NVIDIA’s DLSS 4 upgrade is doing wonders for image quality and performance. The Transformer model enhances the upscaling quality and fine-tunes the ray-reconstruction denoiser for improved ray traced lighting. The updated frame generation model runs on the Tensor cores, is faster, and uses less VRAM. These enhancements are available on all RTX GPUs, except frame generation which remains limited to the RTX 40 and 50 series cards. Here are some image quality comparisons of DLSS 3 and DLSS 4.
Cyberpunk 2077: DLSS 4 vs. DLSS 3 Performance
Cyberpunk 2077 features the best implementations of ray-tracing, path-tracing, upscaling, and frame generation. DLSS 4’s transformer and updated frame-gen models are as fast as the preceding DLSS 3 build, offer superior image quality and use lesser VRAM. At least with ray and path-tracing.
Disabling ray-tracing grants DLSS 3 Frame Generation a slight (+2-3%) lead over the newer software-based implementation. I reckon the increased load on the Tensor cores which is masked when using ray-tracing is more apparent here. Still, a minor drop with unchanged memory usage.
Alan Wake 2: DLSS 4 vs. DLSS 3 Performance
Alan Wake 2 exhibits identical performance using DLSS 3 and DLSS 4, with and without frame generation. This doesn’t change even if you disable ray-tracing. VRAM usage is slightly lowered.
Hogwarts Legacy: DLSS 4 vs. DLSS 3 Performance
Hogwarts Legacy is the first anomaly, seeing a performance drop of 10-12% using DLSS 4’s updated frame generation model. Upscaling performance is similar, although given the dismal scaling that doesn’t mean much. We also observed a slight increase of 150-300 MB in VRAM usage. These benchmarks were conducted using the press beta branch of the game.
Indiana Jones & the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle performs about the same using DLSS 3 and DLSS 4, although frame generation sees a slight gain with the latter. VRAM usage is a tiny bit lower with the updated model (50-100 MB).
Star Wars Jedi Survivor
Star Wars Jedi Survivor is 10% faster using DLSS 4’s updated frame generation model, seeing a substantial 25% increase in lows. Interestingly, running only upscaling places DLSS 3 back in the lead, albeit a minor one. VRAM usage dropped by 200 MB when using DLSS 4 upscaling and frame generation, but increased by 400 MB with only the former.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
A Plague Tale: Requiem exhibits similar behavior. DLSS 4 is roughly 5% faster than DLSS 3 when combining upscaling and frame generation. However, it’s nearly 10% slower using upscaling alone. DLSS 4 frame generation also reduced the VRAM usage by nearly a GB, from 8.22 GB to 7.26 GB. Conversely, DLSS 4’s transformer model raises it to 7.15 GB, up from 6.7 GB using DLSS 3.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 benefits immensely from DLSS 4’s upscaling and frame generation model. We see a subtle 3-4% FPS boost 3 when using upscaling, and a 4-5% bump upon adding frame generation. Compared to DLSS 3, the VRAM usage drops by 2-2.5 GB in both scenarios. This is the largest reduction in graphics memory observed with DLSS 4.
