NVIDIA Smooth Motion Runs on RTX 30 Cards via Experimental Mods

NVIDIA Smooth Motion Stops at RTX 40 in the Official NVIDIA App​

Smooth Motion is NVIDIA's answer to AMD's Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF). NVIDIA calls it a driver-based AI model that delivers smoother gameplay by inferring an additional frame between two rendered frames. The key difference from DLSS Frame Generation is who has to do the work. DLSS Frame Generation only works if the game developer built it in. Smooth Motion runs at the driver level, so it can reach games that never shipped with DLSS frame generation. NVIDIA says it can be applied to games running at native resolution, using DLSS Super Resolution, or with other scaling techniques activated.

Support rolled out one generation at a time. The feature was launched alongside the RTX 50 Series GPUs in early 2025. In August 2025, NVIDIA announced that it was introducing support for all GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs, when the new NVIDIA app and Game Ready Driver updates are both installed. The official way to turn it on is in the NVIDIA App: you select a compatible DirectX 11, DirectX 12 or Vulkan game in Graphics > Program settings, then scroll down to "Driver Settings" and switch Smooth Motion on.

RTX 30 owners were left out, and nothing in NVIDIA's messaging since then suggests that will change. When the RTX 40 expansion arrived, VideoCardz noted that there is no mention of Smooth Motion ever coming to the RTX 30/20 series. Earlier, when NVIDIA was still validating RTX 40 support, it had said Smooth Motion is a brand-new driver technology and requires time for validation and QA across multiple products. Neither mod changes NVIDIA's position. Every RTX 30 result in this story is community work, not a supported feature.

Smooth Motion also has a quirk that carries over to both mods. DSOGaming found that you need to have a game profile to use Smooth Motion. As such, you cannot use it in games or applications that don't have an NVIDIA profile. You can work around that by creating a profile yourself. Both RTX 30 mods rely on per-game driver profiles edited in NVIDIA Profile Inspector.

dlssg_for_sm86-MFG-version Grafts Smooth Motion Onto an Existing DLSS-G Mod​

The first project comes from a developer called pipotoufikxyz-lgtm. It grows out of earlier work that ran NVIDIA's DLSS-G frame generation runtime on SM86, the compute architecture used by RTX 30 GPUs. VideoCardz reports that the developer had already extended sdli1995's dlssg_for_sm86 project with extra generation modes, including Multi Frame Generation-style multipliers. The latest additions are Smooth Motion and Vulkan support. The original author's handle is spelled "sdii1995" in the repository's credits and "sdli1995" in VideoCardz's report; this article can't confirm which spelling is right.

This mod bundles two different features, so it helps to separate them. The DLSS-G side is for games that already include DLSS Frame Generation. The Smooth Motion side is for games that don't. The repository describes itself as a modified build that "now includes smooth motion (30 series only) + dlssg vulkan support". A later note says Smooth Motion was also added for Microsoft Store and PC Game Pass games. Treat the Vulkan claim as the developer's word only for now. No published testing shows how many Vulkan games actually work with it on Ampere.

VideoCardz reports that the first Smooth Motion release arrived on September 19 and was tested on a GeForce RTX 3070. The repository's installation steps for RTX 30 cards are:

1. Fully exit the game.
2. Back up any existing proxy DLL and INI file from other mods, and store them outside the game folder.
3. Copy the package's version.dll and dlssg_sm86.ini into the folder containing the game's actual rendering executable. This is not always the launcher.
4. If another mod already uses the version.dll filename, pick one original-name DLL from the package's "altnative" folder that the game loads. Keep your other mods and the game's own DLSS-G files in place.
5. Open NVIDIA Profile Inspector, find the Smooth Motion setting, enable it, and save.
6. Launch the game. For the DLSS-G path, enable frame generation in-game and select X6 if it's offered.

The repository also lists RTX 20-series installation ("same steps") and includes an experimental SM75 archive. Its own description still labels Smooth Motion as "30 series only", so these files don't support any claim about Smooth Motion on Turing.

Early user reports show both promise and rough edges. VideoCardz passed along an account from one RTX 3080 owner who said Smooth Motion worked in several PC games, RPCS3, DuckStation and Yuzu. That user also said some Steam titles crashed when launched through the Steam client, and that artifacts were more visible on the RTX 3080 than on an RTX 5070 Ti. That's one person's observations, not a controlled comparison. Still, it's a reasonable warning that image quality on Ampere may not match what RTX 50 owners see.

NVSmooth30 Takes the Clean-Room Route Through NvPresent64.dll​

The second project, NVSmooth30 by ItsAdeline, reaches the same goal a different way. It doesn't build on the DLSS-G package. Its README calls it a "clean-room, source-available compatibility experiment" for running the Smooth Motion code inside NVIDIA's NvPresent64.dll on SM86/RTX 30 hardware. It says it contains no NVIDIA binaries or copied source code, and that it is "not a variable-renamed decompilation". The developer credits sdli1995's DLSS-G work as inspiration but says the code was written separately. The source is released under the MIT License.

The README describes the mechanism in more detail than most mods do. It works as a proxy, meaning a stand-in DLL that the game loads in place of a Windows system file:

• The proxy version.dll loads the real Windows version.dll from System32, so the game still gets the functions it expects.
• It finds the driver's NvPresent module and inspects it as a normal PE image. PE is the standard Windows executable format.
• It scans for the capability checks that normally stop Smooth Motion on unsupported GPUs, and patches them.
• It intercepts the path NvPresent uses to load CUDA code. It copies valid SM89 kernels, relabels them for SM86, and leaves SM120 and unrecognized entries untouched.
• It applies its patches and configuration changes as a single transaction and reverses them if any step fails.

In general terms, SM89 is the compute target for Ada Lovelace (RTX 40) GPUs, and SM120 is the target for Blackwell (RTX 50) consumer cards. That puts the trick in plain view: NVSmooth30 takes the kernels NVIDIA compiled for RTX 40 and persuades an RTX 30 card to run them. The developer is clear about how far that goes. The README says the CUDA step is "conservative metadata retargeting, not a general SASS binary translator". It only works as long as NVIDIA's shipped SM89 kernels use instructions that SM86 can also execute. If NVIDIA later compiles Smooth Motion with Ada-only instructions, this method stops working.

NVSmooth30 also includes an experimental bridge that routes DirectX 11 output through a DirectX 12 shadow swapchain. VideoCardz says the project was first demonstrated on an RTX 3050 Laptop GPU, and another user reported success on an RTX 3070. The project's Nexus Mods listing names DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 as targets.

Installing and tuning NVSmooth30​

The prebuilt release is on Nexus Mods. The setup steps are:

1. Extract version.dll into the game folder next to the main executable. If you use Ultimate ASI Loader, you can rename it to .asi and load it that way.
2. Do not copy NvPresent64.dll into the game folder. NVSmooth30 loads the copy your installed driver placed in DriverStore.
3. In NVIDIA Profile Inspector, enable Smooth Motion for the game's profile and click "Apply Changes".
4. Launch the game.

To build it yourself, you need 64-bit Windows 10 or 11, Visual Studio 2022 with the "Desktop development with C++" workload, the Windows 10/11 SDK, and CMake 3.24 or newer. Running build_release.bat produces build\Release\version.dll.

You tune NVSmooth30 with environment variables set before the game starts, typically from a small batch file launcher. The useful ones:

Diagnostics go to nvsmooth30.log next to the game executable. That log is the first place to look when the mod does nothing. The repository also includes a Python inspector, tools\inspect_nvp.py. It examines a given NvPresent64.dll offline, without loading or modifying it, and reports whether the capability structure the mod needs is present.

Driver Updates Are the Weak Point for Both Ampere Smooth Motion Mods​

The biggest practical risk isn't the first install. It's what happens after the next GeForce driver update. NVSmooth30 says openly that it was designed against one reference NvPresent64.dll build, identified by its SHA-256 hash in the README. It doesn't hard-code that build's internal offsets. Instead, its scanners look for a specific validated compare-and-capability pattern, and they abort without patching if they don't find it. That's the safe way to fail. A new driver can leave you without Smooth Motion, but the mod shouldn't blindly patch code it doesn't understand. The developer still warns that new NVIDIA versions "can still change semantics, kernel formats, or presentation behavior."

There's also a routine chore. NVSmooth30's instructions say you'll need to re-enable Smooth Motion in Profile Inspector every time your drivers are updated. If you let the NVIDIA App or Windows Update install drivers automatically, expect the feature to switch itself off regularly.

Stability warnings are just as blunt. NVSmooth30 calls itself an alpha project and says a driver reset, game crash, corrupted frame, or black screen are all still possible. It tells users to keep a backup of every file they replace. Both developers warn that compatibility is limited, and VideoCardz notes that DLL injection can cause crashes and clash with anti-cheat software. NVSmooth30's README says flatly not to use it in competitive or anti-cheat-protected games. The practical rule is simple: single-player games only.

Undoing either mod is simple because both work by adding files to the game folder. Delete the proxy DLL (and dlssg_sm86.ini for the first project), restore any proxy files you backed up from other mods, and turn Smooth Motion off again in that game's Profile Inspector profile. Neither project replaces the driver's own files. NVSmooth30 specifically loads NvPresent64.dll from DriverStore rather than shipping a modified copy.

What RTX 3070 and RTX 3050 Demos Say About Ampere's Hardware Lock​

TechPowerUp concluded that two teams independently reaching working implementations suggests Smooth Motion isn't locked out of Ampere at the hardware level. VideoCardz went further, arguing that NVIDIA could potentially bring broader frame-generation support to Ampere through an official implementation if it chose to support the architecture.

Those conclusions are supported, within limits. Two different codebases have been shown working on at least three Ampere parts: the RTX 3070, the RTX 3050 Laptop GPU, and, by one user's account, the RTX 3080. That's enough to say the NvPresent path can run on SM86. It says nothing about how well it runs, and that's the question NVIDIA's validation work was meant to answer. The one available quality report, the RTX 3080 owner's note about more visible artifacts than on an RTX 5070 Ti, points toward a possible reason NVIDIA might hold back even if the hardware can do the job. That's an inference, not a documented NVIDIA explanation. NVIDIA hasn't publicly explained why Ampere is excluded.

NVSmooth30's method also shows how fragile the current state is. Running Ada-compiled kernels on Ampere works only because those kernels happen to avoid instructions Ampere lacks. An official Ampere version would presumably get kernels compiled specifically for SM86. The mods have no such guarantee, and a future driver could break them without NVIDIA doing anything aimed at them.

Ampere owners do have supported alternatives. VideoCardz points out that gamers still have alternatives such as FSR Frame Gen or Lossless Scaling. Neither needs game-folder DLL edits to NVIDIA's presentation layer.

What this means for RTX 30 owners​

If you own an RTX 30 card and like to tinker, it's reasonable to try one of these mods in single-player games. Nobody should treat them as a supported feature, and they have no place in any game with anti-cheat. The DLSS-G-based project is the obvious choice if you also want frame generation in games that already ship DLSS Frame Generation. NVSmooth30 suits people who want a narrower, source-available tool with clear diagnostics and a documented way of failing safely. If you want something that keeps working through driver updates without maintenance, stick with FSR Frame Generation or Lossless Scaling, or wait. NVIDIA hasn't signaled any plans for official Ampere support.

• Officially, Smooth Motion runs only on GeForce RTX 40 and RTX 50 GPUs, enabled per game under Driver Settings in the NVIDIA App.
• dlssg_for_sm86-MFG-version added Smooth Motion on September 19, 2026, and was tested on an RTX 3070. It installs as version.dll plus dlssg_sm86.ini next to the game's rendering executable.
• NVSmooth30 is a separately written, MIT-licensed proxy that patches NvPresent's capability checks and retargets SM89 kernels to SM86. It has been shown on an RTX 3050 Laptop GPU and an RTX 3070.
• Both mods need Smooth Motion enabled in NVIDIA Profile Inspector, and NVSmooth30 says you must re-enable it after every driver update.
• Keep both mods out of competitive and anti-cheat-protected games, and back up any proxy DLLs from other mods before you install.
• To remove either mod, delete its DLL from the game folder and turn Smooth Motion off in that game's profile. The driver's own files are left untouched.

Community work has now matched what NVIDIA's official feature does on RTX 40 cards, and Ampere owners can get driver-level frame generation in games that never shipped it, as long as they accept alpha-quality software. How long that lasts depends on NVIDIA's driver schedule, not the modders'. NVSmooth30 depends on one reference NvPresent64.dll layout and on SM89 kernels that happen to run on SM86. The next GeForce driver that changes either one will show whether these projects can keep up.