THE CRUNCH

Modders have ported NVIDIA's Smooth Motion frame generation to Ampere cards, bypassing the feature's official RTX 40-series-only status. Two independent projects are making this possible. One builds on an existing DLSS-G runtime adaptation, while the other creates a clean-room compatibility layer targeting a specific driver path. Both have reportedly been tested on RTX 3070 and RTX 3050 laptop GPUs.

The feature, officially known as Smooth Motion, is a driver-level frame generation technology similar to AMD's AFMF. It is currently exclusive to RTX 40-series and newer cards through the NVIDIA App. Ampere owners have been left out of this officially, but two separate efforts are working to close that gap. One project, dlssg_for_sm86, expands on a previous adaptation of NVIDIA's DLSS-G runtime for the SM86 architecture used by RTX 30 GPUs. The update adds Smooth Motion and Vulkan support. The second project, NVSmooth30, takes a different approach by creating a clean-room compatibility layer aimed directly at NVIDIA's NvPresent64.dll Smooth Motion path.

The dlssg_for_sm86 update reportedly went live on September 19 and has been tested on an RTX 3070. NVSmooth30, developed by a user going by ItsAdeline, has been tested on an RTX 3050 laptop GPU and separately on an RTX 3070. These are early, unverified implementations. The modding community is effectively filling a feature gap left by NVIDIA's current driver strategy.

Why It Matters: This development highlights a growing trend of community-driven feature restoration. It allows owners of older hardware to access modern performance-enhancing technologies without waiting for official support or a hardware refresh.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

It is unclear if NVIDIA will acknowledge or support these community efforts, but the existence of working mods suggests the feature is technically viable on Ampere hardware.