Stellar Blade for Nintendo Switch 2 Uses NVIDIA DLSS and FSR 3.1 to Generate Frames

Shift Up, the developer of Stellar Blade, has explained that the Nintendo Switch 2 version uses NVIDIA DLSS as its upscaling technology, but since the console does not have a GPU with support for NVIDIA frame generation, the studio decided to add AMD FSR 3.1 as its frame generation technology.

By combining NVIDIA DLSS for upscaling and AMD FSR 3.1 to generate frames, they achieved their goal of reaching 60 FPS in handheld mode. It may seem like a good idea, but because of the differences between the technologies being used, it is actually not that good, and it could cause problems and negatively affect gameplay.

Stellar Blade on Nintendo Switch 2

FSR 3.1 frame generation does not use any kind of AI improvement, and AMD said that for this feature to work without latency problems or major graphical issues, it needs to be used when we have a base frame rate of at least 60 FPS. If we do not reach that minimum before applying frame generation, the result will not be enjoyable.

With a base frame rate of 30 FPS to reach 60 FPS using frame generation, we will have latency problems that will affect gameplay, and we will frequently see artifacts and graphical issues. This is something that already happened in Black Myth Wukong, a very similar case that should have taught developers that this type of frame generation should not be used to go from 30 FPS to 60 FPS.

Frame generation in Stellar Blade is optional. If we do not enable it, we will have a 30 FPS mode, which I think is better than playing it at 60 FPS with higher latency and image problems caused by frame generation.