DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation hands-on, tailor-made for high refresh-rate displays

DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation is now available. After going hands-on with NVIDIA's updated Frame Generation technology in recent days, it's safe to say that it not only improves the Multi Frame Generation technology that debuted with DLSS 4, but it's a version of the technology that makes a lot more sense for a lot more games. And this all comes down to the Dynamic part of the technology, which is a game-changer in the making.

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Now, it's worth reiterating what DLSS Frame Generation and Multi Frame Generation do, and what they're useful for, alongside their strengths and weaknesses. As most PC gamers who have used the technology know, NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation and competing technologies leverage AI to generate frames between traditionally rendered or upscaled frames, enhancing motion clarity and smoothness.

Although latency increases when frames are not natively rendered, Frame Generation also leverages NVIDIA Reflex to ensure that a game with Frame Generation enabled still feels as smooth as one running natively at around 60 FPS. Multi Frame Generation takes this one step further by increasing the number of generated frames, leveraging GeForce RTX 50 Series hardware to keep frame pacing and latency in check, delivering the immersion that comes from playing a game running at 200+ FPS.

A Quick Dynamic Multi Frame Generation Primer

Now, the main reason to enable Frame Generation or Multi Frame Generation is to make the most of your display by matching a refresh rate of 144 Hz, 240 Hz, or even 360 Hz with the same number of frames. Brute-forcing a cinematic AAA game with Ultra-like settings or ray tracing to run at 240 FPS in 1440p or 4K isn't even possible with today's gaming GPUs, and even on high-end cards like the GeForce RTX 5080, performance can still be CPU-limited or even limited by the game engine.

Ultimately, the closer the frame rate matches a display's refresh rate, the more motion clarity improves, making in-game objects easier to see and enhancing the clarity and detail of a living digital world. DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation is a simple and welcome evolution: it lets you set a target frame rate and dynamically adjusts the amount of frame generation to maintain consistent performance, which now goes up to 6X. This update also improves the image quality, frame pacing, and overall efficiency (memory footprint) of DLSS Frame Generation, so it's a win-win for the technology.

Testing Dynamic Multi Frame Generation in Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077, with ray-tracing on PC, is still one of the most visually impressive and immersive gaming experiences you can have. Playing with Full Ray Tracing or Path Tracing is another level. It relies on DLSS technologies on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs to deliver impressive performance that matches the notable increases in image fidelity, lighting, and other effects. Enabling DLSS 4.5's new Dynamic Frame Generation is a relatively straightforward task, as all you need to do is use the DLSS Override feature to set the Target FPS to the maximum refresh rate of your display and then set the maximum multiplier, up to 6X.

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For this hands-on with Dynamic Frame Generation, we used the fantastic MSI MAG 321UPX QD-OLED 4K 240Hz, and decided to test it at 4K using the game's RT Ultra mode with the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and at 4K using the RT Overdrive mode with the GeForce RTX 5080. With the DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution 'Performance' setting used in both tests, 4K performance hovered at around 70 FPS on the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and around 60 FPS on the GeForce RTX 5080, depending on what was happening on screen.

From there, enabling Dynamic Frame Generation immediately pushed smoothness and motion clarity to 240 FPS, with the frame-generation multiplier shifting between 3X and 6X. Interestingly, in both tests, the Input Latency, which defines how responsive a game feels to play and control, remained in the 45-50ms range with very little fluctuation as it moved up from the previous 4X cap to the new 6X cap.

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As far as image quality and overall smoothness of the presentation go, Dynamic Frame Generation offers a minor improvement over Multi Frame Generation, with the biggest gain being the ability to "set and forget" and let it do its thing. Of course, even though Dynamic Frame Generation is available in a wide range of titles, including multiplayer games, the latency is still too high for competitive gaming. Still, the impact on a single-player game is such that the trade-off to get that smooth 240 Hz presentation is worth it.

DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation is a Step Forward for Frame Generation

Ultimately, Dynamic Multi Frame Generation feels like a more complete version of Multi Frame Generation and one that is worth enabling. After playing Cyberpunk 2077 and then briefly testing how it looked and felt in a few other titles (including Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd) we found that setting the multiplayer limit to 3X or 4X does offer a more responsive experience, latency-wise, so it's great that you can configure it to suit your own preferences and not be limited, so to speak, to the new 6X mode. It'll be interesting to see where the tech goes from here.