Serving technology enthusiasts for more than 25 years. TechSpot is a trusted source for tech advice and analysis.
In short: Buried at the end of the description of the Nvidia app update that introduced support to RTX 50 series graphic cards, multiframe generation, and DLSS 4 is a new feature that has been little noticed: driver-level single frame generation for any DirectX 11/DirectX 12 game running Nvidia GPUs. Early testing indicates that the “Smooth Motion” AI models of the company significantly increase perceived frame rates in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 with only minor visual effects.
Those few users who managed to get a GeForce 5080 or 5090 will be able to engage frame generation for most games released over the past 15 years by using a new Nvidia app setting. A future update will expand the functionality to RTX40 series GPUs.
This driver-level model, dubbed “Nvidia Smooth Motion,” interpolates an AI-generated frame every two traditionally rendered frames for DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 games that lack native DLSS support or frame generation.
This is similar to AMD’s Fluid Motion Frames and extends the benefits from single-frame generation – originally introduced with RTX series cards – to back-catalog titles.
The Smooth Motion setting is located in Graphics> Driver Settings for both individual program settings and global settings in Nvidia App version 11.0.2.312 or later, just below the DSR Factors setting. According to PC Games Hardware, which The feature was tested on a prerelease build of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Toggling Smooth Motion on or Off requires rebooting the Game.
Smooth Motion, when enabled on an RTX5080 in 4K DLSS mode under the game’s maximum “Experimental” graphic preset, increased the average output frames rate from 83.3 fps up to 135 fps – a 62% increase. Using variable refresh rate and capping frame rates at 120 fps resulted in smoother frame times, but reduced the rendered frame rate from 60 fps. Fortunately, the latency is not affected, especially if Nvidia Reflex has been activated.
Note blurred and distorted characters. Compare AI-generated images with non-AI generated images Here is a frameClick to enlarge.
Smooth Motion introduces more noticeable effects than full native frame generation implementations, because it applies interpolation uniformly and not selectively. AI-generated frames can cause interface elements such as subtitles to appear distorted.
The feature is also active during Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 cutscenes which are normally locked to 30 fps. While visual flaws like blurred characters become less noticeable at higher frame rates they become more apparent when 30 fps cutsscenes are interpolated into 60 fps.
As RTX 50 Series GPUs become more widely available in the coming weeks, and Smooth Motion is rolled out to RTX40 series cards, we will see more in-depth testing.
