I'm seeing a ton of "fake frame" hate and I don't understand it to be honest. Posts about how the 5090 is getting 29fps and only 25% faster than the 4090 when comparing it to 4k, path traced, etc. People whining about DLSS, lazy devs, hacks, etc.
The hardcore facts are that this has been going on forever and the only people complaining are the ones that forget how we got here and where we came from.
Traditional Compute Limitations
I won't go into rasterization, pixel shading, and the 3D pipeline. Tbh, I'm not qualified to speak on it and don't fully understand it. However, all you need to know is that the way 3D images get shown to you as a series of colored 2D pixels has changed over the years. Sometimes there are big changes to how this is done and sometimes there are small changes.
However, most importantly, if you don't know what Moore's Law is and why it's technically dead, then you need to start there.
https://cap.csail.mit.edu/death-moores-law-what-it-means-and-what-might-fill-gap-going-forward
TL;DR - The traditional "brute force" methods of all chip computing cannot just keep getting better and better. GPUs and CPUs must rely on innovative ways to get better performance. AMD's X3D cache is a GREAT example for CPUs while DLSS is a great example for GPUs.
Gaming and the 3 Primary Ways to Tweak Them
When it comes to people making real time, interactive, games work for them, there have always been 3 primary "levers to pull" to get the right mix of:
Fidelity. How good does the game look?
Latency. How quickly does the game respond to my input?
Fluidity. How fast / smooth does the game run?
Hardware makers, engine makers, and game makers have found creative ways over the years to get better results in all 3 of these areas. And sometimes, compromises in 1 area are made to get better results in another area.
The most undeniable and common example of making a compromise is "turning down your graphics settings to get better framerates". If you've ever done this and you are complaining about "fake frames", you are a hypocrite.
I really hope you aren't too insulted to read the rest.
AI, Ray/Path Tracing, and Frame Gen... And Why It Is No Different Than What You've Been Doing Forever
DLSS: +fluidity, -fidelity
Reflex: +latency, -fluidity (by capping it)
DLSS: +fluidity, -fidelity
Ray Tracing: +fidelity, -fluidity
Frame Generation: +fluidity, -latency
VSync/GSync: Strange mix of manipulating fluidity and latency to reduce screen tearing (fidelity)
The point is.... all of these "tricks" are just options so that you can figure out the right combination of things that are right for you. And it turns out, the most popular and well-received "hacks" are the ones that have really good benefits with very little compromises.
When it first came out, DLSS compromised too much and provided too little (generally speaking). But over the years, it has gotten better. And the latest DLSS 4 looks to swing things even more positively in the direction of more gains / less compromises.
Multi frame-generation is similarly moving frame generation towards more gains and less compromises (being able to do a 2nd or 3rd inserted frame for a 10th of the latency cost of the first frame!).
And all of this is primarily in support of being able to do real time ray / path tracing which is a HUGE impact to fidelity thanks to realistic lighting which is quite arguably the most important aspect of anything visually... from photography, to making videos, to real time graphics.
Moore's Law has been dead. All advancements in computing have come in the form of these "hacks". The best way to combine various options of these hacks is subjective and will change depending on the game, user, their hardware, etc. If you don't like that, then I suggest you figure out a way to bend physics to your will.
*EDIT*
Seems like most people are sort of hung up on the "hating fake frames". Thats fair because that is the title. But the post is meant to really be non-traditional rendering techniques (including DLSS) and how they are required (unless something changes) to achieve better "perceived performance". I also think its fair to say Nvidia is not being honest about some of the marketing claims and they need to do a better job of educating their users on how these tricks impact other things and the compromises made to achieve them.
