The newest graphics cards by Nvidia and AMD have been the talk of the PC gaming town since the start of the year, with big claims about boosted performance and better ray tracing. But the biggest gains in recent years have come in the forms of AI upscaling and frame generation.
Unfortunately, both Nvidia and AMD have locked their exciting new technologies behind expensive graphics cards. If you can’t get your hands on one, you can’t enjoy the enhanced resolutions and bumped-up frame rates they offer… unless…
Turns out, if you’re missing out on Nvidia’s DLSS 4 or AMD’s FSR, you can get most of the way there with a simple $7 app on Steam! I’ve been using it for a while and I love it. Here’s what you need to know.
What is Lossless Scaling?
Lossless Scaling is a standalone app that grants upscaling and frame generation with just about any graphics card in just about any PC game. You don’t need the latest Nvidia or AMD cards to use it.
It’s been in development for a number of years and was originally used to increase resolution in older pixel graphics games via integer scaling. In the years since, however, its capabilities have grown and it’s now used to make games look and play better in more ways than that—just like what DLSS and FSR do for Nvidia and AMD card owners, respectively.
Lossless Scaling has several built-in upscalers that are able to leverage different algorithms like FSR, LS1, Integer, and more. These are mostly for use in games that don’t support more advanced versions of FSR or DLSS, but they’re nice to have as fallback options.
But the real game changer is the introduction of Frame Generation support. With the latest LSFG algorithm, you can boost frame rates by 2x, 3x, 4x, or any combination you want. (2x works best for me, but if you can make gaming hay with more, then enjoy the extra frames!!
Lossless Scaling
It also has the same downsides as AMD and Nvidia’s frame generation techniques, though. Latency is slightly worse when using Frame Generation, and some of those frames aren’t “real,” so it isn’t advisable to use Frame Generation in competitive multiplayer games. But in single player? It’s a game changer.
I’m a big space nerd and I love Kerbal Space Program. But even with a 7950X3D CPU and RX 7900 XTX GPU, the game really slows down once you’ve got 100+ mods installed. (The dynamic clouds really are worth paying for, but I digress.) With Lossless Scaling, though, my Space Center goes from around 90 FPS to a rock-solid 140 FPS. Huge spaceships with hundreds of parts go from low 50s to high 90s. The game looks and feels so much more responsive when rotating the camera.
Lossless Scaling has also been really useful when playing console ports with capped frame rates. In Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered, the frame rate is hard-restricted to 60 FPS. That’s better than the 30 FPS of many other console racing ports, but with Lossless Scaling, I can turn on 2x Frame Generation and enjoy a buttery-smooth 120 FPS. It’s not as good as native, and I still have to deal with some input lag, but it looks much smoother with those generated frames.
Jon Martindale / Foundry
Again, it’s not perfect. Frame Generation does some funny things when KSP first loads and only has a couple of FPS to work with. The VAB looks like a Dalí painting for a split second before going back to normal. The scaling options can be overwhelming, and it’s annoying having to tab in and out of games to make adjustments.
But if you take the time to learn how to use Lossless Scaling properly, it can make a real difference in your PC gaming experience.
How to use Lossless Scaling
First, you need to buy it on Steam. I know it can feel weird to spend money on Steam for something that isn’t a game, but trust me, this one’s worth it—and it often goes on sale for a mere $3.50.
Install it, run it, and then boot up the game you want to apply it to. Once that game is up and running, make sure it’s set to “borderless window” or “fullscreen borderless” mode. (Lossless Scaling doesn’t currently support Fullscreen Exclusive.) Set the graphics settings to whatever you want, including enabling any in-game upscaling you want to do, and make sure your FPS cap is at least as high as your monitor’s refresh rate.
Use the Alt + Tab keyboard shortcut to switch to the Lossless Scaling window, then create a new profile using the left-hand menu if you wish. You can also simply adjust the Default profile if you don’t care to have more than one.
Jon Martindale / Foundry
There are quite a few settings to consider with Lossless Scaling, but the ones we’re most interested in are “Scaling” and “Frame Generation,” along with “Rendering” in some cases.
With Scaling, if the game doesn’t have its own upscaling feature and you want to use Lossless Scaling for it, use the drop-down menu to select your preferred algorithm. There’s a great Steam thread here that showcases the different upscaling modes and their effectiveness.
With Frame Generation, select the Type as LSFG 3.0, which is the best of the available options as of this writing. Set the Mode as Fixed if you want Lossless Scaling to stick with a fixed number of AI-generated frames to double whatever your native rate is. Or set the Mode to Adaptive to have the algorithm try to meet your target frame rate, even if the native FPS falls below a 2x or 3x multiplier of your target.
With Rendering, you might want to enable V-Sync as well as HDR and G-Sync support, if applicable. Enable Draw FPS if you want a simple FPS tracker at the top left to show native and output frame rates with Frame Generation. If you run into issues with multiple displays and GPUs, tweak the other Rendering options to get it behaving properly.
Once you’ve got all the settings as you’d like, click the Scale button at the top right of the window, then use Alt + Tab to return to your game. After a few seconds, Frame Generation and Scaling will kick in and you should see your frame rate jump along with it.
A few final thoughts before you go
Lossless Scaling is amazing. It’s given me frames I never knew I could have in older games that weren’t designed to run the way I want to play them in 2025. With Lossless Scaling, I can have old Need for Speed console games running at 120 FPS and more than a slideshow in Kerbal Space Program when launching gargantuan ships.
Jon Martindale / Foundry
But Lossless Scaling is no panacea. Just like Nvidia’s and AMD’s frame generation, you’ll see more artifacts when the gap between native and target frame rates are greater—more AI frames means more smearing and choppiness—so it’s better to be conservative with these settings. Play around and see what you’re comfortable with.
I’ve managed to find my own sweet spot with this tool and it has immeasurably improved some of my favorite games. And it’s only getting better with every iteration and every new feature. (Adaptive Frame Generation is brand new and not even offered by AMD or Nvidia yet.) For those of us without the latest graphics cards, Lossless Scaling is a fantastic alternative to Nvidia’s and AMD’s exclusive tech.
Further reading: Why I never buy the best PC gaming hardware