Most gamers know that technologies like Nvidia’s DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and AMD’s FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) are very useful for boosting your FPS. Users can get a substantial gain in performance just by clicking a toggle in the settings. This works by using AI to upscale the image resulting in decreased demand on the GPU and an increase in FPS.

However, only a few games and GPUs support DLSS and FSR technologies. Moreover, game developers need to add the support for each game manually resulting in slower adoption of these tools. So to tackle these Nvidia has been working on newer technology called Nvidia Image Scaling (NIS).

Image scaling technologies have gained prominence as games have become more demanding over the years. These technologies can help you boost your performance in games while retaining the same high image quality. Most people use entry-level or mid-tier graphics cards where an improvement of even 5 FPS can make a day and night difference in the performance. So using this feature can be very beneficial for gamers especially when it’s hard to get a new graphics card due to the ongoing chip shortage.

In this article, we will tell you everything you need to know about it and how to use Nvidia Image Scaling on your PC.

What is NVIDIA Image Scaling (NIS)?

Unlike DLSS and FSR, Nvidia and Image Scaling is a driver based upscaling technology and does not take use advanced stuff such as AI or Tensor cores in the GPU to upscale the image. Instead, it takes advantage of a unique combination of image sharpening and upscaling algorithms. Basically, it takes the image from a lower input resolution and uses the algorithm to upscale the images to higher resolution resulting in a boost in FPS.

While DLSS is only available for users with Nvidia 20 or 30 series graphics cards, NIS can be used by anyone with an Nvidia GPU. Since these do not rely on tensor cores, those with even an old graphics card can take advantage of this feature to gain an improvement in performance.

So how do you enable this feature on your computer? Just follow the instructions below

Download the latest version of NVIDIA Graphics Drivers

Before you get started, you need to download and install the latest version of the Nvidia drivers on your computer. This is because of the fact that Nvidia Image Scaling is only available on the newer versions of the driver and you cannot enable it on an older version. Don’t worry, updating your drivers is a very simple and easy process. Just follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Open your browser and head over to this website to get the latest version of Nvidia drivers.

2. After you open it, enter all the details about your graphics card and then click the download button.

3. Once you download it, install them on your computer.

4. After completing the installation, follow the steps mentioned below.

Enable NVIDIA Image Scaling to boost FPS

Now that you have updated your drivers, it’s time to enable Nvidia Image Scaling to gain an increase in performance. Do note that you might experience some issues with this feature since it is still in the experimental phase. There have been reports of no improvement in performance for users with an ultrawide monitor. Some people claim that this is because NIS first upscales the image to a 16:9 aspect ratio and then converts it to 21:9 which results in no substantial gain and even a performance hit sometimes.There is also a chance that NIS won’t work if the game doesn’t have full screen option in the settings.In order to overcome this you will need to lower the render resolution by going into the “change resolution” menu of the Nvidia Control Panel.

For enabling Nvidia Image Scaling, you need to follow these steps:

1. Go to your desktop and then right-click on it.Select the Nvidia Control Panel option from the drop-down menu

2. After the Control Panel panel opens, click on the Adjust image settings with the preview option on the left panel.

3. Now under the 3D Settings section, select the Use the advanced 3D image settings option and click the Apply button.

4. Next click on the Manage 3D settings on the left panel.

5. Here you will find the option to enable NIS for all games or for a specific game. If you want to enable it for a specific game then head to the program settings tab and select the game in which you want to enable it from the drop-down menu

6. Now you will find the Image scaling option under the Settings Menu.

7. Click on the option and change it to on.You can also adjust the sharpening percentage using the slider.It is recommended to put it between 20 and 30 as anything more will make the image oversharpened.

8.You can also enable the overlay indication by ticking the checkbox.

9.Once you are done, click on the apply button.

If you have enabled the overlay indicator then you will notice NIS written in the top left corner of the screen while playing a game.This text will be shown in green if NIS is scaling and sharpening the game while a blue colored NIS will indicate that only scaling is active.

That’s it, you have now successfully enabled Nvidia Image Scaling on your computer.Try running different games and compare the results with and without NIS enabled.If you notice any performance gain then leave it on and enjoy the FPS boost!