Google has released an ‘Early Stable Update for Desktop’ which heralds the arrival of Nvidia’s RTX Video Super Resolution to the Chrome browser. This new video stream upscaling feature, using the same kind of AI that has made Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) such a success in the games sphere, now only needs a new GeForce driver to hit the PC mainstream. However, before you read further, we think it is important to point out that Nvidia is only supporting this new AI video scaling tech on its GeForce RTX 30 and RTX 40 GPUs.
Nvidia RTX Video Super Resolution was announced at the CES 2023 last month. In brief, it takes in video at resolutions between 360p and 1440p (inclusive) and uses AI derived from deep learning and neural networks to upscale the video up to 4K. Of course, the special sauce delivered by Nvidia’s AI is a more impressive upscaling quality than what could previously be achieved by your hardware / software combo.
Above you can check out Nvidia’s infomercial for RTX Video Super Resolution, which was shared during CES 2023. In the video you see some game footage from Apex Legends captured at 1080p using H.264 at the 8mbps bitrate. Nvidia shows some illuminating split screen, and zoomed in detail comparisons - contrasting the gaming footage at 1080p and AI-upscaled to 4K. Gamers may appreciate that the RTX Video Super Resolution feature will support up to 144Hz video, too.
The results look good in the video, and there is no reason why they shouldn’t look impressive, with the similar DLSS having progressed through several major versions and refinement steps over the years. Applying the RTX Video Super Resolution to game footage might even show the tech at its best, and makes one wonder how well it would work in the wide range of online video genres to which it might be applied; nature documentaries or sports videos would present the Ai with very different upscaling challenges to something like Apex Legends.
VideoCardz spotted that Google’s latest stable version of Chrome (110.0.5481.77), now has the ‘NvidiaVpSuperResolution’ feature turned on by default – something that was previously a beta-only feature. The general release of the new stable Chrome 110 is expected tomorrow, February 7. As mentioned in the intro, Nvidia has yet to release a GeForce game ready or studio driver with support, but with any luck it should also arrive tomorrow, too. It would be fortunate to see Microsoft Edge updated for support simultaneously to give users a choice from day one.
With any upscaling technology, the proof of the pudding is in the watching, as all the major graphics chip vendor firms have been boastful about their various upscaling technologies previously – even when they weren’t anywhere as good as they have become recently. Fingers crossed we will be able to test Nvidia RTX Video Super Resolution, with the wide variety of streaming video content out there, very shortly.
