TechPowerUp readers today were greeted to our PC port analysis of Metro Exodus, which also contained a dedicated section on NVIDIA RTX and DLSS technologies. The former brings in real-time ray tracing support to an already graphically-intensive game, and the latter attempts to assuage the performance hit via NVIDIA's new proprietary alternative to more-traditional anti-aliasing. There was definitely a bump in performance from DLSS when enabled, however we also noted some head-scratching limitations on when and how it can even be enabled, depending on the in-game resolution and RTX GPU employed. We then set about testing DLSS on Battlefield V, which was also available from today, and it was then that we noticed a trend.

Take Metro Exodus first, with the relevant notes in the first image below. DLSS can only be turned on for a specific combination of RTX GPUs ranging from the RTX 2060 to the RTX 2080 Ti, but NVIDIA appear to be limiting users to a class-based system. Users with the RTX 2060, for example, can't even use DLSS at 4K and, more egregiously, owners of the RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti can not enjoy RTX and DLSS simultaneously at the most popular in-game resolution of 1920x1080, which would be useful to reach high FPS rates on 144 Hz monitors. Battlefield V has a similar, and yet even more divided system wherein the gaming flagship RTX 2080 Ti can not be used with RTX and DLSS at even 1440p, as seen in the second image below. This brought us back to Final Fantasy XV's own DLSS implementation last year, which was all or nothing at 4K resolution only. What could have prompted NVIDIA to carry this out? We speculate further past the break.

In a case of "Oops, we didn't mean to", DICE's update notes for Battlefield V came out at least a day before they were supposed to. While DICE quickly took to social media to mention these update notes were not necessarily final, everyone was quick to notice that the PC-specific improvements section listed NVIDIA DLSS support being added on February 25. We were able to take a look at DLSS in action on Battlefield V at the NVIDIA suite during CES 2019, and it made a vast difference in overall performance and graphics alike, especially since we could now turn on NVIDIA RTX and not get a massive decrease in average framerate.

Jaqub Ajmal, a producer at DICE for the game soon tweeted to clarify that the company is still working on this implementation, and does not actually have a set date yet. It may well be that the actual update notes that go out tomorrow (still Feb 11 in North America at the time of posting) may well have something else instead. Regardless of whether this happens Feb 25 or not, we here at TechPowerUp will take a closer look at DLSS and in-game effects, so be on the lookout for that. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts on DLSS coming to game titles and your expectations for the future.

Did you see the NVIDIA keynote presentation at CES this year? For us, one of the highlights was the DLSS demo based on our 3DMark Port Royal ray tracing benchmark. Today, we're thrilled to announce that we've added this exciting new graphics technology to 3DMark in the form of a new NVIDIA DLSS feature test. This new test is available now in 3DMark Advanced and Professional Editions.

3DMark feature tests are specialized tests for specific technologies. The NVIDIA DLSS feature test helps you compare performance and image quality with and without DLSS processing. The test is based on the 3DMark Port Royal ray tracing benchmark. Like many games, Port Royal uses Temporal Anti-Aliasing. TAA is a popular, state-of-the-art technique, but it can result in blurring and the loss of fine detail. DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is an NVIDIA RTX technology that uses deep learning and AI to improve game performance while maintaining visual quality.

The system requirements for 4A Games' Metro: Exodus, the studios' first open-world effort that comes with baked-in NVIDIA RTX support, have been outed. The minimum system requirements for 1080p gaming at 30 FPS uses the Low IQ settings, and should be achieved by an i5-4440 CPU, paired with a 2 GB VRAM graphics card (GeForce GTX 1050 or Radeon HD 7870) and 8 GB of RAM.

For the Extreme IQ settings, at 4K 60 FPS, though, you'll require, obviously, a beast of a system. An Intel Core i9-9900K is the CPU of choice here, paired with 16 GB of RAM and the top of the line NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti. These requirements pressupose the absence of any RTX features, however, so prepare to see your maximum resolution with those features on coming down quickly as you scale the ray tracing capabilities. RTX-specific performance profiles will be released by 4A Games in the coming days.

EK , the leading premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, announces the global launch of their new Classic Product Line. It includes an NVIDIA RTX 2000 series GPU block, CPU blocks for both the most popular AMD and Intel platforms, and a pump-reservoir combo unit. Whether you only care about cooling performance, or just prefer the clean and timeless design of EK, the Classic Line will fulfill all your needs.

For users who want to experience the core essence of liquid cooling, the EK CLassic Line of products will offer excellent value regarding performance that is accompanied with simple and minimalistic looks. While designing and engineering the portfolio of the Classic Lineup, the performance of the products was not compromised at any moment.

While adoption of NVIDIA's RTX ray tracing technology has been slow, the potential for the technology is undeniable. Games like Battlefield V have shown us how some increased optimization work can bring interesting, improved visuals at even the lowest setting of the technology. More games will eventually come out with NVIDIA's RTX technology - Metro: Exodus being one of the most hyped, high-profile one, but one other gem was presented when NVIDIA announced their RTX series: Atomic Heart.

At CES 2019, developer Mundfish outed another trailer that shows off the ray tracing capabilities embedded in this China Miéville-esque game. An FPS game with USSR inspirations, NVIDIA's RTX will be used for accurate reflections and deeper shadows, much like in Remedy's also upcoming Control. The game is still ways, ways off, though - Jensen Huang does say this is what "next-generation gaming will look like"; and it's expected that the developer will only release a closed beta for the game come 4Q 2019. That's a lot of time between it being showcased as an NVIDIA RTX title and its actual release. Still, take a look at the video below for some more renditions of NVIDIA's RTX tech and what ray tracing can bring to the table.

The Vive Cosmos was not the only major announcement coming out of HTC's Vive business unit at CES this year. While that has massive mainstream appeal, the company was quick to let us know that it was still to early to comment further than what has already been covered in the aforelinked news post. Instead, they invited us to their suite to take a closer look at the Vive Pro Eye- one of the few things that really stood out for us at the trade show.

The Vive Pro Eye is, as the name would suggest, a new SKU with integrated eye tracking in the Vive Pro HMD. Working together with Tobii, the Vive Pro Eye allows for a more natural control mechanism within VR via eye controls, which in turn means a revamped menu navigation system is possible. This allows for increased accessibility to end users with disability, more optimization on VR performance, and detailed analysis of VR experiences for both the client and the businesses alike. Read past the break for a breakdown of our experience with the Vive Pro Eye, and the various demos on hand to showcase the feature.

MSI, a world leader in gaming hardware, debuts an industry-leading selection of gaming products at CES 2019, including the brand new GS75 Stealth laptop with the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU and the PS63 Modern Prestige laptop, designed for business executives and content creators. "MSI is devoted to gaming and our new lineup reaffirms our position as an industry leader endorsed by gamers and eSports teams worldwide," said Charles Chiang, MSI's new global CEO. "We are honored to be recognized by the CES awards panel and will continue to push boundaries to achieve extreme performance, superior design, and maximum reliability." MSI will also be debuting exclusive gaming technologies with next-level interactive functions designed for full immersion. Partnering with Ubisoft, MSI will enrich the gaming experience of Assassin's Creed Odyssey with RGB light dancing synced to the game and haptic feedback underneath the palm to generate vibration upon in-game events such as gunshots.

GS75 Stealth: The Game Just Got Real
Experience extreme performance with realistic in-game lighting on the go with this thin & light 4-sided thin bezel gaming laptop. Equipped with the latest Intel Core i7 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 GPU, a 17.3" 144HZ IPS-level display, and an extra-large, highly responsive and accurate touchpad, the GS75 stuns in an impressive aluminum alloy body. Highlighted by an internal passive radiator that delivers earth-shaking audio with booming bass, the GS75 measures only 0.75 inches thick. The GS series breaks the stereotype of bulky and heavy gaming laptops, offering an exceptional and portable gaming experience. MSI will also be unveiling the revamped version of the award-winning GS65, a 15.6" gaming laptop armed with the latest CPU and GPUs while weighing less than 4.19 lbs.

One of the runaway features for NVIDIA's latest RTX-20 series of graphics cards was the introduction of support for the OC Scanner feature - a program that automagically tests a range of frequencies on your NVIDIA graphics card and overclocks it to a deemed "stable" sweet-spot. This practically obviates the need for manual fine-tuning, though of course, the best results should always be found down that road - provided there's enough tinkering.

The latest version of MSI's Afterburner (v4.6.0 beta 10, available in the source link) now brings this functionality to Pascal-based graphics cards (besides some other features, such as voltage control, for Turing; check the entire release notes after the break). Have fun.

With NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 20-series having already released for desktops, it was only a matter of time until laptops got the RTX treatment as well. Current rumors are suggesting that Nvidia will officially launch their GeForce RTX 20-series mobility GPUs on January 6th at CES with the RTX 2070 and RTX 2070 Max-Q taking center stage. An embargo date of January 26th has also been set, with NVIDIA delaying their final release drivers until then. Meaning final performance results for the new mobile GPUs won't be available until after the embargo date, which should coincide with the general availability of RTX 20-series equipped laptops.

Along with the RTX 2070 and 2070 Max-Q mobility parts, the flagship RTX 2080 Max-Q which isn't expected at the show, is still in the works, with its TU104M 1eab device ID having been leaked earlier. The rest of the GeForce 20-series mobility GPUs are likely to use the GTX moniker if NVIDIA's desktop lineup is anything to go by; however, that is merely speculation at this point.

NVIDIA today reported revenue for the third quarter ended Oct. 28, 2018, of $3.18 billion, up 21 percent from $2.64 billion a year earlier, and up 2 percent from $3.12 billion in the previous quarter. GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $1.97, up 48 percent from $1.33 a year ago and up 12 percent from $1.76 in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.84, up 38 percent from $1.33 a year earlier and down 5 percent from $1.94 in the previous quarter.

"AI is advancing at an incredible pace across the world, driving record revenues for our datacenter platforms," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "Our introduction of Turing GPUs is a giant leap for computer graphics and AI, bringing the magic of real-time ray tracing to games and the biggest generational performance improvements we have ever delivered.

Having survived an excruciatingly slow patch update, we are testing "Battlefield V" with DirectX Ray-tracing and NVIDIA RTX enabled, across the GeForce RTX 2070, RTX 2080, and RTX 2080 Ti, augmenting the RTX-on test data to our Battlefield V Performance Analysis article. We began testing with a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card with GeForce 416.94 WHQL drivers on Windows 10 1809. Our initial test results are shocking. With RTX enabled in the "ultra" setting, frame-rates dropped by close to 50% at 1080p.

These may look horrifying, given that at its highest setting, even an RTX 2080 Ti isn't able to manage 1080p 120 Hz. But all is not lost. DICE added granularity to RTX. You can toggle between off, low, medium, high, and ultra as "degrees" of RTX level of detail, under the "DXR ray-traced reflections quality" setting. We are currently working on 27 new data-points (each of the RTX 20-series graphics cards, at each level of RTX, and at each of the three resolutions we tested at).

Update: Our full performance analysis article is live now, including results for RTX 2070, 2080, 2080 Ti, each at RTX off/low/medium/high/ultra.

EA-DICE producer for "Battlefield V," Jaqub Ajmal revealed that the studio has released a day-zero patch for the game, which enables the promised NVIDIA RTX technology. NVIDIA used Battlefield V as a tech-demonstrator in its launch event for RTX, an ambitious real-time ray-tracing technology, which works to improve realism by adding real-time ray-traced elements to rasterized scenes. For Battlefield V, this means more realistic reflections, optical effects, and detail for objects and character models.

To play Battlefield V with RTX enabled, you'll need an NVIDIA GeForce RTX (or Quadro RTX) graphics card with GeForce 416.94 WHQL, and Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809). Microsoft resumed rolling out Windows 10 1809 update earlier this week. We are currently testing RTX support on Battlefield V, and will update our recent Battlefield V Performance Analysis article with additional RTX-on data-points.

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 416.94 WHQL "Game Ready" drivers. These come optimized for "Fallout 76," "Hitman 2," and "Battlefield V." NVIDIA re-listing Battlefied V, a game it already optimized for with v416.81 could mean the company may have improved performance for the game. NVIDIA confirmed that a game patch will drop "soon" through Origin, which will add NVIDIA RTX support, more so because Microsoft has resumed rolling out Windows 10 1809. The drivers also add 3D Vision profiles for "Hitman 2" and "Fallout 76." A minor bug that caused lagging on Windows desktop with GeForce GTX 780 has also been fixed. Grab the driver from the link below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 416.94 WHQL

The Change-log follows.

NVIDIA today introduced the Quadro RTX 4000 graphics card - the company's first midrange professional GPU powered by the NVIDIA Turing architecture and the NVIDIA RTX platform. Unveiled at the annual Autodesk University Conference in Las Vegas, the Quadro RTX 4000 puts real-time ray tracing within reach of a wider range of developers, designers and artists worldwide.

Professionals from the manufacturing, architecture, engineering and media creation industries witnessed a seismic shift in computer graphics with the launch of Turing in August. The field's greatest leap since the invention of the CUDA GPU in 2006, Turing features new RT Cores to accelerate ray tracing and next-gen Tensor Cores for AI inferencing which, together for the first time, make real-time ray tracing possible.

INNO3D, a leading manufacturer of awesome high-end graphics hardware components and various innovations enriching your life, introduces a new family member to the INNO3D gaming graphics cards line, the GeForce RTX 2070. The line-up of this series will consist of the TWIN X2 and X2 OC version. Powered by the new NVIDIA Turing GPU architecture and the revolutionary NVIDIA RTX platform, the new graphics cards bring together real-time ray tracing, artificial intelligence, and programmable shading. This is not only a whole new way to experience games-this is the ultimate PC gaming experience.

The INNO3D GeForce RTX 2070 X2 OC Edition is designed for gamers who demand round-the-clock excellent performance with 24/7 gameplay. The intricate design for this cooling system comprises of 2 x 92mm ultra quiet fans, INNO3D unique Power Direct Cooling System (P.D.C.S), AI full-Stop-Mode technology and strand reinforcing backplate, offering the most efficient heat transfer and the best gaming performance at ultra-low noise levels.

NVIDIA released comparison benchmarks for its new AI-accelerated DLSS technology, which is part of their new Turing architecture's call to fame. Using the Infiltrator benchmark with its stunning real-time graphics, NVIDIA showcased the performance benefits of using DLSS-improved 4K rendering instead of the usual 4K rendering + TAA (Temporal Anti-Aliasing). Using a Core i9-7900X 3.3GHz CPU paired with 16 GB of Corsair DDR4 memory, Windows 10 (v1803) 64-bit, and version 416.25 of the NVIDIA drivers, the company showed tremendous performance improvements that can be achieved with the pairing of both Turing's architecture strengths and the prowess of DLSS in putting Tensor cores to use in service of more typical graphics processing workloads.

The results speak for themselves: with DLSS at 4K resolution, the upcoming NVIDIA RTX 2070 convincingly beats its previous-gen pair by doubling performance. Under these particular conditions, the new king of the hill, the RTX 2080 Ti, convincingly beats the previous gen's halo product in the form of the Titan Xp, with a 41% performance lead - but so does the new RTX 2070, which is being sold at half the asking price of the original Titan Xp.

MSI, a world leader in gaming hardware, proudly introduces the new Trident X compact desktop with the latest MSI GeForce RTX 2080 graphics cards and Intel 9th Generation Core K series processors. The MSI Trident X is the first compact desktop PC to incorporate an SFX power supply and the highest performing new MSI GeForce RTX graphics cards into a small 10-liter case. The Trident X is a completely new PC experience that rivals the performance of much larger traditional desktop PCs.

The Trident X comes equipped with up to an Intel Core i9-9900K processor for up 50 percent more performance. The i9 provides massive, overclockable performance in a small chassis. Additionally, gamers can take advantage of the newest innovations in graphics and raytracing with up to NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti graphics. With these components, the Trident X provides impressive performance in a small footprint for any task, including gaming or video editing.

NVIDIA released its first GeForce software suite since Windows 10 October 2018 went official. The new GeForce 416.16 WHQL drivers add full support for the new operating system, including WDDM 2.5, and DirectX Ray-Tracing (DXR), which are essential for NVIDIA RTX to work. The drivers also add SLI profiles for a large number of games, including "Battlefield V," "Basingstroke," "Divinity: Original Sin II," "Immortal: Unchained," "Jurassic World Evolution," "Phoenix Point," and "Seven: The Days Long Gone." 3DVision profiles are added for "The Elder Scrolls: Online."

A small number of bugs are also fixed with this release. "Pascal" GPUs running "Quake HD remix" no longer experience black square glitches. Temporal AA sharp drops in performance with GeForce GTX 1060 running "Rainbow 6: Siege" has been fixed. Driver errors on TITAN Xp when waking up from S4 sleep have been fixed. Lastly, an issue found with "Turing" GPUs not exposing Netflix 4K mode to displays connected over USB-C, has been fixed. Grab the driver from the link below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 416.16 WHQL

The change-log follows.

In another delay to NVIDIA's RTX 20-series launch, the company has announced, via email to buyers, that delivery and availability of the graphics card has been pushed for one week. The card, which had an already delayed release schedule set to September 27th, now has a delivery date that's set between the 5th and 9th of October.

It seems that US customers will receive their cards closer to October 5th, via an express delivery mechanism, while customers in other parts of the world (example, as per the source, in Germany) will receive them within the 5th-9th timeframe, which could be mirrored in other markets. Online retailers seem to have no indication as to when exactly will the RTX 2080 Ti be made available, with no set delivery/stock dates having been confirmed until now. What exactly is causing the delay is unknown at this point.

EVGA today announced availability of their X1 Precision software suite for NVIDIA's RTX 20-series graphics cards. The Precision X1 software features a brand new layout, completely new codebase, new features and more, with EVGA saying it's faster, easier to user, and overall better than ever.

The Precision X12 includes a built-in overclock scanner, which automatically discovers your graphics' card hidden overclocking potential algorithmically. It also features an adjustable frequency curve, multi-GPU fan curve controls, and RGB LED control. And interestingly, in its press-release, EVGA themselves said that GTX support was coming soon - whether this refers to still-to-be-launched 20-series graphics cards, or just expanded support for pre-Turing graphics cards, is unclear.

NVIDIA is pushing its RTX dialing up to eleven, today partnering with 4A Games to launch a stunning, 6-minute trailer showcasing their RTX global illumination technology that's being baked into the next installment in the popular Metro series. An image speaks more than a thousand words, and in here, there are approximately 21,600 of them (provided there are no frame drops, eh).

Metro: Exodus is prepped for launch on February 22nd, 2019, and will leverage NVIDIA's RTX tech for its new, open-world approach, built upon 4A games' aptly named 4A Engine. It's interesting that in the presentation, RTX calculations are said to take up three rays per pixel per frame - so some quick math leads to the immense amounts of computing power being leveraged here. Is it worth it? Perhaps you can tell after looking through the video.

Phanteks are proud to announce the launch of their new Glacier G2080Ti and G2080 water-blocks. Designed with the enthusiast in mind, they're perfect for gamers looking to push their new NVIDIA RTX cards to the max! The G2080Ti are full-cover water-blocks with an optimized central channel structure, complete with 6mm thick nickel plated copper base for efficient heat exchange. The blocks are sealed with industry leading VITON O-RINGS, meaning a quality seal with resistance to even the most extreme temperatures.

As well as quality cooling performance, the Glacier range also offers digital addressable RGB lighting, compatible with ASUS Aura SYNC and the Phanteks Digital RGB Controller (available separately).

ASUS has revealed their entire lineup, interpreting NVIDIA's RTX 2070 silicon (and its TU106 die, a first - remember that **70-class cards previously featured cut-down versions of the full NVIDIA chip). There aren't many surprised here - ASUS has already spent enough R&D in previous years so as to only need to minimally iterate on their designs for each new generation.

The ROG Strix graphics cards sit at the top of the heap, featuring the company's DirectCU III cooling tech (triple fan) in a 2.5-slot design. RGB lighting and dual BIOS support are par of the course by now, as are some of the other features - backplate and metal brace included. Connectivity-wise there are 2x HDMI 2.0b ports, 2x DisplayPort 1.4 outputs, and 1x USB Type-C port for VirtuaLink. The graphics card draws power from the 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors and will be available in three versions (Gaming OC, Gaming Advanced, and Gaming) according to factory overclocks.

We are all still awaiting how NVIDIA's RTX 2000 series of GPUs will fare in independent reviews, but that has not stopped the rumor mill from extrapolating. There have been alleged leaks of the RTX 2080 Ti's performance and now we see HWiNFO add support to an unannounced NVIDIA Turing microarchitecture chip, the TU106. As a reminder, the currently announced members in RTX series are based off TU102 (RTX 2080 Ti), and TU104 (RTX 2080, RTX 2070). It is logical to expect a smaller die for upcoming RTX cards based on NVIDIA's history, and we may well see an RTX 2060 using the TU106 chip.

This addition to HWiNFO is to be taken with a grain of salt, however, as they have been wrong before. Even recently, they had added support for what, at the time, was speculated to be NVIDIA Volta microarchitecture which we now know as Turing. This has not stopped others from speculating further, however, as we see 3DCenter.org give their best estimates on how TU106 may fare in terms of die size, shader and TMU count, and more. Given that TSMC's 7 nm node will likely be preoccupied with Apple iPhone production through the end of this year, NVIDIA may well be using the same 12 nm FinFET process that TU102 and TU104 are being manufactured on. This mainstream GPU segment is NVIDIA's bread-and-butter for gross revenue, and so it is possible we may see an announcement with even retail availability towards the end of Q4 2018 to target holiday shoppers.