Minecraft’s creator, Markus Persson, known as Notch, recently expressed his concerns regarding Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology on the social media platform X. His critique centers on the fundamental mechanics of DLSS, particularly its reliance on the same hardware that struggles to deliver optimal performance. Notch stated, “DLSS fundamentally makes no sense. Because the graphics card is too slow to run the game at reasonable speeds, you use THE SAME HARDWARE to run a neural network to generate frames in between the existing ones.”
He further elaborated on his thoughts, comparing DLSS to anti-aliasing, suggesting that both technologies seem to complicate the rendering process rather than streamline it. “Anti-aliasing fundamentally makes no sense. Because the graphics card is too slow to run the game at reasonable speeds, you use THE SAME HARDWARE to run an ALGORITHM(?!?!) to generate good looking frames out of the existing ones,” he remarked.
Industry Perspectives on Graphics Technology
While Notch raises valid points, it is essential to consider the broader context of graphics card design and development. The industry has seen a significant shift towards prioritizing artificial intelligence advancements to meet the demands of modern gaming, especially with the rise of ray tracing and increasingly complex game engines. Nvidia’s vice president of Applied Deep Learning Research, Bryan Catanzaro, articulated this shift back in 2023, stating, “Moore’s Law is dead. We don’t know as a civilization how to keep turning the crank on traditional ways of doing things. We have to be smarter.”
Catanzaro emphasized the need for a more intelligent approach to graphics rendering, moving away from brute-force methods that require excessive computational power. He noted, “Brute force—let’s re-render every frame 120 times a second at 2160p output—that is wasteful because we know that there are a lot of correlations in the output of any rendering process.” This perspective highlights the potential for AI to enhance image quality while optimizing resource use.
In the midst of this debate, our own Nick is conducting thorough testing of DLSS and Frame Generation, providing insights into the technology’s performance. He shared an illustrative image that delineates the GPU’s workload in rendering a single frame versus the additional processing required for AI interpolation of frames. “Everything in the blue box is what the GPU has to do to render one frame,” Nick explained. “Everything after that is what the GPU has to do to interpolate one additional frame with AI.”
While DLSS and Nvidia’s AI enhancements are not universally embraced, they represent a significant evolution in graphics technology. Opinions on their effectiveness vary, and some may argue against the reliance on machine learning algorithms for frame generation. Nevertheless, as the industry continues to evolve, it becomes increasingly clear that these advancements are shaping the future of gaming graphics.
Minecraft creator Notch says ‘DLSS fundamentally makes no sense’, but the X comments say ‘um, actually’
Minecraft’s creator, Markus Persson, known as Notch, recently expressed his concerns regarding Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology on the social media platform X. His critique centers on the fundamental mechanics of DLSS, particularly its reliance on the same hardware that struggles to deliver optimal performance. Notch stated, “DLSS fundamentally makes no sense. Because the graphics card is too slow to run the game at reasonable speeds, you use THE SAME HARDWARE to run a neural network to generate frames in between the existing ones.”
He further elaborated on his thoughts, comparing DLSS to anti-aliasing, suggesting that both technologies seem to complicate the rendering process rather than streamline it. “Anti-aliasing fundamentally makes no sense. Because the graphics card is too slow to run the game at reasonable speeds, you use THE SAME HARDWARE to run an ALGORITHM(?!?!) to generate good looking frames out of the existing ones,” he remarked.
Industry Perspectives on Graphics Technology
While Notch raises valid points, it is essential to consider the broader context of graphics card design and development. The industry has seen a significant shift towards prioritizing artificial intelligence advancements to meet the demands of modern gaming, especially with the rise of ray tracing and increasingly complex game engines. Nvidia’s vice president of Applied Deep Learning Research, Bryan Catanzaro, articulated this shift back in 2023, stating, “Moore’s Law is dead. We don’t know as a civilization how to keep turning the crank on traditional ways of doing things. We have to be smarter.”
Catanzaro emphasized the need for a more intelligent approach to graphics rendering, moving away from brute-force methods that require excessive computational power. He noted, “Brute force—let’s re-render every frame 120 times a second at 2160p output—that is wasteful because we know that there are a lot of correlations in the output of any rendering process.” This perspective highlights the potential for AI to enhance image quality while optimizing resource use.
In the midst of this debate, our own Nick is conducting thorough testing of DLSS and Frame Generation, providing insights into the technology’s performance. He shared an illustrative image that delineates the GPU’s workload in rendering a single frame versus the additional processing required for AI interpolation of frames. “Everything in the blue box is what the GPU has to do to render one frame,” Nick explained. “Everything after that is what the GPU has to do to interpolate one additional frame with AI.”
While DLSS and Nvidia’s AI enhancements are not universally embraced, they represent a significant evolution in graphics technology. Opinions on their effectiveness vary, and some may argue against the reliance on machine learning algorithms for frame generation. Nevertheless, as the industry continues to evolve, it becomes increasingly clear that these advancements are shaping the future of gaming graphics.