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PC gaming in 2026 is increasingly becoming a matter of AI upscaling and frame generation. Assuming you're comfortable with that, good on you. You're going to have a great time with smooth frames and higher framerates than ever before.
If you're not on board with the "fake frames" movement largely spearheaded by NVIDIA, I have some bad news. The use of AI by cutting-edge graphics cards from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel isn't going anywhere any time soon.
Article continues belowThe other portion of DLSS 4.5's feature update, Dynamic Multi Frame Generation with up to 6X Multi Frame Generation (MFG), finally launched in beta on March 31.
👉 NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, Intel XeSS, and Microsoft DirectSR explained
NVIDIA's frame multiplier was capped at 4X in DLSS 4, meaning that for each frame created "naturally" by the GPU, there were three other frames being pumped out using AI generation.
With 6X MFG, RTX 50-series graphics cards can now create five AI-generated frames for each natural frame generated in the "old-fashioned" method. In order to better balance display refresh rates and GPU output, NVIDIA's new Dynamic MFG can step in to automatically change the frame generation multiplier.
NVIDIA likens this process to a car's automatic transmission, and it's surprisingly apt. If your GPU is having a hard time matching your display's refresh rate, it raises the multiplier. If your GPU isn't struggling to hit a target framerate, it lowers the multiplier.
Early impressions of NVIDIA's Dynamic MFG 6X are very positive
All of those fake frames being generated by NVIDIA's RTX 50-series GPUs should surely come with some drawbacks, right? As it turns out, everyone who's tested the new DLSS 4.5 features basically has the same positive outlook, with perks heavily outweighing downsides.
Perhaps the biggest news is that NVIDIA managed to push MFG from 4X to 6X without really affecting input latency (the delay between inputs from your mouse or keyboard and the actions showing up on screen) in any serious way.
Our friends at Tom's Hardware tested MFG 6X with Cyberpunk 2077. Input latency without any MFG was at 35ms. At 2X MFG, it climbed to 46.6ms. It only rose to 53.2ms at 4X MFG, and it actually fell to 52.6ms at 6X MFG.
Meanwhile, average framerates rose from 60 FPS all the way to 247.7 FPS using the exact same hardware and in-game settings. All that for just 17.6ms of extra input latency. It's a compromise that I know many PC gamers will gladly make.
Colleagues at PC Gamer discovered largely the same results in their initial testing of Dynamic MFG and MFG 6X, remarking:
Well, it clearly works as intended, and any concerns you might have over how switching modes could affect gameplay don't appear to be an issue: It's practically instantaneous.
Nick Evanson (PC Gamer)
This is but a small sample of hands-on reporting, but the response is basically the same everywhere you look. DLSS 4.5's Dynamic MFG and MFG 6X are worthy additions to NVIDIA's RTX toolbox.
That's not to say there aren't some caveats. You still need to have a decent baseline framerate to allow MFG to do its AI-assisted thing, and competitive gamers will still look the other way as they attempt to lower input latency as much as possible.
As PC Gamer points out after its testing, MFG 6X and Dynamic MFG are tools best viewed as capable of pushing good performance into great performance, rather than pushing bad performance into acceptable performance.
The future of PC gaming is all AI all the time, whether you like it or not
There are plenty of arguments to be made against the use of AI in PC gaming. One I hear most often is that developers should be optimizing their games to allow for reliable performance on raw hardware rather than relying on upscaling and frame generation.
I don't disagree, especially in the name of PC gamers who aren't blowing thousands on the latest hardware. Unfortunately, I don't think the industry is going to change any time soon. The AI path will almost certainly be the one we follow for years to come.
PC graphics keep improving as the engines that games are built on evolve, and even the most powerful consumer card, the NVIDIA RTX 5090, has trouble hitting high framerates without some form of AI assistance when path tracing and 4K resolutions are involved.
Whereas GPU hardware clearly has limitations on what it can achieve, software leveraging AI seems limitless in its abilities. Would you rather spend far more on GPU hardware or take advantage of "free" AI tools that boost performance well beyond what's otherwise expected?
I'll bet that in 10 years, the use of AI in PC gaming won't be controversial at all. It will be the accepted norm. Every modern mainstream GPU company is currently chasing some sort of AI upscaling and frame generation, and I don't see those efforts going away.
There are certainly going to be some speed bumps along the way, as is the case with any emerging technology that we're not quite ready to admit is the future.
For example, the outcry against NVIDIA's DLSS 5 reveal from a couple of weeks ago was practically unanimous, causing NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang to backpedal a bit as it became clear that gamers aren't comfortable with a complete AI-generated reskin of their favorite games.
I'm certainly not on board with changing the entire look of the games I enjoy, although I also wasn't on board with MFG's initial 4X cap until I tested it myself in DOOM: The Dark Ages. It will be interesting to see how DLSS 5 is shaped by the PC gaming community and its strong opinions.
What do you think about the future of AI and PC gaming?
It might sound like I'm shilling for NVIDIA here, but trust me; I'm not. It's just hard to imagine a future of PC gaming, if we follow the current trajectory, that doesn't involve heavy use of AI to improve performance.
Do you agree that AI upscaling will no longer be a controversial topic in the future? Or could there be enough backlash that the entire momentum of the PC gaming industry changes course?
Will it be a hardware innovation that lets us go back to "real" frames? Let me know in the comments section below!
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