Love It Or Hate It, But Frame Generation Is The One Major Graphics...

Upscaling is almost perfect. Now it's frame gen's time.

When it comes to GPUs and graphics technology, I know what I'd like to see in 2026. Super-modern processors that are a substantial leap forward in terms of performance, capabilities, and affordability. We won't get that, of course, because we didn't get that this year. Or last year. But there is something GPU-related that can be a lot better, and that's frame generation.

Ever since GPU upscaling and frame generation first appeared (DLSS 1.0 in 2019, DLSS 3.0 in 2022), I've always held the opinion that if you couldn't tell they were working, other than just from the performance lift, everyone would be happily using them by default. With the first iteration of both technologies and their corresponding alternatives from AMD and Intel, you could very much tell they were being used, and that's only served to tarnish their reputations.

However, when it comes to upscaling these days, it's about as close to perfection as you can get. Assuming it's been properly implemented into a game, of course. When it's all working as intended, Quality or Balanced upscaling at most resolutions does an incredible job, and I always enable it in every game that supports the most recent versions.

Alas, I can't say the same about frame generation. Don't get me wrong: Nvidia's Multi-Frame Generation in DLSS 4 is extremely good, but even in games that are the poster child for DLSS (e.g. Doom: The Dark Ages, Cyberpunk 2077), enabling frame gen requires a conscious decision to ignore its flaws and limitations.

You have to accept that it demands a base frame rate of, ideally, 60 fps before you enable it, to ensure that the added input latency inherent to frame generation is at an agreeable level. And while you're unlikely to notice on-screen gobbledegook when you're gaming at over 120 fps, the neural networks used in DLSS 4 MFG, FSR 4 Frame Generation, and XeSS-MFG will get things wrong at times.

DLSS Quality upscaling + 3X frame generationRyzen 7 9800X3D, GeForce RTX 5090, 4K, Ultra preset

There's no way around the latency issue with frame interpolation, unless you start delving into the world of predicting input changes (which is a whole different tech), but I can live with it in certain games. What I can't live with is when frame gen turns my perfectly rendered and upscaling graphics into a wonky, blurry mess.

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Source: PC Gamer