Nvidia’s new driver gives a major boost to games for free thanks to VRSS
You need an RTX card, though
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Nvidiahas started 2020 with a new driver release, and one of the best features will give around 20 games a pretty decent graphical and performance boost – essentially upgrading the games for free.
This is thanks to Nvidia’s Variable Rate Supersampling (VRSS), and is exclusive to its RTX series of graphics cards.
VRSS is a clever way of applying super sampling to parts of an image to increase the overall image quality, as the graphics are rendered at a much higher resolution. In a similar way to Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) tech, VRSS uses artificial intelligence to choose what part of the image to apply super sampling to based on what the player will be looking at, leaving the rest of the image untouched.
So, VRSS renders the center of the image at a higher resolution, as demonstrated in Nvidia’s image below. This should allow for greater image quality without impacting on performance too much.
Benefiting virtual reality
VRSS can therefore improve the quality ofVR games, because the user is viewing the game via lenses in a headset, which means they are more likely to be looking at the centre of the image where VRSS can boost the resolution.
What sets VRSS apart from other super sampling tech, likeOculus’s Fixed Foveated Rendering, is that while VRSS can increase the resolution of the center of the image by up to eight times, it leaves the rest of the image alone, rather than decreasing the quality there. So you’re only getting improved visuals, not at the expense of image quality elsewhere.
Nvidia has also made it so that VRSS is intelligently scaled based on the capability of your PC. This means VRSS shouldn’t make a hit on framerates, which are essential in VR gaming to minimise motion sickness and increase immersion.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
The following games can take advantage of VRSS right now:
Developers won’t need to add VRSS support, as it’s handled by the driver, so we should see this list grow.
To use VRSS, you need an RTX card (like theNvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super), then open the Nvidia Control Panel, click ‘Manage 3D Settings’, then select ‘Adaptive’ next to ‘Virtual Reality – Variable Rate Supersampling.’
Nvidia has also released a video showing the benefits of VRSS, which you can view below:
ViaWindows Central
Matt is TechRadar’s Managing Editor for Core Tech, looking after computing and mobile technology. Having written for a number of publications such as PC Plus, PC Format, T3 and Linux Format, there’s no aspect of technology that Matt isn’t passionate about, especially computing and PC gaming. He’s personally reviewed and used most of the laptops in our best laptops guide - and since joining TechRadar in 2014, he’s reviewed over 250 laptops and computing accessories personally.
Google Gemini is set to finally reach its full potential – and take over from Google Assistant – thanks to a major upgrade
Alt + Tab trouble: Windows 11’s 24H2 update turns time-saving shortcut into ten-second headache
From Dishonored to Mafia: Definitive Edition, some of my favorite games are free right now for Amazon Prime members
