Is DLSS useful?

[Peeratat]

I recently got back into gaming properly and I noticed the DLSS setting for some of the games.

I tried searching online and there appears to be some mixed thoughts on the settings.

I don’t know much about hardware but I run an RTX 3090. From my understanding DLSS allows you to increase performance by running the game at a lower resolution then upscaling it to a higher output.

My question is how useful is this for my hardware?

I play on a 1080p 360hz monitor and I prefer to max out the graphics settings on the game while retaining high FPS at the same time. Most of these games are single player.

Any thoughts on this at all? What do people normally use DLSS for and is it applicable to my use case? I also heard that DLSS is a requirement for Ray Tracing?

It’s all just very confusing to me.

Any input appreciated. Thanks!

[Vaulty]

Since it's RTX 3090 you can only use DLSS 2.0

Basically you render quarter of the image and then use AI to render the rest that's why you get similiar image but much better performance


As for image it depends on games, i've seen people say that quality is better since dlss improve quality of far away objects making them more detailed. But most people use it to get free fps boost without sacrificing quality

[Peeratat]

So it’s always better to run the games at native if you can right?

[ShadowShifterMarlith]

If you take a picture at 720P & stretch it to 1080P,
or take a picture at 1080P & stretch it to 4K,
& then sharpen the image on screen after it's
already been sharpened as it is...

Are you going to like it better then a picture already in 4K
adding Many New Details, better sharpening, HDR 10+, Ray Tracing,
& many other elements to your experience?


Stretching the image & sharpening it, doesn't add new details,
doesn't actually improve & make the image more life like,
& above all does not correct the size of characters, objects,
& everything on the screen, at the end of the day it still looks
stretched on your screen...

Making a small character stretched to a larger screen,
makes that Character look bigger & the background is
still covering the same amount of the screen it did before
the stretch was made...


But a Native Picture in 1080P or 4K picture would actually
allow you to see your character up against a background
with sizing & proportions adjusted for the Resolution on Screen,
making everything look truely a lot better in the Native Resolution...

[Irene ❤]

DLSS is an upscale feature. It can benefit if you play blur and low res games such as minecraft. It is also a good FPS carry for low and med tier PC playing good looking games at lower resolution.

If you're using 3090 and playing AAA games, you can consider turning it off to experience all the original pixels, since there is no need to upscale anything.

[Peeratat]

Oh okay. I understand now. Thank you!

[Peeratat]

I heard some people say that they don’t notice any visual difference while achieving an FPS boost. I am assuming they are playing at a high resolution then. Since my preference is 1080p high refresh rate it shouldn’t matter anyways.

[Peeratat]

But if you are playing at 4k but want higher FPS then DLSS is a viable solution I am guessing?

[Triple G]

I don´t think DLSS has much uses with a 3090 on 1080p.

And else i think AMD wants to release something which is independent of the graphic cards brand.

[Ulfrinn]

If you're gaming on a 24-25" 1080p monitor, DLSS is completely useless because the size per pixel is already small enough that aliasing is very minimal anyway, and you can run games at full resolution with no need to upscale.

If you bought into the hype that 4K was going to be better and that your new consoles or new games were going to be played at 4K, you probably realized that unless you used lower resolutions, upscaled with anti aliasing, or "dynamic resolution" you'd either have to turn visuals way down, or deal with 30fps. So that's where DLSS comes in. You run games at 1080P which then gets line doubled vertically and horizontally to make a pixel perfect integer upscaled 4K image (that would look exactly the same as the 1080P image), and they toss in some anti aliasing to go with it.. just in case you're someone sitting 3 feet from a 32" or larger screen and would actually notice that difference.

So the answer is... it really depends on your setup. Since I use a 25" 1080P monitor at normal desk distances, I don't really even need to use anti aliasing at all and the image looks just as good, with the bonus of running most modern games at 120fps+ because I choose 1080P120 over 4K30 non DLSS or even 4K60 with DLSS any day, since in gaming, there's better fidelity in smooth motion than their is in a clearer, albeit only theoretical per frame image anyway.