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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hopes to compress textures “by another 5X” in bid to cut down game file sizes

AI texture compression will be much more powerful, but it won’t be handled driver-side
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hopes to compress textures “by another 5X” in bid to cut down game file sizes
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While the highlight of Jensen Huang’s CES 2025 keynote for PC gamers was undoubtedly the RTX 50 series, there were also noteworthy mentions of advancements in AI. Alongside the introduction of DLSS 4 and other gaming improvements, there’s another thing to talk about that may have gone under your radar: texture compression. This technique reduces the size of textures to conserve memory, bandwidth, and file sizes – and it’s seeing significant acceleration thanks to AI.

During a spontaneous Q&A session hosted by Huang at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Las Vegas, Venturebeat managed to inquire about the anticipated changes in texture compression. Huang responded, clarifying how AI will streamline and enhance this process.

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“You could compress textures a lot better today than the algorithms than we've been using for the last 30 years. The compression ratio can be dramatically increased. The size of games is so large these days. When we can compress those textures by another 5X, that's a big deal.”

Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO & Co-founder

For the average PC gamer, the biggest takeaway from this is Huang’s claim that neural networks could enable an additional 5x reduction in texture file sizes. With modern games increasingly consuming excessive storage space, this is exactly what we’ve needed. NVIDIA plans to achieve this dramatic increase in compression ratios by introducing a new shader processor in Blackwell GPUs. This processor can run neural networks alongside traditional shader code. Since traditional shaders cannot process AI-based algorithms, enabling neural networks within the shader pipeline will allow for more efficient compression.

Developers will specifically need to adopt these features

Another area where Huang shed light was whether features like AI texture compression or RTX Neural Materials would require specific adoption by developers, or if they could be implemented at the driver level to benefit a broader range of games.

“Next, materials. The way light travels across a material, its anisotropic properties, cause it to reflect light in a way that indicates whether it's gold paint or gold. The way that light reflects and refracts across their microscopic, atomic structure causes materials to have those properties. Describing that mathematically is very difficult, but we can learn it using an AI. Neural materials is going to be completely ground-breaking. It will bring a vibrancy and a lifelike-ness to computer graphics. Both of these require content-side work. It's content, obviously. Developers will have to develop their content in that way, and then they can incorporate these things.”

Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO & Co-founder

A good way to understand Huang’s statement is through another response he gave during the Q&A about a future without traditionally rendered frames. Huang’s perspective on this was intriguing, as he firmly believes that such a future is not only unimaginable but also impossible. Using frame generation as an example, Huang explained that generating AI frames requires context – specifically, the rendered frame. Context is crucial in video games, not just in terms of storytelling but also spatial relevance. This includes elements like early pieces of geometry or textures that are foundational to the game’s environment.

The same principle applies to features like texture compression and RTX Neural Materials. Developers must provide the relevant context and design their content to take full advantage of these AI-powered features. Only then can these innovations be effectively integrated into their projects. Huang’s technical expertise in AI is undeniably impressive. What we’ve seen with DLSS 4, not just in the RTX 50 series but across all RTX cards, highlights that this AI-driven future holds immense potential.


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About the Author

Hassam boasts over seven years of professional experience as a dedicated PC hardware reviewer and writer.