When the RTX 20 series was announced, the gaming community was beyond stoked about the real-time ray tracing support on consumer GPUs. While photorealistic lighting was (and still is) a game-changing feature, my nerd self couldn’t stop gushing over DLSS. At the time, the initial implementation of Nvidia’s deep learning utility only supported upscaling, but it seemed like the ideal way to get some extra FPS when the Turing series cards would grow obsolete.

Once Nvidia announced frame generation support, I got my hopes up yet again. Unfortunately, DLSS never turned into the messiah I wanted it to be. On the contrary, Nvidia has started using it to pump out exaggerated performance numbers in newer GPUs, while triple-A studios lean on it to make high-quality graphical presets playable.

Luckily, Lossless Scaling has become the shining beacon of hope for people with outdated GPUs, and it’s essentially what I wanted DLSS to turn into after it was announced back in 2018.

Lossless Scaling works with practically every game…

Not just a handful of triple-A titles

While it was rather lackluster in its implementation, the original DLSS seemed like a decent way to compromise between quality and performance. Over the next couple of iterations, Team Green fine-tuned DLSS to the point where the AI-based upscaling didn’t seem all that terrible compared to running the games at native resolutions. That is, if you play the limited number of games that actually support DLSS. If you’re on, say, the RTX 2080 Ti and want to play a title that doesn’t support DLSS, you’re out of luck.

That’s before you factor the frame generation functionality from DLSS 4.0 into the equation. Sure, triple-A studios tend to include DLSS support these days, but there’s only a fraction of titles compatible with Nvidia’s frame generation algorithms.

In contrast, Lossless Scaling lets you use upscaling and frame generation on every PC game you can think of. Whether it’s the indie title that runs at low FPS on your budget-friendly last-gen GPU or the AA game that would’ve been a 10/10 if it only supported DLSS with frame generation, you can harness Lossless Scaling for virtually every game in your collection.

… And it’s compatible with most GPUs

Including Intel and AMD offerings

As if the limited number of games compatible with DLSS (and even fewer with frame gen) wasn’t bad enough, the modern versions of Team Green’s FPS-boosting utility remain paywalled behind newer graphics cards. If you’re rocking an RTX 30 series card like I do, you won’t be able to utilize frame generation. Likewise, the multi-frame generation technology remains restricted to the new RTX 50 series GPUs, and you won’t be able to leverage it on older cards.

Over the last couple of months, Lossless Scaling has also undergone numerous updates and even supports multiple frame generation algorithms. However, you can use every upscaling and frame gen model on your GPU, regardless of its generation. As if that’s not enough, you can even pair Lossless Scaling with Intel and AMD cards, while DLSS is only available on Team Green GPUs.

It’s more of a performance boost

And less of a crutch for unoptimized games and unimpressive GPUs

Even if you leave the limited games and restrictive frame gen support out of the argument, the way Nvidia has handled DLSS is my biggest point of contention with the service. What initially seemed like a way to extend the longevity of an old GPU has devolved into a mandatory toggle, one that needs to be enabled if you want to enjoy games at high-fidelity settings.

Don’t get me wrong, I was a part of the PC community when the “Can it run Crysis” jokes ran rampant. But the fact that even the most high-end GPUs can’t output high frame rates once you enable ray-tracing presets without DLSS makes this utility seem like a necessary crutch. And don’t even get me started on the exaggerated performance numbers based on artificial frames that Team Green loves to use when advertising their new graphics cards.

On the other hand, Lossless Scaling is an actually useful app for running graphically demanding titles on older cards. Heck, if I didn’t have my RTX 3080 Ti, I’d probably be running my favorite turn-based JRPGs at 1440p via Lossless Scaling on my GTX 1080.

Lossless Scaling is not perfect, but I wholeheartedly support it

It’s a great way to eke out extra FPS on old GPUs

Of course, Lossless Scaling has plenty of drawbacks. If you compare its frame gen capabilities with those of DLSS 3.0 (and newer versions), Lossless Scaling wouldn’t win any awards. It also can’t access the motion vectors of games, meaning you’re bound to run into artifacts when using the more complex frame generation variants with Lossless Scaling.

Nevertheless, I adore this application. The upscaling aspect is impressive on its own, but the fact that a third-party developer managed to create a rock-solid frame generation algorithm that works with every PC game is nothing short of impressive. I even tested a dual-GPU setup with Lossless Scaling a while ago, and although the input latency was still detectable, it’s an amazing way to put my old GPUs to good use.