The Switch 2 version of Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition did not launch with support for NVIDIA DLSS, but Bethesda Game Studios added it with an update released last week. The official changelog says that DLSS is now available in both 40FPS and 60FPS modes, improving image quality and performance. It is also automatically deactivated during UI-heavy menus, like when using the Pip-Boy.
Digital Foundry had been looking forward to testing the addition of DLSS in Fallout 4 for the Nintendo Switch 2. However, their first impressions of this implementation aren't exactly glowing. In fact, there seems to be no discernible improvement when it comes to image quality when using the 40FPS mode, even after zooming in to spot any differences. On the other hand, the 60FPS mode looks better with DLSS, especially for sharpness and temporal stability: DLSS eliminates flickering, at least in static scenarios. When it comes to performance, DLSS also helps a bit in 60FPS mode, but it's far from a major change. Moreover, the traversal hitches caused by stuttering are still there.
Overall, the Digital Foundry team seems positive that Bethesda has chosen the so-called DLSS Light, a less computationally intensive version of DLSS developed specifically for the Nintendo Switch 2 rather than the usual CNN (convolutional neural network) model that PC users have been using until the more recent transformer models.
The CNN model is used by various Nintendo Switch 2 games, making a big difference in titles like CAPCOM's Resident Evil: Requiem, where DLSS makes it look better than the Xbox Series S version despite the latter running at a higher resolution. However, the DLSS Light model has also been successfully used in other games, such as Hogwarts Legacy, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, and Star Wars Outlaws, where there wasn't much GPU time available for the other model. You'd think an older game like Fallout 4 (which originally launched in November 2015) could have gone with the full CNN DLSS, but Bethesda chose otherwise.
In other Fallout news, Amazon just announced that the second season of the TV series registered over 83 million viewers on Prime Video. Work on the third season is already underway.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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