The topic NVIDIA keeps neglecting frame gen on Linux, so I turned to this $7 alternative… is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
Gaming on Linux is better today than it ever has been, but that doesn’t mean it is perfect. NVIDIA’s drivers are notoriously finicky, especially when you want to use more advanced features like DLSS or Frame Generation.
After one too many times fighting with a configuration file, I decided to try a third-party alternative instead.
NVIDIA’s graphics drivers on Linux, which include Frame Generation and DLSS, have improved dramatically over the last few years. A lot of the credit goes to Valve for their work on Proton—without it, Frame Generation wouldn’t be possible on Linux at all.
However, despite the significant improvements, Frame Generation (and DLSS) on Linux is still unreliable. Sometimes, after an update to Proton or your NVIDIA drivers, the option to enable Frame Gen disappears completely. On a handful of occasions, I’ve had to use experimental versions of Proton or track down specific flags to enable Frame Gen at all.
From pixelated polygons to ray-traced masterpieces — how well do you know the tech powering PC gaming’s visual evolution?
Which graphics API did Microsoft introduce with Windows 95 to replace its earlier WinG library and become the dominant PC gaming standard through the early 2000s?
In real-time 3D rendering, what technique simulates the appearance of complex surface detail by manipulating how light interacts with a texture, without adding actual geometry?
Which game engine, originally developed for the 1998 shooter ‘Half-Life,’ was later updated to power ‘Half-Life 2’ in 2004 and became widely licensed by indie and mid-tier developers?
NVIDIA’s GeForce 256, released in 1999, was marketed as the world’s first GPU. What key rendering task did it move from the CPU to dedicated on-card hardware for the first time?
Ray tracing simulates realistic lighting by tracing paths of light rays. What was the primary reason real-time ray tracing was considered impractical for games before NVIDIA’s Turing (RTX 20-series) architecture in 2018?
When you enable 16x Anisotropic Filtering in a PC game’s graphics settings, what specific visual problem does it primarily correct?
Which rendering technique, popularized by games like ‘Crysis’ (2007) and later widely adopted, calculates how much ambient light reaches a surface point based on surrounding geometry to create realistic soft shadowing in crevices and corners?
Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5, released in 2022, introduced two headline rendering technologies. ‘Lumen’ handles dynamic global illumination, but what is the name of the system that streams in near-infinite geometric detail using micropolygons instead of traditional LOD meshes?
Even when you can enable it, you’ll find a lot of complaints about wildly inconsistent frame rates, jittery or distorted interfaces, or performance far below what you’d get on Windows.
That problem is exacerbated by the fact that not all RTX cards can use every version of DLSS or Frame Gen. What works for someone with an RTX 2070 might be different from someone that is using an RTX 5070 Ti.
Those inconsistencies ultimately led me to look for something more reliable.
The Asus Prime RTX 5070 Ti GPU is a powerful graphics card capable of playing games at 1440p to 4K. It comes with 16GB VRAM across a 256-bit memory bus.
Lossless Scaling is a popular Windows application that brings frame generation and upscaling to almost any PC—no modern GPU with hardware support for AI features required. I use it on my laptop all the time, and it can often turn an unplayable game into a decent one.
There is only one major snag for Linux users: Lossless Scaling is only for Windows.
That is where lsfg-vk comes in. Lsfg-vk relies on the frame generation algorithm included with Lossless Scaling, but it hooks into the Vulkan API to add interpolated frames. That sounds limiting, since many games—especially older ones—rely on DirectX rather than Vulkan.
However, Proton includes two translation layers (DXVK and VKD3D) that automatically convert DirectX API calls into Vulkan calls. That means you can use frame generation with almost any Windows game on Linux, even games that don’t natively use Vulkan.
Lossless Scaling is a cheap Steam app that can make games feel smoother by adding frame generation and can also improve image quality or performance with upscaling. It works with a wide range of hardware and even helps in games that don’t have built-in DLSS, FSR, or frame generation support.
Lsfg-vk shares another thing with Lossless Scaling: it runs on almost any modern hardware.
The only strict requirement is that the GPU needs to support Vulkan 1.3, but that is pretty easy to meet. Vulkan 1.3 has been around since 2022. If you have a GPU made in the last 10 years, it is very likely that lsfg-vk will work for you.
Besides that, lsfg-vk isn’t too picky about your GPU manufacturer—it’ll run on AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel without a problem. I use it on both my laptop (which has an AMD integrated GPU) and my desktop, which has an RTX 5070 Ti in it.
In general, AMD GPUs tend to get the biggest performance increase, since lsfg-vk has a specific option (allow_fp16) that AMD cards benefit from, while NVIDIA cards and Intel cards don’t.
Lsfg-vk also works on any x86-based handheld gaming platform, which includes Asus’s ROG Ally lineup, the Steam Deck, and Lenovo’s Legion Go. It has become so popular that there is a dedicated Decky plugin that makes installing and using lsfg-vk easier on Steam Decks.
Not every game is a great candidate for frame generation on a handheld, but it can dramatically improve your performance in some titles. If you’re struggling to get the performance you want, I’d certainly recommend that you try it.
Lsfg-vk isn’t quite a one-click setup, but it is pretty straight-forward. First, you need to have Lossless Scaling on Steam. Lsfg-vk relies on some of Lossless Scaling’s assets to work.
Once you have Lossless Scaling installed, there are some assets you might need to download in advance. I’m using Kubuntu, which is based on Ubuntu, so I ran:
If you’re running a distro based on Arch or Fedora (like Bazzite), the commands you need to use will be different.
With those installed, all you need to do is download the latest stable version of lsfg-vk from GitHub and run the installer using the following command:
If you’re using Fedora or Arch, you’ll need to use DNF or Pacman respectively.
Then you’ll be able to launch lsfg-vk from whichever application launcher your distro uses. I’d recommend creating a profile for each game you’re going to be playing, since not every game is an ideal candidate for frame generation.
The developer has provided a comprehensive explanation of what each profile setting does and how it will affect your gameplay.
Gaming on Linux still isn’t perfect, but software like lsfg-vk and Proton are rapidly closing the gap with Windows. Some games now even run *better* on Linux—something that was unthinkable 10 years ago.
For everything that doesn’t, lsfg-vk is a great way to eke out some extra frames in the meantime.