Red Dead Redemption 2 is an awfully pretty cowboy game, but it can be a demanding game to run at the highest settings. Fortunately, the next major update for Red Dead Redemption 2, which is due out July 13, will add the option to use DLSS in the graphics settings menu.
DLSS is Nvidia’s relatively new AI-driven super-sampling technology, which takes a base canvas rendered at one resolution and extrapolates it into a higher-resolution image on the fly. This effectively means you can run games at lower, less resource-intensive resolutions while still enjoying a crisp-looking image at or above your screen resolution. You can usually opt between ‘performance’ and ‘quality,’ with the difference between those being the input resolution your game uses.
Rockstar says the July 13 update will bring DLSS support to both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online, and it will be available “to all Windows users with eligible Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics cards”. Practically speaking that means any of the RTX 20-series or 30-series, and you can check out our guide to the best graphics cards for more information on pricing and availability of that hardware.
Players with AMD cards are a bit out of luck on this one – the company’s answer to DLSS, FidelityFX Super Resolution, is officially supported by only eight games at present, but modders are hard at work bringing the tech to games like GTA V.
DLSS has come quite a way since the first version debuted in 2019 in games like Battlefield V and Metro Exodus. It’s officially DLSS 2.0 now, although the 2.2 version of the tech has quietly rolled out for Rainbow Six Siege, and modders were quick to transfer that database over to other games that use the method, such as Cyberpunk 2077.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, the effect should be significantly improved framerates at high resolutions. There have been cases, such as in Death Stranding, where image clarity actually improves over the base canvas when using DLSS. We’ll be looking forward to visiting Saint Denis with this option turned on next week.