Your Nvidia RTX graphics card can do much more than render frames in Cyberpunk 2077. According to a recent overview from BGR (July 27), the GPU’s Tensor Cores, dedicated video encoder, and AI software stack can upscale web video, clean up your microphone, add AI-assisted game tweaks, and even act as a local AI assistant — but most users have never flipped the switches. Here’s what these features actually do, how they impact performance, and how to enable them on your Windows 11 machine.
The Tools: From Video Upscaling to AI Assistants
RTX Video Super Resolution and HDR
RTX Video Super Resolution (VSR) uses Tensor Cores to upscale low-resolution or compressed video in supported browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox) and VLC. It works on content from 360p to 1440p, sharpening edges and reducing compression artifacts when you watch streams, YouTube clips, or older tutorials on a high-resolution display. Nvidia also offers RTX Video HDR, which remaps standard dynamic range video into HDR on compatible HDR10 monitors — no source-side changes needed.
Both features are available through the Nvidia App under System > Video. Enabling HDR in Windows is a prerequisite, and a quality HDR display is essential; a cheap HDR monitor may look worse. Nvidia warns that concurrent GPU-heavy tasks can reduce performance, so it’s best to leave these settings on Auto or toggle them only when needed.
Nvidia Broadcast: Your Personal Studio
Nvidia Broadcast creates virtual microphone, speaker, and camera devices that apply AI effects before audio or video hits Zoom, Teams, OBS, Discord, or your browser. The toolkit includes background noise removal, room echo cancellation, studio voice processing, virtual backgrounds, auto frame, and even an “eye contact” correction that adjusts your gaze.
For remote workers, podcasters, and streamers, this can turn a basic USB mic and webcam into a surprisingly clean setup. The key is to use Broadcast as your primary processing layer and disable duplicate noise suppression in your conferencing apps, which can muddy the audio. Nvidia’s setup guide shows how to configure each app; the feature runs on Tensor Cores and may dent gaming frame rates on laptops or less powerful desktops if you enable every effect at once.
Project G-Assist: A Local AI for Your PC
Project G-Assist is an experimental local AI assistant that runs on your RTX GPU. It can answer questions about performance metrics, adjust game settings, control peripherals, and offer diagnostic tips — all offline. Nvidia says it uses a small language model and requires 6GB or more VRAM for text-based prompts; voice commands are limited to newer GPUs.
The assistant is not a general-purpose chatbot. Its value lies in reducing friction: you can ask “why is my GPU utilization at 99%?” or “optimize settings for low latency in this game” without alt-tabbing. However, Nvidia labels it experimental for a reason — it may misunderstand requests or recommend changes that don’t suit your specific hardware. Treat its suggestions as a starting point, not gospel.
DLSS Overrides and Smooth Motion
The Nvidia App now lets you override DLSS models in supported games without waiting for a developer patch. You can upgrade to newer transformer-based models for Super Resolution, Ray Reconstruction, or DLAA; force DLAA or Ultra Performance modes where missing; and enable Multi Frame Generation on RTX 50-series cards if the game already has Frame Generation.
For titles without any DLSS Frame Generation, Smooth Motion — a driver-level AI interpolation — adds an inferred frame between every two rendered frames on RTX 40- and 50-series GPUs. This works in DirectX 11, 12, and Vulkan games and can make older or locked-frame-rate titles much smoother, though it isn’t suited for competitive shooters where input lag matters.
These overrides are not a universal “make any game perfect” button. They require that the game already supports some form of DLSS, and frame generation can introduce visual artifacts around HUD elements, rapid motion, or thin geometry. Test per-game, and always start from a stable native frame rate.
The Nvidia App Itself
Once a fragmented mess of GeForce Experience, Control Panel, and separate utilities, the Nvidia App now unifies driver updates, per-game profiles, video enhancements, broadcasting, performance monitoring, recording, and overrides in a single interface. Sign-in is optional for most features, a welcome change from past GeForce Experience frustration.
The app’s overlay provides real-time metrics (FPS, GPU load, latency, 1% lows) and ShadowPlay recording — including Instant Replay that captures the last minutes of gameplay retroactively. RTX 40- and 50-series cards support AV1 encoding for more efficient captures; older RTX cards are limited to H.264 and HEVC.
What These Features Mean for Different Users
For home users: RTX Video can make YouTube or Twitch look noticeably better on a 4K TV or monitor, and RTX HDR adds pop to SDR content. Just don’t expect miracles with very low-bitrate sources.
For remote workers and students: Nvidia Broadcast can suppress keyboard clatter, fan hum, and room echo during calls. A $20 headset mic becomes far more professional, and virtual backgrounds work reasonably well in decent lighting.
For gamers: DLSS overrides keep older titles visually current, Smooth Motion breathes new life into frame-capped classics, and the performance overlay helps diagnose stutter. Project G-Assist can suggest settings without leaving the game, though competitive players should avoid invoking it mid-match.
For content creators: ShadowPlay with AV1 offers high-quality, low-storage recording. Broadcast’s virtual camera and microphone devices simplify streaming setups, and Nvidia’s encoder offloads streaming from the CPU.
In every case, the common thread is that you already own the hardware. Turning on these features costs nothing except a few minutes of configuration.
Why Your GPU Can Do All This (and Why You Didn’t Know)
Modern GeForce GPUs pack more than shader cores. Tensor Cores — originally marketed for DLSS — are dedicated AI processors that now handle video upscaling, audio denoising, and local AI assistants. NVENC is a separate video encoder block that offloads recording and streaming from both CPU and GPU render pipelines. The Nvidia software stack has evolved from simple driver updaters to a control center that exposes these capabilities.
The fragmentation of the past — GeForce Experience, Control Panel, standalone Broadcast installer — hid these features. The Nvidia App’s consolidation, alongside automatic driver updates, means these tools now sit in a single dashboard, but they still require users to actively look for them. The BGR report is a reminder that many RTX owners have never visited the System > Video tab or installed the Broadcast app.
How to Enable the Features Without Tanking Performance
- Update your driver and install the Nvidia App. A clean install of the latest Game Ready or Studio Driver is the starting point. The app now integrates all features.
- For video upscaling: Open Nvidia App > System > Video. Enable RTX Video Super Resolution (set to Auto initially) and RTX Video HDR if you have an HDR10 display with HDR enabled in Windows. Test with a known 720p stream on a high-res panel to decide if the clarity gain is worth the tiny GPU usage.
- For calls and streaming: Download Nvidia Broadcast from the official site. Set your microphone and camera to “NVIDIA Broadcast” versions in your conferencing apps, and disable built-in noise suppression in those apps to avoid double processing. Start with Noise Removal and Room Echo Removal only; add video effects if your GPU has headroom.
- For G-Assist: Install the experimental feature through the Nvidia App (check the Latest section). Confirm your GPU has 6GB+ VRAM. Launch it via the overlay and start with simple queries like “show my GPU temperature” before trusting it to change settings.
- For DLSS overrides: In Nvidia App > Graphics, select a game, scroll to Driver Settings, and look for DLSS Override – Model Presets. Choose the latest preset if available, but test the game for artifacts. For Smooth Motion, enable it under the same Driver Settings in games without native Frame Generation.
- For recording and monitoring: Press Alt+Z to open the overlay. Configure Instant Replay length and codec (AV1 if you have an RTX 40- or 50-series card). Customize the performance overlay to show only the metrics you need to avoid clutter.
A golden rule: don’t turn everything on at once. Tensor Core workloads stack, and a laptop or lower-tier GPU can see noticeable performance drops if you run 4K upscaling, Broadcast effects, and a demanding game simultaneously.
What’s Next: More AI, More Integration
Nvidia is quietly turning its GPUs into general-purpose AI accelerators for the desktop. Project G-Assist is clearly a testbed for a future where local AI assists with all PC tasks, and the DLSS override system hints at a model where driver-level AI updates become routine. Microsoft’s own push toward AI in Windows 11 (Copilot, Studio Effects) will likely intersect with Nvidia’s stack, creating both collaboration and competition.
For now, the five features highlighted by BGR are the most practical, usable examples of what your RTX card can do beyond rasterization. The hardware has been ready for years. The software is finally catching up — and it’s worth a few clicks to turn it on.