What Is DLSS? How Upscaling Lifts Frame Rates in PC Games
DLSS and similar upscalers explained: rendering at a lower resolution, rebuilding detail, quality modes, frame generation and the trade-offs to check in-game.
Graphics menus have gained a cluster of acronyms in recent years, and DLSS is the one players ask about most. It promises more frames per second without a new graphics card, which sounds almost too convenient. The idea behind it is simple enough to explain in a few paragraphs, and knowing it makes the related settings far less mysterious.
What the letters stand for
DLSS is short for Deep Learning Super Sampling, a feature built by Nvidia for its RTX graphics cards. Its job is upscaling: the game draws each frame at a lower resolution than your monitor uses, and the upscaler produces the full-resolution image you actually see. Fewer pixels drawn means less work per frame, and less work per frame means a higher frame rate.
It is not the only option. AMD offers FSR and Intel offers XeSS, and many games include several of them side by side. They differ in method and hardware support, but they share the same goal.
How an upscaler rebuilds detail
Stretching a small image to fit a big screen normally makes it blurry. Modern upscalers avoid that by using more information than a single frame contains:
- Previous frames. Because the camera and objects move slightly between frames, each new frame samples the scene from a slightly different position. Combining them recovers detail no single frame holds.
- Motion vectors. The game tells the upscaler how each part of the image is moving, so older samples can be placed correctly.
- A trained model or tuned algorithm. DLSS uses a neural network trained to judge which details are real and which are noise. Other upscalers rely on hand-tuned rules, and some newer versions also use machine learning.
The result is often surprisingly close to native resolution, and in some scenes it can look cleaner, because the upscaler also smooths jagged edges.
Quality modes in plain terms
Most games offer a ladder of presets. The names vary slightly between upscalers, but the pattern is the same.
| Preset | Internal resolution | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Quality | Highest of the presets | When you want a modest boost with minimal visible change |
| Balanced | Middle | A sensible starting point for most players |
| Performance | Lower | High-resolution monitors or demanding effects such as ray tracing |
| Ultra Performance | Lowest | Very large resolutions where frame rate matters more than fine detail |
The higher your monitor's resolution, the more aggressive a preset you can usually get away with, because the upscaler has more output pixels to work with.
Frame generation is a different thing
Newer versions add frame generation, which creates extra frames between the ones the game actually renders. The frame counter rises a lot, and motion looks smoother. The catch is that generated frames do not respond to your input, so the game can feel less responsive than the number suggests. It tends to work best when the base frame rate is already reasonable; it is a smoothing tool rather than a fix for a game that struggles.
Where the compromises show
Upscaling is not free of side effects. Things to watch for when you test a setting:
- Ghosting: faint trails behind fast-moving objects such as birds or sparks.
- Shimmer on thin details like fences, wires and distant foliage.
- Softness in text and HUD-adjacent textures at the more aggressive presets.
- Latency when frame generation is on, felt most in quick aiming.
Most of these are easiest to judge in motion. Walk through a busy area, turn the camera quickly and see what draws your eye.
A sensible way to set it up
Start at native resolution with your preferred effects and note how smooth the game feels. Then enable the upscaler on a balanced preset and compare. If the image holds up, keep the extra frames or spend them on heavier effects; our guide to ray tracing in games explains the most common place they go. Update your graphics driver as well, since upscaler improvements often arrive that way.
Extra frames also mean the graphics card keeps working hard for long sessions, so it is worth making sure the case can shed that heat. Our notes on keeping a PC cool while gaming cover the basics.
