen with a recording app. It won't trigger anti-cheat unless it is kernel based anti-cheat and the terms explicitly specify Lossless Scaling.

➠ LSFG will produce better visual quality at 2x setting compared to 3x. The frame generation quality will also be better if you can set a higher fps limit as it will increase the amount of frame information.

➠ Although it is recommended you set your fps limit in multiples of your max refresh rate, you can also set it to whatever limit you want as long as it is within a stable frame rate. If you see problems and unable to set the limit to multiples, you can always create a custom resolution through Nvidia Control Panel or AMD Adrenalin that will allow you to set a limit to the multiples.

➠ For use with display cards on consoles, display cards need to have low latency feature like Elagato's instant gameview feature to minimize delay and input lag. If you don't have this feature, you can also use remoteplay. You will need high speed internet to reduce input lag and delay for remoteplay.

➠ If you want to record with OBS or other software, you need to use game capture and pick Lossless Scaling. Initially, this will show the settings screen. Once you enable LSFG on the game screen, it should switch to the screen with frame generation.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ➽ Recording will freeze if you alt-tab to another program. To prevent this, you can enable multi-dispaly mode under "Behavior" section below Frame Generation tab.

➠ Lowering your native frame rates with a limit and using LSFG may result in making your GPU work with less power and consequently work cooler all the while visually having about the same or more frame rate.

[Banfield City]

Originally posted by Steel:

Originally posted by Banfield City:

Hello OP, i have a simple question. How would I go setting up LS to generate FPS over my monitor's refresh rate? Would I need to setup a custom resolution with a different Hz?

There'd be no benefit to doing this.

how so? I was trying to cap my fps at 90 and have LS do 180fps for me but because my monitor is 75hz it wont go over that.

[Apathiam]

Originally posted by Banfield City:

Hello OP, i have a simple question. How would I go setting up LS to generate FPS over my monitor's refresh rate? Would I need to setup a custom resolution with a different Hz?

I would advise against this. You wouldn't be able to see those frames beyond your display's max resolution and it would only put more pressure on your GPU. You may even see glitches due to missing frames that were supposed to be put in-between your native ones but can't due to display's hz limit. You can also only overclock supported displays to a tiny amount. Eg. you can't overclock from 75hz to 144hz.

[Banfield City]

Originally posted by Apathiam:

Originally posted by Banfield City:

Hello OP, i have a simple question. How would I go setting up LS to generate FPS over my monitor's refresh rate? Would I need to setup a custom resolution with a different Hz?

I would advise against this. You wouldn't be able to see those frames beyond your display's max resolution and it would only put more pressure on your GPU. You may even see glitches due to missing frames that were supposed to be put in-between your native ones but can't due to display's hz limit. You can also only overclock supported displays to a tiny amount. Eg. you can't overclock from 75hz to 144hz.

I see. The only reason I wanted this was for reducing input lag as much as posible.

[kripcision]

Originally posted by Banfield City:

Originally posted by Steel:

There'd be no benefit to doing this.

how so? I was trying to cap my fps at 90 and have LS do 180fps for me but because my monitor is 75hz it wont go over that.

if your monitor is 75 hz then no point in using frame gen if your in-game fps is above that, all it will do is add lag (input/display lag).

[Banfield City]

Originally posted by kripcision:

Originally posted by Banfield City:

how so? I was trying to cap my fps at 90 and have LS do 180fps for me but because my monitor is 75hz it wont go over that.

if your monitor is 75 hz then no point in using frame gen if your in-game fps is above that, all it will do is add lag (input/display lag).

gotchu. thanks for the insight

[Raiden_chino]

Originally posted by Banfield City:

I see. The only reason I wanted this was for reducing input lag as much as posible.

If those were real, native 180 fps, indeed you will have at least the benefit of less input lag, even if you don't see the extra frames because you have a 75Hz monitor.
But this is not native extra fps, you will get no benefits. In fact you will get a small input lag penalty. Frame Generators give you zero input lag improvements.

EDIT: oops, late reply.

[stick100]

Thanks this is a life saver, I despaired at 60 fps with M/KB on EDF6 and the 3x frame gen really saved the experience.

Is there any reason it's limited to 3x? I have a 4090, a 1080p high frame monitor and would like to boost past 3x. Especially for 30 fps games it would be good to get to 240hz instead 90.

[Apathiam]

Originally posted by stick100:

Thanks this is a life saver, I despaired at 60 fps with M/KB on EDF6 and the 3x frame gen really saved the experience.

Is there any reason it's limited to 3x? I have a 4090, a 1080p high frame monitor and would like to boost past 3x. Especially for 30 fps games it would be good to get to 240hz instead 90.

There isn't an option beyond 3x yet because I believe it would create too much ghosting. There is now the 4x option.

However, you can technically frame generate the generated frames if you use DLSS Framegen in-game option. I believe DLSS-FG is x2 so it is possible to double/triple that to x4/x6 with LSFG.

I also forgot this thread existed so updated the guide to reflect current version of LSFG if you want to check it out again. There were couple parts that have been improved since then.

[Revalopod]

Originally posted by stick100:

Thanks this is a life saver, I despaired at 60 fps with M/KB on EDF6 and the 3x frame gen really saved the experience.

Is there any reason it's limited to 3x? I have a 4090, a 1080p high frame monitor and would like to boost past 3x. Especially for 30 fps games it would be good to get to 240hz instead 90.

It supports 4x now.

[Xavvy]

An important rule of thumb is to keep GPU load under 85% after frame gen tbh.. You'll get much better frame pacing in that range. Tbh I prefer no higher than 80% at peak. I find frame pacing suffers too much for me after that point. It seems to be tied directly to what your base framerate and max frame gen is. If you're doing 30->60 just under 95% seems fine but if you're base is 48-120 that number seems to vary but 80% seems to be a number that is safe for all settings so it's the one I would advise.

I have literally had no issue with 80% GPU usage and under but I've had issues where higher than that would cause juddering especially in the 120fps base x2/x3/x4 range. I have replicated this on a wide range of high end CPUs from AMD and Intel as well GTX GPUs all the way up to an RTX 4080/90 and 7900xtx.

[Skyebaron]

Great guide. One note for the minority of us who use RTX HDR. Using RivaTuner breaks RTX HDR from the Nvidia App. I cap the framerate to 60 on the Nvidia Control panel and use g-sync on fullcreen mode only and had pleasing results.

[HabibiFresh]

Originally posted by Xavvy:

An important rule of thumb is to keep GPU load under 85% after frame gen tbh.. You'll get much better frame pacing in that range. Tbh I prefer no higher than 80% at peak. I find frame pacing suffers too much for me after that point. It seems to be tied directly to what your base framerate and max frame gen is. If you're doing 30->60 just under 95% seems fine but if you're base is 48-120 that number seems to vary but 80% seems to be a number that is safe for all settings so it's the one I would advise.

I have literally had no issue with 80% GPU usageand under but I've had issues where higher than that would cause juddering especially in the 120fps base x2/x3/x4 range. I have replicated this on a wide range of high end CPUs from AMD and Intel as well GTX GPUs all the way up to an RTX 4080/90 and 7900xtx.

This is before turning on LSFG right? Therefore if my game is at like 99% GPU since I am not capping my FPS, you recommend to cap it so that I am at 80% GPU usage before turning on LSFG?

[Gizzmoe]

Originally posted by Abdulah:

This is before turning on LSFG right?

After it's been turned on. "An important rule of thumb is to keep GPU load under 85% after frame gen".

[Overlord]

Originally posted by stick100:

Thanks this is a life saver, I despaired at 60 fps with M/KB on EDF6 and the 3x frame gen really saved the experience.

Is there any reason it's limited to 3x? I have a 4090, a 1080p high frame monitor and would like to boost past 3x. Especially for 30 fps games it would be good to get to 240hz instead 90.

using this with 4090 lol :facepalm:

[Bowa]

Originally posted by Gizzmoe:

Originally posted by Abdulah:

This is before turning on LSFG right?

After it's been turned on. "An important rule of thumb is to keep GPU load under 85% after frame gen".

Why is keeping the GPU load at 85% or less important?