You Can Now Unlock Nvidia Smooth Motion on RTX 40 GPUs
RTX 40-series users can now enable Nvidia Smooth Motion using a developer driver and tweak tools, boosting game frame rates despite no official support yet.
image for illustrative purpose
Nvidia's Smooth Motion frame generation, initially exclusive to RTX 50-series graphics cards, has now been unofficially enabled on RTX 40-series GPUs by users in the PC enthusiast community. Though Nvidia has not formally extended support, a workaround has been identified to activate the feature using developer tools.
A community member known as Macer on the Guru3D forums demonstrated that Smooth Motion can be activated on RTX 40-series cards, including the RTX 4090, by installing Nvidia’s developer driver version 590.26. In addition, users must utilize the Nvidia Profile Inspector tool to adjust the GPU settings.
The process involves registering for an Nvidia Developer account to access the driver. Once installed, users can locate the Smooth Motion toggle in the Common section of the Profile Inspector. Although the tool labels the setting as compatible only with RTX 50-series GPUs, test results from Macer show it functioning with RTX 40-series hardware, effectively doubling frame rates in games like *World of Warcraft*.
While the feature remains unsupported officially, this discovery aligns with Nvidia's earlier statements indicating that Smooth Motion would eventually roll out to RTX 40-series cards. Forum discussions also hint that the feature’s implementation in the developer driver may differ in quality from the finalized RTX 50-series version.
Smooth Motion, Nvidia’s answer to AMD’s Fluid Motion Frames 2, enables driver-level frame generation across a broad range of games. Unlike AMD’s offering, which supports a wider hardware base including the Radeon RX 9070 XT and Ryzen AI 300 chips, Nvidia's solution is currently limited by official software restrictions.
Users should note that enabling this feature requires pre-release software, which may carry potential stability risks. The current workaround supports games using DirectX 11, DirectX 12, and Vulkan.
As Nvidia continues to refine Smooth Motion, broader compatibility may be on the horizon. For now, RTX 40-series users have a path — albeit unofficial — to access enhanced frame generation technology.
