I have a GTX 1660 super and I was wondering if its worth it to upgrade solely for RTX dlss benefits, and also what’s the cheapest card I can get that would be comparable or better to my current card.
It’s worth it if the games you want to play support it. If you play fast paced competitive games it may not be what you need. However, if you play a lot of games with high end graphics then it’s almost a must at this point. The RTX 2060 will probably be your cheapest option but I personally would skip that card. It isn’t very powerful when it comes to the RTX features. The 30 series has the second gen tensor cores so you should get some better performance. The 40 series also supports frame interpolation but those cards are crazy expensive. IMO: a 3060 would probably be a good option; but the 30 cards are dropping prices fast. See if you can find a second hand card for cheap.
DLSS is really nice. AMD’s FSR3 will bring some limited support for super resolution to 10-series nvidia cards, but no frame generation on cards before RTX 20-series, so unfortunately all the people hyped for FSR3 are hyped for stuff you (and most of them, talking about their 980s and 1070s lasting forever) won’t actually get. You’ll probably want like a 3060, honestly.
RTX itself isn’t worth it, most games has crappy performance with it turned on (at least with the 3070 i bought), the only game I’ve played entirely with it turned on is the recent Spider-Man games (well, and Quake 2 RTX but thats not really a demanding game). But DLSS is worth it, you might get a big framerate increase in games that supports it, and might be able to run at high quality settings where you before had to choose performant settings. And DLSS forces antialias on, but that aa algorithm looks better and is more performant than the regular ones, particularly when in motion. Except in MW2, it causes some weird grainy artifacts there.
But if you don’t have it, I would have prioritized a gsync compatible display. Its the biggest improvement in apparent game performance in recent decade, imho.
FSR 2.0 works with older generation nvidia gpus, should help extend the longevity of your current setup.
If you’re 1080p gaming you will have little benefit from DLSS. If you’re gaming at 1440p you’ll get a lot of benefit.
