DLSS, XeSS, and FSR will make 8K gaming arrive sooner than we think

Nvidia hasn’t been shy to talk gaming at 4K with its RTX 40 and RTX 50 series. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 was the most powerful GPU you could buy and the RTX 5090 has since taken that mantle. These graphics cards are great for enjoying all the latest games at 4K with ultra settings configured, though some titles would prove to be too much of a challenge for high frame rates. That’s where Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) comes into play. There are various levels to this technology, but it works wonders for high-fidelity gaming and we could see 8K arrive sooner than we think.

DLSS is the future of gaming

Since DLSS debuted in 2018, the technology has improved alongside Nvidia’s Tensor Cores, which handle much of the AI workload. AMD decided to do things differently with FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) by relying on software instead of AI and machine learning. The result was an easy victory for Team Green. FSR has lagged behind Nvidia’s frame generation efforts for years and only now is the company working to migrate FSR to machine learning. Intel already worked in AI forXe Super Sampling(XeSS) and looks to follow in Nvidia’s footsteps, which is brilliant for the brand’s more affordable GPUs.

The GeForce RTX 5090 is the current Nvidia flagship and most powerful GPU. We’ve yet to get our hands on the card, but reviews have already been published with a consensus on the stellar performance. It’s working well with all the latest AI tech to improve the overall performance without having to jack up power draw with beefier specifications. That is something we’ll likely see Nvidia do with future generations, but it’s all about AI and machine learning for the RTX 50. Now, all this performance comes at a price, a rather steep one at that. Nvidia is charging $1,999 for the luxury.

Related

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 series promises RTX 4090 performance for $549

It’s like an RTX 4090 only much more powerful and with considerably more RAM.

At that price, one would expect the single computer component to work as intended at higher resolutions. 4K is already possible with not only the RTX 4090 and AMD’s RX 7900 series, but you’ll need the RTX 4090 and its sheer raw performance to enjoy smooth gameplay with all the visual settings cranked up higher. Even this $1,999 GPU can struggle with the most demanding games. That’s where DLSS comes into play by bolstering what’s possible with limited hardware. Most RTX 30, 40, and now 50 series cards will receive a sizeable boost to frame rates with DLSS enabled.

Nvidia was all about AI at CES 2025 and its RTX 50 series focuses on the machine learning and AI backend to aid the CUDA cores in processing as many frames as possible. The more frames that can be generated by the GPU outside of the normal pipeline, the smoother the gameplay should be even with ray tracing and other demanding features enabled. DLSS is the future of gaming because of this, whether you agree or disagree with its prominence in the gaming world. And the technology has greatly improved over the years, as is shown in the below comparison between no DLSS, DLSS 2, DLSS 3.5, and DLSS 4.

I was among the many who weren’t too impressed by the first few generations of DLSS but have come to appreciate what Nvidia has achieved, especially compared to what AMD has available with FSR 3. DLSS 4 is set to take everything up a notch with enhanced frame generation and newer cores on the architecture side.

Related

Mini-LED vs. OLED Monitors: Is OLED the future of gaming?

PC gamers are always looking for the best products, and it seems OLED may be taking the crown.

8K will require frame generation

Many of us haven’t even migrated to 4K monitors for gaming, let alone 8K, but it’s on the horizon and becoming far more acceptable concerning current GPU technologies. Nvidia switched to a new transformer-based AI upscaling method, which should help deal with the pesky visual anomalies that can ruin the immersive gaming experience. The company is banking big on AI so you can expect to see fine-tuning and further driver updates to make the upscaling and frame generation even better as this GPU generation matures.

And you’re going to require these technologies when moving to 8K. 4K alone requires DLSS and other features to be enabled, especially when working with ray and path tracing. 8K is demanding enough as a baseline, let alone with everything in-game cranked to ultra settings and advanced realistic lighting effects in play. 32GB of GDDR7 VRAM also helps the RTX 5090 in the 8K department. If you thought 4K textures and other stuff the GPU needs to store on the card are heavy, wait until you see what the next leap up in resolutions requires.

Related

Is 4K really worth it for gaming in 2024?

4K seems like the last word in modern PC gaming. But are you losing out on more than you’re gaining?

The RTX 50 series is impressive. That much we’ve seen from reviews, but it’s the DLSS and new Multi Frame Generation technologies that are the driving force of Nvidia’s graphics advancements. 8K gaming is coming and we’ll see those with range-topping PC builds achieve decent frame rates playing games at this resolution, but it can only really be done with Nvidia hardware for now. AMD should be prepping something special with FSR 4 and I’ve got high hopes for the future of Intel Arc, so we can place bets that 8K gaming will arrive sooner now that it’s technically possible with solid results.