How is DLSS 3 different from Soap Opera for your TV | Tech Reddy

While DLSS 3 and TV motion smoothing, which leads to the soap opera effect, are basically the same, DLSS 3 is designed to solve the problems caused by TV motion blur in video games. This makes any comparison between the two technologies meaningless.

You may have heard that NVIDIA’s new DLSS 3 technology for RTX 40-series GPUs is no different from the dreaded “soap opera” effect on TVs, but the reality is a different version of the same concept.

How NVIDIA DLSS 3 works

DLSS 3 (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is a feature exclusive to NVIDIA’s top 40 graphics cards and (presumably) later models. It’s a technology designed to increase game frame rates while still producing a high-resolution image.

DLSS 3 has three components: DLSS 2, NVIDIA Reflex, and frame interpolation.

DLSS 2 uses a machine learning algorithm and special hardware acceleration in the GPU to take a low-resolution frame that is normally provided by the GPU and “upscale” it to a target resolution, such as 1440p or 4K UHD. This increases frame rates because the GPU doesn’t have to render an image with such detail but still provides a final image that looks like it was rendered at a higher resolution.

NVIDIA Reflex is a technology that optimizes the game’s rendering pipeline to reduce the delay between providing input to the game (for example, pulling a trigger) and seeing the input show up on the screen.

Frame interpretation takes two frames before they are sent to the display. It then generates an entirely new frame that fits between them using machine learning and special hardware that accelerates how quickly the frame can be generated.

Note: You might think this doesn’t look like DLSS 3 instead of DLSS 2, and you’d be right! DLSS 3 isn’t really “DLSS” at all. Instead, a name like DLFG (Deep Learning Framework Generation) would be more appropriate. We don’t have any information about why NVIDIA chose this naming convention, but DLSS 3 is DLSS 2 with NVIDIA Reflex and frame rendering.

Taken together, these three technologies produce the results we see in games that support DLSS 3, but why do people compare it to the hated “soap opera effect” on TVs?

Frame interpretation and the “Soap Opera effect”

Frame rendering is optional for almost any flat panel display. Flat panel “sample and hold” displays, including all LCD and OLED panels, suffer from “sliding”. There are various ways to combat this, such as Black Frame Installation, but the most common solution is frame installation. It goes by different names depending on your TV model, but it’s usually called something like Motion Smooth or Motion Plus.

It’s called the “soap process” because soap operas have a smoother appearance thanks to the use of video cameras with a higher frame rate than film cameras with 24 “cinematic” frames per second.

Motion Smoothing can ruin content that isn’t meant to be viewed in frame rates unless filmed, but motion smoothing has its place. It mainly improves content such as sports events by cleaning up the smearing that high-motion activities produce.

Because many TV manufacturers used this feature by default, it quickly developed a bad reputation, but motion smoothing is a great technique when used correctly. Unfortunately, since DLSS 3 also uses a type of motion smoothing, some of those negative feelings about the soap opera effect seem to have been removed from it.

How is DLSS 3 different?

There are a few key differences between TV motion smoothing and DLSS 3. If you turn on motion smoothing to try and make a game look smoother, you’ll end up with a lot of input lag. That is, the time from when you press a button on the controller to when you see your action reflected on the screen, as we said above.

This happens because it takes a long time for the TV to process the broadcasts. This doesn’t matter when you’re watching a movie or show, but if you’re trying to interact with something in real time, it can make the game unplayable.

That’s why most modern TVs have some sort of “game mode” where picture-editing effects like smoothing are disabled. This means that image quality may take a hit, but your games will feel fast and responsive.

DLSS 3 specifically attempts to address this throughput weakness by reducing input latency. Since NVIDIA Reflex is a mandatory part of DLSS 3, this already compensates for the additional delay of the integration process. On top of this, the DLSS 3 GPUs have special acceleration tools that speed up how fast a composite frame can be produced while maintaining an acceptable level of quality.

Based on the tests and benchmarks we have seen the result is that, unlike the motion TV, converting DLSS 3 reduce input lag compared to rendering the game natively, while generally having slightly more lag than DLSS 2 with Reflex enabled.

This probably makes it unsuitable for competitive players who play titles like Counter-Strike, but for everyone this small difference in latency will probably not matter in the face of smooth movement.