Many streaming services cap content at 1080p unless you pay for a higher-tier subscription. On higher-resolution monitors, that image can look soft and pixelated, ruining the viewing experience. A higher plan only works when a 4K version exists, though.
Fortunately, your GPU can fix that problem for free with an already installed feature.
Every RTX GPU has video playback features that upscale resolution and enhance quality, practically remastering older videos, but many people aren’t familiar with them.
RTX Video Super Resolution upscales low-resolution playback to better match your display, and RTX Video HDR applies HDR to content that doesn’t support it.
Why 1080p video looks soft on a 4K monitor
Scaling a low-resolution frame blurs fine detail and exposes compression
When you play at 1080p on a 4K monitor, the display has to fill 2.1 million pixels to fill an 8.3 million-pixel grid, breaking the original pixel mapping. On a 1080p monitor, the pixel mapping ratio is 1:1, but since 4K monitors have twice as many pixels in each dimension, each source pixel enlarges to a 2X2 block to fill the display.
In browsers, the image is often blended with neighboring pixels using interpolation filters that soften details.
This image-scaling and filtering process affects perceived video quality. Depending on the scaling method used, you may notice jagged lines in fine detail, more noticeable compression artifacts, and a generally blurry image when interpolation softens finer details.
It just generally depends on the filter scaling method used and the quality of the original video. Older content or content with lower resolution may show more of the existing flaws when scaled on a higher-resolution monitor.
What RTX Video Super Resolution does to each frame
AI reconstruction replaces basic interpolation, one frame at a time
Unlike DLSS, which aims to improve performance and image quality, RTX Video Super Resolution takes a slightly different approach while still upscaling frames to a higher resolution. Using the Tensor Cores on RTX cards, RTX Video Super Resolution analyzes input frames with an AI model, predicts missing details, removes compression artifacts, and reconstructs the image at a higher resolution.
The result is sharper details, like text or strands of hair, with blur reduced and original details recovered. Jagged lines get reduced, and finer text and elements improve the final output.
Turning on the upscaler in a few clicks
Nvidia Control Panel handles browsers, and VLC needs one extra setting
Available on RTX 20-Series and newer GPUs, RTX Video Super Resolution works with resolutions as low as 360p, upscaling them all the way up to 4K. Turning it on is quite easy. To do so, follow these steps:
- Open the Nvidia Control Panel.
- Navigate to Video → Adjust → Video Image Settings.
- Look for RTX Video Super Resolution and check the Super Resolution box.
There is also a Quality drop-down box under Settings that adjusts the upscaler’s intensity, going from 1 to 4. I recommend 1-2 for videos that are already clear and at a slightly lower resolution than your monitor, and 3-4 for older videos below 1080p, which require more hardware power.
RTX Video Super Resolution works in web browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, and on streaming sites like YouTube, Twitch, Netflix, and more. However, support depends on the playback method, and some DRM-protected videos may prevent the feature from working.
It also doesn’t work across all media players except for VLC.
To enable it in VLC Media Player, open the app and then go to Tools → Preferences → Video, change the output to Direct3D11, and after a restart, the upscaler will work across all videos.
How AMD handles the same problem
AMD’s Radeon upscaler is spatial and skips the AI step
AMD has an equivalent to RTX Video Super Resolution called VSR (Virtual Super Resolution), which might be confusing because it uses the same acronym. However, unlike Nvidia’s implementation, AMD’s VSR relies on spatial upscaling rather than AI upscaling.
The upside is that AMD’s VSR works universally and isn’t limited to a specific browser, player, etc. You can use it across video games, including retro ones that don’t support higher resolution natively.
To turn AMD’s VSR on, follow these steps:
- Open AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition.
- Go to Gaming → Display → Global Display.
- Enable VSR.
That said, since AMD’s VSR works universally, turning it on adds a noticeable performance cost, which should be fine as long as you’re not using it on an already demanding AAA video game.
Nvidia’s AI features cover HDR too
Adding the color that older video lacks
For modern displays, resolution is only part of the upgrade, and color matters as much. HDR (High Dynamic Range) is probably the best display technology and, unlike SDR (Standard Dynamic Range), the older standard, it offers up to much higher brightness levels and millions of more colors.
Regardless of resolution, older SDR content would look washed out on a modern display that supports HDR. RTX Video HDR converts SDR content to HDR in real time by remapping brightness and colors using the Tensor Cores in RTX GPUs.
Enabling it makes the image more colorful and brighter, and in conjunction with RTX Video Super Resolution, can practically remaster old movies, TV shows, or anime.
To enable RTX Video HDR, follow these steps:
- Enable HDR on Windows under Settings→ System → Display.
- Open the Nvidia Control Panel, then go to System.
- From there, navigate to the Video tab and look for RTX Video Enhancements.
- Enable HDR and adjust brightness, saturation, and contrast to your liking.
Like RTX Video Super Resolution, RTX Video HDR works on all Nvidia RTX GPUs starting with the RTX 20-Series, though it requires an HDR10-compatible monitor.
Free sharpness for older videos
Much of the internet’s content still exists at a subpar resolution, which was fine when it was released, but seems underwhelming on modern displays. This is where RTX Video Super Resolution and RTX Video HDR work best.
I’ve been using it to create my own remasters of older anime, and instead of waiting for remakes, watching older anime with enhanced visuals feels much better. I recently rewatched Berserk (1997) with these features enabled, and it was like watching it for the first time.