DLSS 4.5 and the Road to 4K 240 Hz Gaming
Nvidia is pushing hard toward a future where 4K 240 Hz gameplay with full path tracing is actually playable on consumer hardware. The company’s latest move is DLSS 4.5 paired with an upgraded Multi Frame Generation system, both tuned for the new RTX Blackwell generation and beyond.
The headline claim is bold: up to six generated frames for every real rendered frame, promising super smooth 240 Hz gameplay in some of the most demanding titles. That sounds incredible, but it also raises fair questions about latency, visual artifacts, and how much of your frame rate is now AI magic rather than raw GPU muscle.
To understand what is really changing, it helps to break down how DLSS 4.5 and Multi Frame Generation work together and what you actually need in your PC to benefit.
How Multi Frame Generation Rewrites Frame Rates
Multi Frame Generation, or MFG, is the evolution of Nvidia’s original DLSS Frame Generation. Instead of rendering every single frame traditionally, the GPU renders one frame, and AI helps create additional frames in between using motion vectors, optical flow data, and a deep learning model.
On RTX Blackwell GPUs, MFG was first introduced with the ability to insert up to three generated frames between each real frame. At CES 2026, Nvidia revealed that it is taking this further with support for up to five extra frames per rendered frame, for a total of 6x frame generation.
Here is what is changing under the hood:
- More generated frames per real frame: Up to 6x MFG means the GPU can create five AI frames between each traditionally rendered frame.
- New optical flow AI model: This replaces older dedicated hardware for optical flow and works with an enhanced display engine to keep frame pacing smoother.
- Path traced 4K at 240 Hz as a target: The big marketing claim is 4K 240 Hz in modern, fully path traced games when MFG is pushed to the max.
The catch is that you still need a very powerful GPU to feed this system. Even with six times as many frames on screen, if your base rendered frame rate and system latency are weak, you will not get a great experience. Nvidia itself notes that you realistically need an RTX 50 series card that can hit around 60 fps natively in a path traced title before you crank MFG.
This is not a magic fix for low end performance. If your input frame rate is low and your PC latency is high, the limitations of frame generation quickly show up as lag and a strange, floaty feel, no matter how high the reported fps number climbs.
DLSS 4.5: Smarter AI To Clean Up The Artifacts
Frame generation has always divided gamers. While it can massively boost frame rate, it also introduces issues like ghosting, flickering, and softness if the AI model mispredicts motion or detail. DLSS 4.5 aims to tackle that by upgrading the core AI that powers both Super Resolution and frame generation.
Nvidia has moved away from older convolutional neural network models and is now deep into transformer based models. The second generation transformer model in DLSS 4.5 uses significantly more compute than the original DLSS architectures and is trained on an ever expanding dataset of what good game graphics should look like.
According to Nvidia’s researchers, the process looks like this:
- They find visual failures such as ghosting, flickering, and blur in real games.
- They add those problem cases into a growing training dataset.
- A supercomputer running thousands of GPUs continually retrains the DLSS model.
- The model is then tested across hundreds of games to validate improvements.
The idea behind the transformer architecture is that it can focus attention where it matters most in each frame. Some parts of an image, like fast moving characters or fine edges, are much harder to reconstruct. The model learns to spend its compute budget intelligently on these challenging areas instead of treating every pixel the same.
With DLSS 4.5, Nvidia promises:
- Better temporal stability with fewer shimmering or crawling artifacts over time.
- Reduced ghosting behind moving objects.
- Cleaner edges and sharper detail even when the game is heavily upscaled or frame generated.
Nvidia believes that this smarter AI will allow them to crank Multi Frame Generation up to 6x without turning your game into a ghost ridden mess. Whether that holds up in real world play will depend heavily on individual titles, your hardware, and your tolerance for AI visuals versus pure native rendering.
Dynamic Multi Frame Generation and Support For All RTX GPUs
One of the more practical quality of life improvements is Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, which will be added to the Nvidia App later in the year. Instead of manually picking a fixed MFG level and hoping it matches your monitor and game load, Dynamic MFG adjusts the amount of frame generation automatically.
Using the DLSS Override feature in the Nvidia App, you will be able to:
- Tie Dynamic MFG to your display’s maximum refresh rate, letting Nvidia aim for that target dynamically.
- Set a custom fixed frame target and let the app adjust the MFG level to reach it.
Nvidia has shown examples of games like Black Myth Wukong running at 4K with path tracing, DLSS 4.5, and 6x MFG on an RTX 5090 at around 246 fps while keeping PC latency at around 53 ms. That is not esports level responsive, but for a heavy cinematic action game at 4K with path tracing, it looks very playable on paper.
The other big win is that DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution is not locked to the RTX 50 series. Any RTX GPU will be able to tap into the new AI model. Thanks to the DLSS Override feature, Nvidia expects more than 400 existing games to support the updated DLSS 4.5 model at launch, giving a huge chunk of current RTX owners a free image quality and stability bump.
In short, if you already have an RTX card, DLSS 4.5 should gradually make your AI powered gaming sharper and cleaner as developers and Nvidia roll updates out. If you are eyeing RTX Blackwell and an RTX 50 series card, 6x Multi Frame Generation and Dynamic MFG are shaping up to be some of the most important features for pushing ultra high frame rates at 4K with all the eye candy maxed.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/nvidias-promising-4k-240-hz-path-traced-gaming-with-dlss-4-5-but-do-you-want-6x-multi-frame-gen/
