Nvidia is introducing DLSS 3.5 this fall with a new AI-powered Ray Reconstruction technique that’s designed to improve the quality of ray tracing. Unlike DLSS 3’s Frame Generation, which was limited to just RTX 40-series GPUs, DLSS 3.5 will boost ray tracing across all RTX-series GPUs going back to the RTX 20 series.
Nvidia is primarily targeting DLSS 3.5 at games that offer path tracing, often known as full ray tracing, as opposed to titles that use ray tracing just for select elements like shadows or reflections. Cyberpunk 2077 will get support for DLSS 3.5 with its Phantom Liberty DLC releasing on September 26th, which also adds the path tracing previewed earlier this year. Alan Wake 2 will also launch on October 27th with DLSS 3.5 and full ray tracing. Portal with RTX is also getting a DLSS 3.5 upgrade this fall.
DLSS currently uses hand-tuned denoisers to fill in missing pixels for each lighting pass in a ray-traced scene. The result can include some losses of color accuracy, inaccurate lighting, and even occasional ghosting. Nvidia is attempting to improve on this approach by using an AI-powered network that it claims generates higher-quality pixels.
While DLSS 3.5 will benefit regular ray-traced games in image quality and performance, Nvidia says you’ll get a greater performance benefit with path-traced content. More intensive ray-tracing games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Alan Wake 2 will benefit the most from DLSS 3.5 both in terms of overall image quality and performance.
DLSS 3.5 is trained on five times more data than DLSS 3, and in supported games, it will be available as a separate option similar to DLSS 3’s Frame Generation setting.
Nvidia’s latest DLSS 3.5 release isn’t limited to just games, either. Creators will be able to utilize DLSS 3.5 in 3D editing apps like Chaos Vantage, D5 Render, and Nvidia Omniverse. DLSS 3.5 should help to provide higher-quality and more accurate render previews in these apps.
It’s going to take some time for developers to implement DLSS 3.5 in games, particularly as it will be most beneficial in fully ray-traced titles. DLSS 3 is still being added to major games in the meantime. Fortnite is getting a DLSS 3 upgrade this fall, allowing RTX 40-series owners to enable Frame Generation to boost frame rates. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will also support DLSS 3 and Reflex upon release on November 10th.
AMD is also rumored to be launching FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3) at Gamescom this week. The latest iteration of AMD’s upscaling technology will reportedly launch alongside Starfield next month.
