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Frame generation has mostly been a feature you get by buying a recent graphics card. On November 11, 2026, a company called Apex Compute tried to change that. In a post on X, it introduced Apex Neural Rendering (ANR), a cross-platform suite for super resolution, ray reconstruction and frame generation, and claimed "up to 2.4Ă faster performance and higher quality rendering than NVIDIA DLSS." The post quickly passed 400,000 views, and VideoCardz and Notebookcheck both covered it within hours.
The big promise is reach. Apex Neural Rendering is not tied to one GPU brand or one generation, which matters for anyone still gaming on an older card.
What is Apex Neural Rendering?
ANR has three parts, according to the project's GitHub page: ANR FG (frame generation), ANR SR (upscaling) and ANR RR (ray reconstruction, a denoiser for ray tracing). Right now only frame generation is available, as a beta. Apex lists upscaling and ray reconstruction as "beta soon," and VideoCardz reports that the company says those models are still in training. The source code is also listed as "coming soon," so ANR is not yet open source in practice.
Which GPUs does Apex Neural Rendering support?
The official Apex Compute ANR page lists:
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20 series and newer, plus GTX 16 series
- AMD Radeon RX 5000 series and newer, plus Steam Deck
- Intel Arc A-series and B-series
- Apple silicon, M1 and later
It runs on Windows 10 and 11, on Linux and SteamOS through Proton, and on macOS 26 or later. That is a much wider list than NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation, which requires a GeForce RTX 40 or 50 series card.
How fast is ANR compared with DLSS Frame Generation?
What Apex claims
On an RTX 5090 at 3840 Ă 2160, Apex says ANR takes 1.01 ms to create each generated frame in 2X mode, versus 1.26 ms for DLSS Frame Generation. In 4X mode, it lists 0.61 ms versus 0.82 ms per generated frame. It also claims ANR uses 214 MB of GPU memory at 4K, compared with 562 MB for DLSS Frame Generation, and that its neural network weights take only 0.17 MB. Apex's quality tables (CGVQM-5, ColorVideoVDP and PSNR) put ANR ahead of DLSS in every mode from 2X to 6X.
What is still unproven
These are the company's own numbers. VideoCardz notes that a separate Apex benchmark chart, where the 2.4Ă figure comes from, does not specify its measurement unit, and that results are mixed on the Radeon RX 9060 XT: FSR 3.1 is slightly faster at 2X there, and FSR 4 ML leads at 3X and 4X. VideoCardz and Notebookcheck both say they have not tested ANR themselves, and we found no independent benchmarks yet. We also found no public response from NVIDIA.
Keep in mind what frame generation does. It raises the frame rate you see, but it does not make the game respond faster to your inputs. It works best when the base frame rate is already reasonable.
How do you install ANR frame generation?
It is not a driver toggle. You download a package from the ANR releases page: a full package for games without OptiScaler, or an add-on for games that already use OptiScaler. You close the game, run the installer on the folder that holds the game's .exe, then turn on frame generation in the game's menu (the NVIDIA option, when a game offers several). On Linux and Steam Deck, you also add a launch option that the installer prints. An uninstall script is included.
As Notebookcheck points out, this means modifying each game's folder, so compatibility will vary. Be careful with online games: changing game files may conflict with anti-cheat systems. The beta is also moving fast. Version V.B12, released November 11, added support for the XMX matrix units on Intel Arc B-series cards (Apex says a generated frame on a B580 dropped from 6.88 ms to 5.99 ms at 4K 2X), and V.B14 fixed a "DirectX 12 is not supported" error on some PCs with an older Visual C++ runtime.
Should you buy a new GPU now or wait for ANR?
If you already own a GTX 16, RTX 20 or 30, Radeon RX 5000 to 7000, or Intel Arc card, ANR costs nothing to try in a single-player game, and it could stretch your current card a bit longer. Just treat it as a beta and do not base a purchase on it until independent tests confirm Apex's claims.
If your card is struggling to reach a playable base frame rate, frame generation will not fix that. A real GPU upgrade will. You can compare current options in our graphics cards collection, or skip the parts shopping with one of our gaming PCs, built and tested to be ready out of the box. On a tighter budget, a refurbished PC is a solid way to move up from an older card.
Apex Neural Rendering FAQ
Is Apex Neural Rendering free?
The ANR FG beta is a free download on GitHub. Apex has not published pricing or licensing details beyond that, and the source code has not been released yet.
Does ANR work on the GTX 1060 or GTX 1080?
Not according to Apex. The oldest NVIDIA cards on its list are the GTX 16 series and RTX 20 series.
Is ANR better than DLSS 4 Frame Generation?
Apex says it is faster and sharper, but those are the company's own tests. No independent reviews were available at publication.
Does ANR upscaling work yet?
No. Only frame generation is in beta. Super resolution and ray reconstruction are listed as coming soon.
Sources: Apex Compute, ANR on GitHub, @apexcompute on X, VideoCardz, Notebookcheck. Image: Apex Compute.
