Upscaling
Next up, I want to examine upscaling. A 50-series card includes multi-frame generation technology, and I wanted to see its effect on performance, especially in games where frame rates were lower due to maximising quality presets and overall settings.
I used Alan Wake II to assess the performance uplift. Native performance yielded 48 FPS. Enabling DLSS provided a 94% frame rate increase and reduced latency by over 40%. Enabling multi-frame generation at x2, x3, and x4 showed steady performance increases, reaching 245 frames per second, all with lower latency.
The same trend occurred with ray tracing enabled. Latency was higher due to ray tracing, but performance increased from an unplayable 21 FPS at native to 158 FPS on the highest mode. This is a 652% frame increase, with a 50ms latency reduction, making the game playable at higher settings.
Cyberpunk showed a similar pattern, with options for CNN or Transformer models. Increasing the model to x2, x3, and x4 increased frame rates. While the most aggressive model introduced more latency, it was still lower than native latency. The Transformer model had slightly lower frame rates than CNN at the same settings, but CNN typically offered lower visual quality. Gamers can choose their preferred trade-off.
With ray tracing enabled, latency increased, with 23 FPS at native and 88ms latency. Performance increased dramatically, and latency halved. The x4 mode in both CNN and Transformer models saw latency increase to 60ms, but this was still lower than native while providing up to a 600% performance increase.
Upscaling involves three factors: frame rate performance, latency, and visuals. While performance and latency have been covered, visuals are also crucial.
For a more in-depth visual analysis, please see our other 50-series content. Here, I will compare native and x4 modes.
Differences were surprisingly small. Finer details, like rubbish on the floor, showed a slight clarity loss with frame generation, but not noticeable during gameplay. The light on Alan Wake’s back seemed to fade quicker with frame generation, possibly affecting ray tracing calculations, presumably due to the lower resolution with DLSS enabled.
In Cyberpunk, differences at this resolution were minimal. Some detail loss was apparent on distant objects, such as smoother skin on a merchant. Fog appeared slightly thicker with frame generation, possibly due to DLSS’s handling of transparency. Overall, differences were hard to detect, but this comparison does not account for frame generation artefacts, which are noticeable during camera movement; this issue is well-documented online.
