Nvidia app update fails to block unofficial DLSS multi-frame generation mod on RTX 40 series gaming GPUs — modders restore support across multiple games within hours

An NVIDIA slide showing the benefits of DLSS 4 multi frame generation.
(Image credit: Nvidia)

When NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 50 series, a major part of the hype surrounding the new GPU family was its support for DLSS Multi-Frame Generation. This feature was officially locked to the new RTX 50 "Blackwell" GPUs, but modders have been working on unlocking it for RTX 40-series cards for a while now. NVIDIA is clearly aware of these efforts, as it recently pushed an over-the-air update via the NVIDIA App that seemed targeted at blocking them due to its odd changes. Yet, as pointed out by Sebastian Castellanos on X, enterprising hackers had already found a workaround just hours later.

At the launch of Blackwell, NVIDIA explained that bringing Multi-Frame Generation to previous-generation RTX 40-series cards wasn't possible because those GPUs relied on a hardware optical flow generator incapable of producing multiple interpolated frames per rendered frame. Instead, Blackwell introduced a software-based optical flow method executed directly on the GPU shader cores without requiring the hardware unit. To tech-savvy gamers, the obvious question arose: why not use that same software method on Ada Lovelace GPUs and bypass their hardware optical flow units? NVIDIA showed no interest in enabling this, leading many to assume it was technically impossible.

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Zak Killian
Contributor

Zak is a freelance contributor to Tom's Hardware with decades of PC benchmarking experience who has also written for HotHardware and The Tech Report. A modern-day Renaissance man, he may not be an expert on anything, but he knows just a little about nearly everything.

  • hotaru251
    Nvidia: it cant work
    modders: We made it work
    Nvidia: we can't have that modders: so you admit you lied to the consumers and are purposefully blocking it because it does in fact work
    Reply
  • S58_is_the_goat
    Jensen: don't make me send my lawyers on you script kiddies, you need to pay for that 5090 to get those features!
    Reply
  • SVW
    Quite obvious that nvidia lied to push people to the 50 series... people should really get their torches and pitchforks out. The list of anti consumer things nvidia has done lately is getting really long. So this isn't even a surprise.
    Reply
  • Chokkymalk
    SVW said:
    Quite obvious that nvidia lied to push people to the 50 series... people should really get their torches and pitchforks out. The list of anti consumer things nvidia has done lately is getting really long. So this isn't even a surprise.

    bro I can't even begin to describe how much happier I am with my 5070ti over my 3080 on my ultrawide. I literally never need to worry about how low my frames will go as the 10gb vram struggles to adapt to those extra side pixels. I could have gotten the 5090 if I wanted, but it felt like a waste of money, which is the one area of the debate I agree with
    Reply
  • usertests
    Chokkymalk said:
    bro I can't even begin to describe how much happier I am with my 5070ti over my 3080 on my ultrawide. I literally never need to worry about how low my frames will go as the 10gb vram struggles to adapt to those extra side pixels. I could have gotten the 5090 if I wanted, but it felt like a waste of money, which is the one area of the debate I agree with
    This article is about MFG not being supported on 40 series cards, rather than 30 series. When people complain about the 50 series, it's in relation to the 40 series, which is made on the exact same process node, supports FP8 precision, and has most of the performance with less weird bugs.
    Reply
  • darknate
    Nvidia app update blocks unofficial DLSS multi-frame generation mod on RTX 40 series gaming GPUs — modders restore support across multiple games within hours
    There I fixed the title. If the update failed to block DLSS mfg, then there would be nothing to restore.
    Reply
  • Vicecrow
    Why spend money and time when you have free labor on internet. Modders Work for free.
    Reply
  • Kekelstvo
    maybe Im blind but I cant see almost any diference between this on my 5080 desktop 🙄
    Reply
  • Obummer
    When is the world going to learn that Nvidia, just like any other major corporation are just another evil capitalist company trying to exploit its user base in every way possible. Even DLSS 5 is working on AMD GPU's now, even though it's very limited.

    In summary: Screw you, Nvidia.

    Nvidia user, by the way. Just because I like their products, that doesn't mean I have to like their shitty business practices.
    Reply