DLSS 2.0 in Death Stranding – Nvidia 4K Performance Trump Card

Conclusion  

Tomorrow, we plan to release our full performance analysis of Death Stranding’s PC version, but before then we simply had to talk about the game’s use of DLSS. To call it Nvidia’s killer feature for Death Stranding is an understatement, as it can deliver gamers higher quality visuals and higher framerates. What’s not to like? 

DLSS is a technology which enables faster framerates without any compromises. DLSS provides better Anti-Aliasing than the game’s default AA (in quality mode) and removes many of the artefacts that can be seen with TAA, such as ghosting and grainy transparencies. As a whole, DLSS’ quality mode looks better than the Death Stranding’s native resolution presentation, which when combined with DLSS’ framerate boost is a clear win for Nvidia. 

While DLSS’ performance mode sacrifices some of DLSS’ potential to deliver even higher framerates, we must admit that its hard to tell the difference between native 4K gameplay and DLSS’ performance mode when playing Death Stranding. With our RTX 2060, DLSS’ performance mode delivers us stable 60 FPS framerates, giving us performance levels which exceed that of an RTX 2080 Ti without DLSS enabled. Think about that, DLSS’ performance mode game an RTX 2060 into RTX 2080 Ti performance with comparable levels of image quality. That’s insane!

As more and more gamer target high resolutions and refresh rates, DLSS acts as Nvidia’s great enabler, providing higher framerates with similar (and some times better) visuals at high resolutions. Right now, nobody else offers a technology like Nvidia’s DLSS, and that makes DLSS a critical technology for Nvidia moving forward. It’s an advantage that AMD has no answer to, and that should have team Radeon worried. 

With Death Stranding, DLSS 2.0 support is transformative for users of Nvidia’s RTX series of graphics cards. Moving forward, we hope to see more of DLSS, both in the form of new Nvidia graphics cards and in the form of more developer support. With Nvidia’s next generation of graphics cards, you should expect DLSS to become a huge focus for Nvidia, even for future low-end graphics cards. 

Update – Our full Performance Review and Optimisation Guide for Death Stranding is now available to read. 

You can join the discussion on Death Stranding’s use of Nvidia’s DLSS technology on the OC3D Forums.