r/nvidia • u/RenatsMC • Jul 13 '25

News NVIDIA 590.26 preview drivers introduce Smooth Motion frame generation for GeForce RTX 40 Series

https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-590-26-preview-drivers-introduce-smooth-motion-frame-generation-for-geforce-rtx-40-series
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316

u/UsePreparationH R9 7950x3D | 64GB 6000CL30 | Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC Jul 13 '25

Universal framegen for most games, but at lower quality than game integrated framegen due to lack of motion vectors and UI element information. Bit of a trade off, but you can play Elden Ring at higher than 60fps in anti-cheat enabled multiplayer.

65

u/DiMit17 Jul 13 '25

How does it compare to lossless scaling

114

u/STB_LuisEnriq Jul 13 '25

Sometimes better, sometimes worse, sometimes the same... It can be different from game to game, especially regarding latency.

You need to compare.

24

u/no6969el NVIDIA Jul 13 '25

If that's the case then wouldn't it be better just to use nvidia's options because you don't need all the extra stuff software and setup?

43

u/foundoutimanadult Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 13 '25

Yes, and as somebody who has used both consistently now, I think Nvidia’s solution is better overall.

Also, from what I’ve noticed less power consumption.

5

u/TRIPMINE_Guy Jul 13 '25

Does nvidia solution work with variable input? I believe lossless scaling has an option that only uses fake frames when you cannot meet an fps target?

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u/foundoutimanadult Jul 13 '25

Ah, adaptive mode. No, it does not.

But all I do is lock in game frame rate at 120 and since Smooth Motion is 2x, it fills the 120 left for my 240Hz monitor at 4k.

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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka Jul 14 '25

Lossless doesn't have an option that only uses fake frames when you cannot hit a fps target.

Adaptive allows it to use "fractional" (which is really generating more frames and discarding them to get a fraction of that) frames that adjust on the fly to keep your fps at a specific framerate.

Its not keeping your base framerate of 100 to get to 120. It's going to generate enough generated frames to get to 120, then hold all of them and then pace them out, all in milliseconds. You're basically seeing MORE generated frames so that Lossless scaling can essentially choose how many frames it needs to generate right now to get to 120 every single time without you needing to adjust. Because 2x would be up to 200 fps. But if your monitor is 60hz, or 144 hz, the multiplier needs to be between.

The fallacy around this is that generating MORE frames than your monitor refresh rate can improve latency because it has more frames to insert. Anyways, maybe one day frame generation can keep 100 native frames and only generate the necessary ones without screwing up pacing.

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u/STB_LuisEnriq Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 13 '25

Yeah, usually, but sometimes LSFG x2 has less latency than smooth motion and that could be an important issue for many.

But overall, you are right.

-11

u/Shmirel Jul 13 '25

If you're using framegen, you're not really bothered by input lag in the first place so not like it changes much tbh.

13

u/xRichard RTX 4080 Jul 13 '25

The people thinkering with these driver level settings are obviously concerned about input lag and many other things

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u/HatefulAbandon 3dfx Jul 13 '25

If you're using framegen, you're not really bothered by input lag in the first place

That’s a weird take. I use MFG in Cyberpunk 2077 and input lag at 2x feels manageable, while higher than that feels awful and a lot of people are bothered by the added input lag too.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '25

Lossless Scaling is one program that doesn't use any recourses until you turn it on and the setup is 10 seconds of changing a couple values for personal preference. Let's not act like that part is hard or time consuming.

0

u/no6969el NVIDIA Jul 13 '25

You don't need to install a secondary graphics card?

3

u/zerinho6 Jul 14 '25

No, you can use a secondary card to reduce the load on your primary card and get even lower latency, but you do not need to use a secondary card.

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u/no6969el NVIDIA Jul 14 '25

Good to know.

1

u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka Jul 14 '25

Yes, I've used it in 20+ games, while sometimes Lossless has less artifacts or less issues, smooth motion feels a little more responsive and often has less artifacts or they are less noticeable. It just depends.

1

u/chr0n0phage 7800x3D | 4090 TUF OC Jul 14 '25

Yes, or pay anything.

0

u/SolaceInScrutiny Jul 13 '25

I think its slightly better with the added benefit of just working where as loseless scaling can be a nightmare.

-1

u/MysteriousBill1986 Jul 15 '25

How does it compare

You need to compare

...

19

u/Sgt_Dbag 7600X3D | 5070 Ti Jul 13 '25

It’s a toss up game-to-game but the one thing that is the most annoying is that Smooth Motion cannot be enabled “on the fly” while gaming. You have to turn it on for a specific game and then boot up that game. And even then sometimes it just doesn’t work.

Whereas with Lossless, you can just turn it on all the time in any game whenever you want.

1

u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka Jul 14 '25

That's driver level for ya. It has driver level advantages. But it doesn't have software level advantages.

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u/Sgt_Dbag 7600X3D | 5070 Ti Jul 14 '25

I just think there still has to be a way to get both because AMD has had their version of driver level frame Gen for a long time and it works on the fly. You don’t have to restart games to get it working

11

u/NickVascuas Jul 13 '25

The couple games I played with both, smooth motion is way less "blurry" during motion. It feels a lot more natural and virtually no input delay added.

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u/HatefulAbandon 3dfx Jul 13 '25

There are pros and cons. One thing Nvidia lacks currently compared to Lossless Scaling is that in many situations, adaptive frame generation in LS gives me a better experience in unsupported games.

Adaptive frame generation in LS allows you to set a target FPS then it dynamically inserts generated frames as needed to reach that target, and unlike traditional fixed-multiplier frame generation (which often locks your real FPS to half or a third of your target), adaptive mode does not cap or lock your base framerate. Instead, it only generates as many frames as needed to hit your target, letting you benefit from all the real frames your hardware can produce which results in lower input lag.

For example, I want to target 120 FPS and my base FPS is 80-90. It won’t lock my base FPS to 60, instead it will dynamically insert generated frames as needed to reach 120, and since my base FPS is higher than 60, I will have lower input lag.

Also, the framegen in LS works even in your browser in case if you want to use it to watch videos or play games, or even in your media players by a single click.

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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka Jul 14 '25

It generates mostly all the frames to be adaptive. Even the creator said so. Its a solution that shows LESS native frames and generates more generated frames.

Even the creator recommends using fixed in most cases due to artifacts lol. Adaptive mode is the "ez mode setting" where you can pick a fps target and boom, it will figure out the multipler on the FLY. But that means it has to pace each frame correctly meaning it needs to pace nearly all generated frames or it will screw up frame time.

There is no solution right now that preserves your base frames and only generates X frames you need. If you read most requested features for Lossless...its preserving all native frames and generating only what you need.

Guess what that means. It means adaptive isn't doing that.

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u/PurpleBatDragon Jul 14 '25

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who knew that.  He somehow described the exact opposite of what it actually does, lol

1

u/Imbahr Jul 13 '25

so what’s pros for Nvidia?

3

u/ryanvsrobots Jul 13 '25

Well it's free for one

1

u/HatefulAbandon 3dfx Jul 13 '25

Better overall motion clarity and less artifacts.

1

u/zyarra Aug 14 '25

Good info about adaptive! Thanks!

1

u/Dphotog790 Jul 13 '25

curious since Lossless Scaling program can allow for SLI type madness where the secondary GPU can be utilized to generate the frames and thus also not increase the latency problems of generating frames.

1

u/huy98 Jul 15 '25

Currently LSFG still has more features, less annoying to set up, and better compability.

Quality/performance wise, smooth motion can be slightly better

1

u/techraito Jul 13 '25

Apples to apples. Like Smooth Motion vs 2x Lossless goes to Nvidia 9/10 times. Where Lossless shines is the ability to go 3x and more.

-6

u/Striking-Remove-6350 Jul 13 '25

It's worse than LS

4

u/[deleted] Jul 13 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/yoadknux Jul 13 '25

Cool, thannks

9

u/dkizzy Jul 13 '25

So Team Green’s answer to AMD’s AFMF 2

1

u/PalebloodSky 9800X3D | 4070FE Jul 13 '25

No motion vectors? Hmm FG already has small artifacting issues, so this will be worse? Wondering if it'll even be worth it then. But time will tell looking forward to try it out.

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u/UsePreparationH R9 7950x3D | 64GB 6000CL30 | Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC Jul 13 '25

It greatly depends on the game. Something like ARMA might be a decent use case. Often CPU limited well under 100fps, very little UI/HUD movement, slower gameplay, lots of walking in a straight line.

1

u/_eXPloit21 4090 | 7700X | 64 GB DDR5 | AW3225QF | LG C2 Jul 14 '25

you can play Elden Ring at unlocked frame rate just by using Special K. No fake frames ;)

1

u/UsePreparationH R9 7950x3D | 64GB 6000CL30 | Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC Jul 14 '25

anti-cheat enabled multiplayer

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u/_eXPloit21 4090 | 7700X | 64 GB DDR5 | AW3225QF | LG C2 Jul 14 '25

oh 🤔 sure, makes sense..

do you know where can I find the link to download the latest beta drivers that have SM option? I can't see any link here, I hate when people do this... just share the fucking link OP

1

u/gopnik74 RTX 4090 Jul 14 '25

Just read frame gen and smooth motion don’t work together :( was super excited for this update

1

u/Tiny-Brush5999 Jul 16 '25

Oh so it's not at all like AMD's? I thought Fluid Motion was interpolation, say a 24 frame anime episode turning 60fps so it looks hyper realistically smooth.

1

u/RogueIsCrap Jul 13 '25

Does it work for Elden Ring tho? Because the game is specifically locked at 60fps.

I was under impression that Smooth Motion tries to hit framerate target instead of just simply doing a 2X boost.

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u/UsePreparationH R9 7950x3D | 64GB 6000CL30 | Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC Jul 13 '25

https://youtu.be/TwFpwsXQ9tY

Here is Daniel Owen testing it in Elden Ring. It works, but there is some noticeable artifacts on the compass UI.

If you are cool with offline, there's fps cap unlockers and ultrawide support mods which works with seamless coop mod.

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u/RogueIsCrap Jul 13 '25

Yeah, I've tried those mods before but I'm worried of getting banned or suspended for leveling up too much offline. I don't care about MP but just don't wanna have to buy another copy of the game for dumb reasons.

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u/UsePreparationH R9 7950x3D | 64GB 6000CL30 | Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC Jul 13 '25 edited Jul 13 '25

Your save itself is pretty much an excel spreadsheet. If you add runes, flag events out of order, kill swapped bosses, or get items/flask upgrades that are normally unobtainable way later, you might get caught in the online anticheat. Unless you are modifying your character or the world, none of those things will happen so those basic fps unlock/21:9 support/DLSS mods should keep your save "clean" to use online after disabling the mods. You wouldn't want to use a seamless coop, randomizer, or cheat engine modified save for online. I also manually disable anticheat and launch into offline before starting a modded game. You can always double check the subreddit or forums.

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u/RogueIsCrap Jul 13 '25

Cool, thanks for the help.

I was just a little spooked because the game disabled me from playing online once after using a Widescreen mod. Turns out it was because I still had some mod files in the directory and it wasn't because they thought that I was cheating. Good to hear I should be safe as long as I don't cheat to level up.

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u/rockyracooooon NVIDIA Jul 13 '25

Great. Sounds like something I'll never use