Nvidia’s RTX 50-series graphics cards are set to arrive in a matter of days, and although they could be among the best graphics cards you can buy, Nvidia itself might’ve just given PC gamers a reason to sit out this generation. According to Nvidia’s Bryan Catanzaro — the company’s DLSS champion — it might be possible to add features like DLSS Multi-Frame Generation to older generations of graphics cards.
The news comes via an interview Catanzaro did with Digital Foundry, where the question about frame generation on RTX 30-series GPUs came up. Catanzaro says enabling frame generation on older generations “is primarily a question of optimization,” and says that Nvidia will “see what we’re able to squeeze out of older hardware in the future.”
Over the past two generations, Nvidia has put a much greater emphasis on DLSS when marketing its graphics cards. That’s true with its latest RTX 50-series GPUs, as well, which promise up to 4X frame generation with DLSS 4. That feature is exclusive to Nvidia’s latest graphics cards, but Catanzaro’s comment doesn’t rule out the possibility of these features coming to older generations in the future.
It should be possible, albeit with a quality or performance loss. Tools like Lossless Scaling have provided a glimpse into multi-frame generation, and although the experience isn’t perfect, it’s still usable. Nvidia’s older RTX 40-series and 30-series GPUs may not have the latest Tensor cores available on RTX 50-series GPUs, but they still have some AI hardware — and they should, theoretically, be able to perform frame generation.
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The question for Nvidia, it seems, isn’t about if frame generation is possible on older generations; it’s if frame generation is practical. There would likely be a quality loss if Nvidia were to backport its frame generation tech, but the larger concern is performance. It’s possible that enabling these features on older graphics cards could bring up several issues.
First, there’s the overhead. Faster Tensor cores means that RTX 50-series GPUs don’t need to spend a long time on the frame generation algorithm, and with weaker AI hardware, older generations may spend too long processing the algorithm. That could lead to little or no performance gain. There’s also the issue of frame pacing to contend with, which is something Nvidia has to keep in careful balance with RTX 40-series and 50-series GPUs.
Although it’s an open question as to if Nvidia will bring frame generation to previous generations, all RTX graphics cards will benefit from DLSS 4. The company moved from a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to a transformer model, which it says provides quality improvements for all RTX graphics cards that are using DLSS in some fashion.
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
Nvidia celebrates Trump, slams Biden for putting AI in jeopardy
In response to new export restrictions placed on AI GPUs, Nvidia posted a scathing blog criticizing the outgoing Biden-Harris administration. The administration’s Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion largely targets China with restrictions on AI GPUs, according to Newsweek.
Nvidia disagrees. “While cloaked in the guise of an ‘anti-China’ measure, these rules would do nothing to enhance U.S. security. The new rules would control technology worldwide, including technology that is already widely available in mainstream gaming PCs and consumer hardware. Rather than mitigate any threat, the new Biden rules would only weaken America’s global competitiveness, undermining the innovation that has kept the U.S. ahead,” wrote Nvidia’s vice president of government of affairs Ned Finkle.
AMD may still wait for Nvidia before unleashing RDNA 4
AMD’s future best graphics cards should be right around the corner, but with no specifics, it’s hard to say when exactly we’ll reach that particular corner. However, a new leak from the Chiphell forum implies that whatever release date AMD may have had in mind for its RX 9000 series GPUs may have changed. The most interesting part is that the leaker implies Nvidia may have played a part in this decision.
Before we dive in, remember that all of this is speculation. During its CES 2025 keynote, AMD barely spoke about RDNA 4, so the release dates are a mystery. Some leakers repeated a rumored release date of January 23 in the past few days, though, and according to Napoleon on the Chiphell forums, that may no longer be true.
Nvidia’s DLSS 4 isn’t what you think it is. Let’s debunk the myths
Nvidia stole the show at CES 2025 with the announcement of the RTX 5090, and despite plenty of discourse about the card’s $2,000 price tag, it ushers in a lot of new technology. Chief among them is DLSS 4, which brings multi-frame generation to Nvidia’s GPUs, offering a 4X performance boost in over 75 games right away when Nvidia’s new RTX 50-series GPUs hit the streets.
I’ve seen way too much misunderstanding about how DLSS 4 actually works, though. Between misleading comments from Nvidia’s CEO and a radical redesign to how DLSS works, it’s no wonder there’s been misinformation floating around about the new tech, what it’s capable of, and, critically, what limitations it has.
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