In recent years, Nvidia has heavily marketed its DLSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation technologies with its graphics cards, especially for high-resolution 4K gaming. Although it's a clever trick that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to upscale lower-resolution footage, I'm not a huge fan of it. Yes, the output looks almost as good as natively rendered 4K footage, but upon closer inspection, you'll notice visual artifacts and ghosting, especially during fast-paced scenes. Frame Generation also adds latency, which is the last thing I want in competitive esports titles.

These drawbacks are why many gamers still prefer native rendering for the best visual fidelity and try to avoid enabling DLSS as much as possible. However, with DLSS 4 now available, I'd argue that its benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, even though it's still not perfect. The technology has improved to the point that I now consciously remind myself to enable it before loading into a new game. I know I'm sacrificing motion clarity to some extent, but at the same time, I'm not pixel peeping every frame while I'm gaming.

3 Substantial FPS improvements

Better frame rates mean smoother gameplay

The FPS improvement that Nvidia's DLSS brings to the table is hard to overlook, even if that means dealing with visual artifacts and ghosting. Yes, raw graphical fidelity matters, but smoothness and responsiveness during gameplay have always taken precedence for me. For instance, the DLSS Quality setting improves the frame rates by around 20-30%, depending on the game. That's without using Frame Generation, which I avoid — unless I'm playing a single-player game—because of the latency hit.

This means that if my PC is struggling to hit above 60 FPS consistently in modern AAA titles, I can just turn on DLSS upscaling for a smoother gaming experience. That's how I played Assassin's Creed: Shadows recently, because my RTX 4090 wasn't powerful enough to hit this number consistently with all settings maxed out at 3440 x 1440 resolution. And if that's not enough, I can always turn on Frame Generation to nearly double the frame rate; the latency increase isn't an issue in single-play games. With the RTX 50-series GPUs supporting Multi Frame Generation, you can even quadruple your frame rates in supported titles.

2 DLSS stops me from upgrading

I'm no longer tempted to buy the latest GPUs

GPUs have become really expensive in recent years, especially in the high-end segment. You can't buy a flagship Nvidia graphics card for under $1,000 anymore. The RTX 5090, for example, costs $2,000, which is a 33% price increase over its predecessor, the RTX 4090. However, thanks to technologies like DLSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation, I'm no longer tempted to spend absurd amounts of money on a new graphics card.

Before DLSS, your only option if you needed better frame rates was to upgrade your GPU or lower your graphics settings. Now, all you need to do is toggle on DLSS for a quick 20-30% performance boost with very minimal impact to visual fidelity. The transformer AI model that DLSS 4 uses for upscaling is good enough to go toe-to-toe with native rendering in some instances. I understand most games don't support DLSS 4 just yet, but you can always use the Nvidia app's DLSS overrides to force the latest version if needed.

More importantly, if you have an aging CPU that's bottlenecking your graphics card, you can enable DLSS Frame Generation to significantly boost your frame rate with no impact on your CPU load. Sure, it increases latency, but if that means saving hundreds of dollars on a new CPU or motherboard, I'll happily take advantage of it.

1 DLSS reduces GPU load and power draw

Your GPU doesn't have to work as hard at lower render resolutions

When you enable DLSS Super Resolution, the game essentially renders at a lower resolution. For example, when you play a game at 4K with DLSS Quality enabled, the internal resolution it uses is 1440p. Likewise, for DLSS Performance, the internal resolution is 1080p. This means your graphics card doesn't have to use all its horsepower to render the game like it does at native 4K resolution. This reduction in GPU usage translates directly into reduced power draw, meaning your GPU runs more efficiently.

With modern high-end graphics cards consuming over 400W while gaming, enabling DLSS can help lower your electricity bill. More importantly, reduced power draw means lower heat output, which could alleviate thermal throttling while gaming. A noisy graphics card would be the last thing you need to worry about since the fans don't have to ramp up as much to keep the temperature in check. I hate when my CPU or GPU runs hot, so I don't mind making minor visual compromises for that extra thermal headroom.

DLSS is worth using despite the visual compromise

No matter how much AI advances in the next few years, DLSS may never truly match native rendering. Artifacts, ghosting, and subtle loss of image clarity can be frustrating at times, but gaming isn't just about visual fidelity. Most gamers just want a buttery-smooth experience, and DLSS truly delivers in that regard. The technology has surely come a long way since its introduction in early 2019, to the point that I'm fine using it when I need those extra frames for a slight hit to visual fidelity. Until GPUs become powerful enough to consistently deliver flawless native rendering at high resolutions, DLSS will remain a necessity.