Nvidia Smooth Motion - 590.26 preview drivers

[Raven68]

Just a question to the community and I know it's early still, but has there been any testing or review of Nvidia's incoming 590.26 drivers? I'm curious 

if it is as advertised or if DCS is not setup for this technology?

[speed-of-heat]

the drivers are still in beta but people with 50 series cards can use them now ...  oh and it wont work in VR 

[Raven68]

12 minutes ago, speed-of-heat said:

the drivers are still in beta but people with 50 series cards can use them now ...  oh and it wont work in VR 

That's a good bit of info there! I was hoping for a boost in VR performance, but no joy. 

Thanks for sharing!

[SharpeXB]

Interesting. So I guess the difference between this and Frame Generation is that it doesn’t need support within the game? Looks like this feature is coming to the 40-series as well.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpu-drivers/nvidias-new-driver-update-finally-brings-smooth-motion-to-rtx-40-series-gpus-works-like-amds-fluid-motion-frames-and-claims-to-double-your-fps-with-a-single-click-in-any-game

Edited July 16 by SharpeXB

[LucShep]

Initial tests and comparisons suggest that Loseless Scaling still does the same job better than Nvidia's Smooth Motion.

Granted, it's a payware app (7$ on Steam) but it works with any GPU and any driver, and on any game...
....plus, it's lightweight - doesn't suffer from the extra weight of Nvidia's bloatware app.

 

Edited July 16 by LucShep
added link

[bephanten]

tried smooth motion. framerate tanked to a stable 9fps. 

[Dawgboy]

3 hours ago, bephanten said:

tried smooth motion. framerate tanked to a stable 9fps. 

What are your system specs, i.e, CPU, RAM, GPU w/VRAM, etc.?

 

[bephanten]

2 hours ago, Dawgboy said:

What are your system specs, i.e, CPU, RAM, GPU w/VRAM, etc.?

 

12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12450H

32.0 GB 

rtx 4060 8 gb 

definitely needs more testing.

[devnull]

installed today the 590.26 previev to enable fluid motion which is now available as well for RTX40xx cards
in expectation that it will improove FPS in VR.

In VR -> no changes at all, like mentioned by speed-of-heat.

Made some testing with screen 2d setup as well,
Fluid Motion enabled, experienced ~15-20 fps LESS in the same scene (quick mission, syria, free flight the first 30 seconds)

For ME, after really QUICK tests, result will be better leave it off.

All maxed out in DCS launcher;

3440 x 1440
DLAA
!!NO DLSS!!

Specs:

9800X3d
RTX 4080 @ ~ 3000 MHZ

Edited July 18 by devnull

[Dangerzone]

On 7/18/2025 at 6:38 PM, devnull said:

installed today the 590.26 previev to enable fluid motion which is now available as well for RTX40xx cards
in expectation that it will improove FPS in VR.

In VR -> no changes at all, like mentioned by speed-of-heat.

Made some testing with screen 2d setup as well,
Fluid Motion enabled, experienced ~15-20 fps LESS in the same scene (quick mission, syria, free flight the first 30 seconds)

For ME, after really QUICK tests, result will be better leave it off.

All maxed out in DCS launcher;

3440 x 1440
DLAA
!!NO DLSS!!

Specs:

9800X3d
RTX 4080 @ ~ 3000 MHZ

Well, this whole time I've been disappointed that it's not aimed for VR - and after your update I realise that there's no point being disappointed - even the target audience is better off without it. Thanks for giving us those test result info!

Edited July 21 by Dangerzone

[VirusAM]

Well, this whole time I've been disappointed that it's not aimed for VR - and after your update I realise that there's no point being disappointed - even the target audience is better off without it. Thanks for giving us those test result info!

In VR there is motion reprojection (asw, motion smoothing and how every vendor calls it) .. that's the tech with synthetic frames specifically made for VR...
Forward looking techniques like this (and Nvidia frame generation) won't work well for vr as it would add unwanted latency and artifacts.

[DimSim]

Just tried Smooth Motion on (non beta) Game Ready Driver v581.14 (28 Aug 2025).

Enabled Smooth Motion override for DCS as DLSS frame generation is not possible.

The feature appeared to work as advertised... Saw FPS 75 -> 150 and 125 -> 250. Testing Marianas for lower fps.

System is Geforce 4080 with 4K DLSS Quality, not VR.

Have not done any comparisons to see how base FPS is affected, but seems worth while for smoother frame rate and less LCD ghosting which occurs at higher FPS. Monitor is 120hz native. Used the nVidia overlay to confirm settings enabled and performance numbers.

Edited Saturday at 11:51 AM by DimSim

[PacFlyer23]

I don't use the Nvidia App, so there another way or command for insertion in the autoexec.cfg file for turning this on?

[Scal]

VR Test on Germany map, instant action at Berlin with UH-1H

Nvidia 581.15 August 28 - DLSS/Quality - Quest 3 and Virtual Desktop - RTX 4080

--> With my current parameters and Smooth Motion OFF : Takeoff site : ~64fps. Radar site : ~76 fps

--> Same parameters with Smooth Motion ON : Takeoff site : ~51fps. Radar site : ~60 fps - Much more blurry/fuzzy

fps value taken from DCS (frame rate counter RCtrl+Pause) The ones given by NVidia App are completely different

 

Conclusion for me, 10-15 fps decrease and image more blurry. I will stay out of this  Smooth Motion functionality for VR.

 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Scal

[AJ.eightFive]

On 7/17/2025 at 4:50 AM, bephanten said:

tried smooth motion. framerate tanked to a stable 9fps. 

Same. Well, 11fps.