DLSS 4's impressive Transformer model for Super Resolution exits Beta

NVIDIA announced the arrival of DLSS 4 alongside its big GeForce RTX 50 Series reveal at CES 2025. One of the most significant advances that DLSS 4 brings is a shift to a new and advanced Transformer model for Super Resolution AI upscaling, replacing the older and existing CNN, or Convolutional Neural Network, model.

At a high level, the new Transformer model can examine every pixel in a rendered frame instead of a partial solution that makes estimates, resulting in a more detailed, sharper, and cleaner image comparable to a natively rendered image. With double the parameters, the Transformer model is also faster than CNN, reducing the latency from 3.25ms to just 1ms on a GeForce RTX 5090.

DLSS 4 has been a game changer for image quality. Using the Performance preset in 4K delivers better image quality than the previous version's Quality preset. DLSS 4's Transformer model is also used in its Ray Reconstruction technology, which dramatically improves the quality of ray-traced effects (as seen above).

At the time of the GeForce RTX 50 Series launch, DLSS 4 and the new Transformer-based Super Resolution were available in Beta form in over 70 games. That figure now sits in the 120+ region thanks to NVIDIA's inclusion of a driver-based DLSS Override feature as part of the NVIDIA App. And now, with the arrival of NVIDIA DLSS SDK 310.3.0, DLSS 4's upgraded Super Resolution has exited Beta.

What does this mean? We'll start seeing many more games adding native support for DLSS 4 and the new Transformer-based Super Resolution. This can already be seen in games like Diablo 4, which is adding native DLSS 4 support next week as part of the game's big Season 9 update. This means you no longer have to use the DLSS Override feature to access DLSS 4; it'll be in-game as soon as you enable DLSS.

With DLSS 4 exiting Beta, it also means that new releases supporting the older CNN model will become a thing of the past as DLSS 4's new and improved Super Resolution is compatible with all GeForce RTX graphics cards - from the GeForce RTX 2060 right up to the recently announced GeForce RTX 5050.