Doom: The Dark Ages looks shockingly good at 240p with DLSS 4 enabled, proving the tech is here to stay

There has been a lot of discourse around the use of AI in rendering video games. Right now, there are two AI models doing some serious work: Frame Generation and DLSS 4. Frame Generation aims to boost framerates by using AI to fill in the gaps with what people call "fake frames." Meanwhile, DLSS 4 allows PCs to render the game at a lower quality, then uses AI to scale the image up a few resolutions so it can look good without taking a toll on your hardware.

But just how good is this DLSS 4? Well, if a YouTuber is to be believed, it has some serious weight behind it. Someone has uploaded a video showing Doom: The Dark Ages rendering at 240p and being upscaled to 720p, and while I won't claim the game looks crisp and issue-free, I will say that I am extremely impressed with what DLSS 4 can do.

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Doom: The Dark Ages upscaled from 240p looks surprisingly playable

As spotted by Windows Central, YouTuber RandomGaminginHD uploaded a video showing the power of DLSS 4 while playing Doom: The Dark Ages. First, they tried out having the computer render the game at 360p and upscale it to 1080p, and the results were pretty solid. There were some visual oddities around finer detail, as you might imagine, but looking at the footage they uploaded, I'd say it doesn't look bad at all.

Then came the real test. RandomGaminginHD set the game's target resolution to 1280x720, kept DLSS set to ultra-performance mode, and then gave it a play. The end result was a game that the PC rendered internally at 240p and then used DLSS to upscale it to the 720p resolution that was asked for.

Now, I'm not going to say it looked stunning. You can see for yourself in the video above by skipping to the 4:40 mark. Things definitely look a little blurrier than they usually do, almost as if the game was released on an older generation of console. There was also some artefacting, and the background looked softer, especially given how the upscaler also had to handle a rain effect.

But, honestly? It looks surprisingly good given the circumstances. I wouldn't want to play through the entire game like that, but if I were stuck on older hardware and wanted to get some Doom under my belt, I could put up with it. Amazing stuff.