Nvidia's latest GPU drivers to upscale blurry videos via AI

SAN FRANCISCO: Chip-maker Nvidia has released new GPU drivers, which will upscale old blurry web videos on RTX 30 and 40-series cards.

About 80 per cent of internet bandwidth today is streaming video, and 90 per cent of that content streams at 1080p or lower, including from popular sources like Twitch.tv, YouTube, Netflix, Disney+ and Hulu, the company said.

"With RTX Video Super Resolution (VSR), GeForce RTX 40 and 30 Series GPU users can tap AI to upscale lower-resolution content up to 4K, matching their display resolution. The AI removes blocky compression artifacts and improves the video's sharpness and clarity, while streaming video on PCs through Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge," Nvidia said in a blogpost.

AI upscaling is the process of converting lower-resolution media to a higher resolution by putting low-resolution images through a deep learning model to predict the high-resolution versions.

The chip maker said that the RTX Video Super Resolution gives viewers on GeForce RTX 40 and 30 Series PCs a clear picture into the world of streaming video.

With RTX VSR, artifacts caused by compressing video are reduced or eliminated -- such as blockiness, ringing artifacts around edges, washout of high-frequency details and banding on flat areas -- while reducing lost textures. It also sharpens edges and details.

RTX VSR is available now as part of the latest GeForce Game Ready Driver, the company said.