RTX 40 series exclusive DLSS 3's hardware limitations broken by modder, achieved twice the performance on RTX 2070

DLSS 3 was launched alongside the brand-new Nvidia Geforce RTX 40 series of graphics cards on September 20. The new technology completely alters the way temporal upscaling technology works, improving output image quality and multiplying performance by huge margins.

However, Nvidia limited DLSS 3 to only the RTX 40 series. This means the older RTX 30 series and RTX 20 series video cards will not be getting access to the innovations Team Green has come up with. These last-gen GPUs will be stuck with the older DLSS 2.0 technology, which although impressive by its standards, does not stand a chance when compared to the latest technology.

This has left users frustrated. However, modders have not failed the community as, within days of the official roll-out, the hardware limitations were broken. The frame generation technology introduced with DLSS 3 is now accessible via a four-year-old RTX 2070 graphics card.

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DLSS 3 hardware limitations have been overruled, albeit with some performance hiccups

DLSS 3 vastly improves performance on modern AAA games (Image via Nvidia Geforce / YouTube)

The bypass was initially spotted on Reddit when a user by the username u/JusDax posted potential new PC settings that are headed to Cyberpunk 2077. The list includes Nvidia Reflex Low Latency and a new DLSS header along with support for DLSS Frame Generation. Alongside these leaks, he also gained access to an .ini file which hinted at support for ray traced ambient occlusion.

However, according to his next few observations, DLSS Frame Generation can be unlocked and used in older GPUs as well. As defined in the Reddit post, the user added a new config.ini file that gets rid of the "VRAM overhead" in Cyberpunk.

This has allowed the modder to utilize the Frame Generator technology on an unsupported GPU in Cyberpunk 2077. However, it has its own set of glitches and problems. As reported by the user, it causes some instabilities and frame drop issues in the game.

However, the performance increase reported is insane. While the user was getting around 35 to 40 frames in Cyberpunk with Frame Generation turned off and DLSS set to Quality at 2560 x 1440, he is now experiencing almost 80 frames with DLSS set to Balanced and Ray Tracing set to Ultra preset.

In further conversations with other Redditors, the user said that he is testing the technology for more insights.

The DLSS 3 hack can still not be utilized by all users as JustDax has not released any details of the modified configuration file used. However, a widely available version should be available within a few weeks as more people work on this project. For now, the discovery is a massive step forward in temporal upscaling technology.