The GTX 1650 is still in Steam’s top ten, which is why I’m paying attention to a free DLSS rival that supports older GPUs

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition (front) compared to RTX 5090 Founders Edition (rear) — (Image credit: Windows Central | Ben Wilson)

If one thing has become clear to me over the years, it's that most PC gamers are not using the latest hardware. Steam's most recent monthly hardware survey, for example, has NVIDIA's RTX 3060 as the most popular option, with the RTX 3050 only four places behind.

Heck, even 2019's GTX 1650 is still holding strong in the top ten most used cards, despite it not supporting the industry-leading DLSS upscaling. For those who (understandably) haven't upgraded to the latest hardware, there's a new hope on the horizon.

Apex Compute recently took to X to show off its Apex Neural Rendering (ANR) tech, which the company promises can deliver "up to 2.4x faster performance and higher quality rendering than NVIDIA DLSS."

Introducing Apex Neural Rendering (ANR), our cross-platform Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, and Frame Generation technology, delivering up to 2.4× faster performance and higher quality rendering than NVIDIA DLSS. ANR rebuilds neural rendering around a new architecture that outperforms current state of the art models. Works on all GPU vendors. - NVIDIA: GeForce RTX 20, 30, 40, and 50 series, plus GTX 16 series - AMD: Radeon RX 5000, 6000, 7000, and 9000 series, plus Steam Deck - Intel: Arc A and B series Frame Generation available now: https://t.co/kMGkNJzG6X Our Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction models are currently in training. Coming soon!November 11, 2026

That's a massive claim, and I'll get to it in a moment.

What's most exciting is that Apex has designed ANR to be practically GPU-agnostic. Apex says ANR runs on the NVIDIA RTX 20, 30, 40, and 50 series, with the added bonus of GTX 16-series cards.

Support for AMD Radeon cards includes RX 5000, 6000, 7000, and 9000, plus it works on the Steam Deck's custom AMD chip. And even Intel hasn't been left behind, with support for Arc A- and B-series cards.

Digging into Apex Compute's Apex Neural Rendering tech

Dark benchmark infographic lists supported NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and Apple GPUs, with metrics for frame generation latency, 4K memory use, and network weights. — A quick rundown of ANR's performance and compatibility. (Image credit: Apex Compute)

ANR is being billed as a three-pronged approach to upscaling, including frame generation, super resolution, and ray reconstruction. It's a project that's still in progress, and only frame generation is currently available. The other two features are "coming soon."

What we have so far from Apex indeed looks very promising. It claims that, when tested on an RTX 5090 at a 4K resolution, ANR can deliver frames faster and use less memory than DLSS.

According to Apex's testing, at 2X frame gen, ANR can pump out extra frames at 1.01ms, while DLSS takes 1.26ms. At 4X frame gen, ANR takes 0.61ms while DLSS takes 0.82ms. Overall memory usage falls from 562MB in DLSS to 214MB in ANR.

Why I'm a bit skeptical about ANR's abilities

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition and RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics cards stacked together — ANR's testing was performed on an RTX 5090. I want to see results from a GTX 1650. (Image credit: Windows Central | Ben Wilson)

I'm not entirely sure if Apex's claims of 2.4x faster performance compared to DLSS actually line up.

I haven't tested it yet on my own gaming PC, and Apex Compute's own data on its site doesn't quite line up. Perhaps the 2.4x claim is for one of the features arriving later.

There's also the matter of the NVIDIA tests being performed on an RTX 5090, a GPU that you can't buy anymore and that is reserved for a small group of enthusiasts and specialists. It would be a lot more impressive to see how ANR runs on, say, an RTX 3060.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered (Only Generated Frames Shown) https://t.co/wJXTrt21NmNovember 11, 2026

What I can say is that the comparison samples for ANR vs. DLSS available on Apex Compute's site are impressive.

Sure, there might be some cherry-picking going on to create the sliding comparisons, but what's shown certainly suggests that ANR is delivering higher-quality results than DLSS. I see less ghosting, added sharpness, and overall more clarity.

Competition from Apex Compute's ANR is only a good thing

Apex Compute's ANR is available to download for free from GitHub. That means we'll probably soon see a lot of third-party tests of its actual abilities.

I'll be keeping an eye on how ANR performs on older hardware, how well it works with a wider range of games, and whether the upcoming ray reconstruction and super resolution features actually work as intended.

In any case, competition for the industry-leading DLSS is always nice to have, especially considering how NVIDIA likes to keep it walled off for its own hardware. The fact that it's coming to old GPUs at a time when no one wants to buy new hardware is also huge.

ANR looks very promising. Is it a DLSS killer? Maybe not, especially with how quickly NVIDIA is evolving the tech. But if you're still using an older GPU that doesn't natively get these features, ANR is definitely worth a look.

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Cale Hunt brings to Windows Central more than nine years of experience writing about PC gaming, Windows laptops, accessories, and beyond. If it runs Windows or in some way complements the hardware, there’s a good chance he knows about it, has written about it, or is already busy testing it.