In brief: DLSS 2.0 is a welcome addition to just about any modern PC game: with it, you can choose to take a (usually) small hit to image quality in exchange for a significant performance boost. Yesterday, the technology arrived in F1 2020, paving the way for higher resolutions and boosted graphical settings during gameplay.
F1 2020 first launched worldwide on July 10, 2020, so it’s only taken about a month and a half for DLSS to arrive. The feature’s inclusion was announced in an Nvidia blog post yesterday. In the post, the company promises “significant performance boosts to all GeForce RTX GPUs,” unlocking 4K 60 FPS gameplay on the RTX 2060 Super or better (which is a slight exaggeration, as you’ll see in a moment).
“We wanted F1® 2020 to be the most authentic and immersive F1® game to date,” F1 game director Lee Mather said in a statement. “This required a laser focus on all aspects, from the My Team feature through to every pixel on the screen. NVIDIA DLSS gives users the performance headroom to maximise visual settings, resulting in realistic, immersive graphics.”
In its announcement post, Nvidia included several benchmark charts showing the types of performance gains players can expect to enjoy at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p. While you should always take Nvidia’s performance claims with a grain of salt, they are in line with what we’ve come to expect from DLSS 2.0 in other titles. As you can see below, at 4K and maxed-out graphical settings, F1 2020 is able to run at 103 FPS on the 2080 Ti with DLSS 2.0 turned on.
With the feature switched off, that number drops down to 69 FPS. On the 2060, DLSS 2.0 allegedly enables average framerates of about 55 FPS at 4K, versus the 35 FPS you can expect without the AI-powered tech.
At 1440p and 1080p, the relative gains shrink in proportion to pre-DLSS FPS numbers — a gain of 30 FPS on a 2060 is significant at 4K, but at 1080p, you’ll already be running the game at upwards of 100 FPS, so an extra 23 frames probably won’t substantially improve your experience.
If you’re a fan of racing games and want to give F1 2020, with or without a DLSS-ready GPU, you can snag the game via Steam or the Microsoft Store for $60. With that said, if you’re relying on the performance numbers above to inform your purchase, we recommend checking out some independent benchmarks first.