Frame generation is a technology that NVIDIA introduced together with the Ada Lovelace architecture, which, as our regular readers already know, is the basis of the new GeForce RTX 40 graphics cards and is integrated into DLSS 3. In order for these technologies to be used in games, they must be implemented developers, a compatible hardware is required.

Since its official announcement, the technology has been met with some skepticism, mainly because some have seen it as something that doesn’t contribute anything special, essentially re-using something that’s been around for years, frame interpolation. It is true that both technologies have the same goal, but putting them in one bag is a mistakebecause they do not work in the same way, do not have the same requirements and do not achieve the same results.

I know that many of our readers still have doubts about this topic, so I decided that it is a good time to formulate this special article where I will tell you what exactly these technologies are, how they differ, and why we shouldn’t value them equally. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll be happy to help. Having said that, I invite you to get comfortable, here we go.

Image interpolation and image generation: what is it?

Frame interpolation can be defined as a post-processing technique that is, broadly speaking, capable of create an intermediate frame using the information it gets from the previous and next frames. In this way, the smoothness of the image is improved because the frame rate per second is increased.

That intermediate frame exists, it’s totally real if it wasn’t real then we wouldn’t see this improvement in terms of smoothness, but it is done based on the estimation of the data of two frames, that means the resulting quality of it is not at the same level andbrings big problems which ultimately negatively affect the user experience.

This technology It has been available for some time now on various televisions and also in the PC world, but it caused some rejection, especially in the world of cinema on a global level. As for the PC sector, its popularity is less, but it has also been available for some time, and as Microsoft itself states, it is a function that works when decoding video and works with the Windows Media Video codec.

Image generation is based on the same idea, that is, it is a technology that generates a new image based on the information it extracts from previous and subsequent images, but unlike frame interpolation, it uses artificial intelligence and specialized hardware to achieve excellent results and image quality. This is an important difference and allows you to overcome classic frame interpolation problems.

Image interpolation problems: how does image generation overcome them?

Image generation used by NVIDIA in DLSS 3 uses artificial intelligence algorithms, and these in turn are supported by specialized hardware improve the quality of each image generated. Only with these keys will we already understand that its complexity is much greater and that it clearly moves away from frame interpolation.

Motion vectors are used in this technology determine the route that each of the pixels would take image based on the information available in intermediate frames and «Optical Flow Accelerator» is also used to create more accurate forecast how the pixels should appear in the rendered image.

Thanks to the «Optical Flow Accelerator» it is possible to achieve this more accurate and realistic reproduction of things as complicated as shading and lightingand the risk of generating an image with poor sharpness is reduced, as well as the occurrence of artifacts and graphical defects. As we can see, we have a specialized process through artificial intelligence, both using software and hardware, which is ultimately what makes the important difference compared to frame interpolation.

With the generation of frames, we will enjoy a much better experience in all senses and also the classical problems of frame interpolation are almost completely overcome which, generally speaking, can be grouped into the following points:

• Loss of sharpness.
• Graphic glitches and artifacts.
• The appearance of fuzzy clouds and deformations.
• Loss of detail and flickering, especially in scenes with fast movements.

Frame interpolation also creates a increased response time due to latency, a problem that is present in frame generation, but that NVIDIA managed to overcome thanks to technology reflection. This creates a deep synchronization between the CPU and GPU to minimize latency, and the result is so good that we can play without problems generating triggered frames.

What are the benefits of framing and why is it so important?

The most important benefit offered by frame generation is also the most important, it allows you to generate another frame for every two frames rendered in the traditional way. Said frame exists, is completely real, and was generated by artificial intelligence to improve its final quality. That is, thanks to this technology we will enjoy more fluidity in games.

Let’s look at a very simple example. In Cyberpunk 2077, using 4K resolution, path tracking and ultra quality, we have an average 21 FPS with GeForce RTX 4090. If we activate DLSS Super Resolution, also known as DLSS 2, which intelligently rescales and rebuilds the image, the performance rises to 63 frames per seconda figure that would already be perfectly playable, but if we also activate image generation the average goes up to 101 FPS.

The difference in the smoothness of frame generation is significant, and the result that NVIDIA achieved in terms of image quality is significantly higher than frame interpolation can provide. However, this is not the only advantage that this technology offers, and that we can also use it reduce bottlenecks that occur at the CPU level.

It is an easy topic to understand. DLSS Super Resolution technology makes sense, especially in games with a very intensive graphic load, either because of the complexity of its geometry and the quality of its effects or because of the resolution in which it is rendered, or a combination of both. In these cases, intelligently lowering the rendering resolution and scaling will greatly improve performance, but always to a certain limit.

When the rendering resolution drops below a certain threshold, a CPU-derived bottleneck begins to occur and from there the performance improvement is smaller and smaller, so there is no point in continuing to reduce the number of pixels. With this in mind, it is clear that it was not possible to continue betting on scaling and that it was necessary to find a way to improve performance by solving the bottleneck problem.

Frame generation is the answer to this problem because it generates an interframe completely independent of the CPU. It allows improve smoothness by increasing the frame rate per second regardless of resolution and regardless of the existence of a bottleneck at the CPU level.

In CPU intensive games like Microsoft Flight Simulatorwe can go from 85 FPS to 130 FPS in 4K with maximum quality using DLSS Super Resolution with GeForce RTX 4090, and if we activate frame generation, the performance shoots up to 170 FPS. As I said before, latency is not an issue thanks to NVIDIA Reflex technology.

Final Notes: Important things to be clear about image generation

With everything we’ve told you so far, you should already be clear about all the keys behind interpolation and frame generation, as well as their advantages and disadvantages and the differences between them which, as we have seen, are not few.

However, to keep them all more at hand, I’ll let you summary below with the highlights we saw in this article.

• Frame generation creates an additional frame for every two renders in the traditional way, but unlike frame interpolation uses artificial intelligence and specialized hardware to achieve a better result.
• Both technologies improve the feeling of fluidity and frame rate, but the image generation is much more advanced and achieves excellent results. The images generated in both cases are real, but the quality they present due to image generation is much higher.
• Increased latency issue when generating frames is overcome thanks to NVIDIA Reflex technologywhich reduces the response time and the difference in activating the first is very small in this regard.
• With frame generation it is possible reduce the power consumption of the graphics cardespecially when the graphics load is low, and maintain a high frame rate.
• CPU-level bottlenecks do not affect frame generation because this renders images entirely on the GPU, without having to resort to the CPU. That’s why it complements DLSS Super Resolution so well.
• To activate frame generation, we need compatible games that have implemented support for the mentioned technology, and it is necessary to have a GeForce RTX 40 graphics card, because it does not work on GeForce RTX 30 or lower.