Nvidia's AI-powered DLSS technology has been a heated topic among gamers lately. If you're catching up with all the new tech, DLSS is a relatively new tech that takes a low-resolution frame and upscales it using AI to make it look better. The idea is that you set the game to run at a lower resolution, which takes the heat off of your GPU and improves framerates; then, DLSS kicks in and upscales the frames to your chosen resolution. In a perfect scenario, this will allow you to get an FPS boost with little to no sacrifice in image quality.

Some people hail DLSS as a savior for people with budget gaming PCs, while others claim it's ruining gaming. Whichever camp you're in, Nvidia is showing that DLSS is going nowhere, as it's preparing a new update to the technology that reduces VRAM usage by up to 20%.

Nvidia's DLSS Transformer update makes the technology easier on the cards

As spotted by VideoCardz, Nvidia introduced a new SDK for the new and improved DLSS technology. This includes an update to what Nvidia is calling "DLSS Transformer," which is a new model set to replace the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) technology that DLSS currently uses for its upscaling tasks.

The new DLSS Transformer boasts better image quality and less ghosting than the CNN model, but as you might imagine, it also consumes more VRAM as a result. Fortunately, part of the update to the DLSS Transformer model knocks its VRAM usage down by around 20%, which is still a bit more than CNN's usage, but not by a whole lot.

This 20% gain seems to apply to every resolution, too. For example, on the 1920x1080 side, the new update knocks the Transformer's usage down from 106.9 MB to 85.77 MB, which is a 19.8% decrease. Go all the way up to the 7840x4320 resolution, and the new Transformer's VRAM usage goes up to 1225.17 MB, which is 19.9% lower than the old model's 1517.60 MB usage.

As such, it's clear that Nvidia is focusing big on using AI tools to help render video games. Whether you're a fan of that or you're someone who prefers the way things were, there's no doubt that these technologies are going to be around for a very long time.

If you want to check out more information about DLSS, take a look at how DLSS is Nvidia's Achilles heel — here's why. We also have a piece on the 7 ways Nvidia's DLSS 4 is making the future of gaming happen today.