DLSS 4.5 is out now, and whereas earlier new variations of Nvidia’s performance-massaging upscaler would have required ready round for recreation implementation – past the inevitable Cyberpunk 2077 debut, anyway – it follows more moderen additions in letting you impose it upon current video games from the off. That’s performed by way of the Nvidia App and its DLSS Override instruments, which following an replace on January 14th, is tooled up with what model 4.5 guarantees to be tangible visible enhancements.
I’ve been testing it, each on this public Nvidia App launch and on a pre-release beta construct, and DLSS 4.5 can certainly ship on the correct settings. Nevertheless it’s additionally extra of a specialised device than DLSS 4, and though backwards compatibility is welcome, it’s offered with an opaque naming system that has as a lot in widespread with algebra because it does with upscaling.
Happier phrases are coming, trustworthy, but it surely’s price operating by means of how DLSS 4.5 overrides work, each in case you need to attempt it your self and if Nvidia find yourself additional increasing the system within the face of competitors from AMD FSR Redstone. Open the app’s Graphics part and for every of your put in PC video games, you will have the choice to custom-set a Tremendous Decision (i.e. upscaling) preset. These every symbolize totally different variations and sub-versions of DLSS, additionally referred to as fashions, a lot of that are optimised for very particular circumstances. Circumstances like, say, the mixture of a specific native monitor decision and a specific DLSS high quality mode setting (High quality, Balanced, Efficiency and so forth.).
All nicely and good – you’ve bought choices to fit your setup. However as a result of fashions/presets are solely named alphabetically, with no offered description of when greatest to use them, they’ll be incomprehensible to the uninitiated. For instance, Mannequin B (referred to as ‘Preset B’ within the app, however I’m sticking with the ‘Mannequin’ naming Nvidia use all over the place else) is particularly tuned for DLSS’ Extremely Efficiency mode, however that isn’t communicated anyplace within the app. Neither is the truth that to truly interact DLSS 4.5, which is constructed round an upgraded ‘Transformer’ upscaler launched in DLSS 4, you’ll be able to solely select from Mannequin L or Mannequin M.
The excellent news, which I can share now that I’ve spent most likely far too lengthy making an attempt to do a Rosetta Stone on what all these fashions are, is that in 2026 you solely really want to concern your self with 4 of them – no matter your decision or graphics playing cards. Offered it’s an RTX GPU, anyway. That’s nonetheless essential.
DLSS override presets defined
Since most presets/fashions will activate outdated DLSS variations, the 4 you need to be sticking to are Mannequin J, Mannequin Ok, Mannequin L, and Mannequin M. J and Ok pull from the DLSS 4 toybox of unpolluted first-gen Transformer upscaling, whereas L and M use DLSS 4.5 and its enhanced movement dealing with and sharpness. All of them differ barely inside their model numbers, although:
Mannequin J is, virtually talking, DLSS 4 because it initially launched, together with the primary model of the Transformer tech that reveals off larger element copy and fewer ghosting than DLSS 3’s Convolutional Neural Community (CNN) mannequin.
Mannequin Ok is extraordinarily much like Mannequin J on each appears and efficiency, although it may possibly do a greater of tidily upscaling in-game vegetation (bushes and the like) with out the creation of ugly visible artifacts.
Mannequin L provides DLSS 4.5’s anti-aliasing enhancements, however is particularly optimised for operating DLSS in Extremely Efficiency mode whereas taking part in at 4K.
Mannequin M, is, subsequently, a extra generalist DLSS 4.5 possibility. It’s nonetheless meant to work particularly nicely in Efficiency mode, however Balanced, High quality, and native DLAA ought to all be good matches as nicely.
Fashions L and M additionally depend on Nvidia’s FP8 datatype, which RTX 50 and 40 graphics playing cards can converse in fluently – in contrast to RTX 30 and RTX 20, which on paper, gained’t see the identical stage of efficiency beneficial properties because of this.
Hopefully that every one is sensible? Or at the least extra sense than the Nvidia App makes. Wouldn’t be exhausting.
DLSS 4.5 visuals and efficiency testing
Now that what precisely you’d be enabling with DLSS overrides, we are able to flip our consideration to how DLSS 4.5 performs – and the way it polishes up the earlier model. For testing functions, I’ve caught to Mannequin Ok within the DLSS 4 nook (because it’s roughly simply an enhanced Mannequin J) and Mannequin M for DLSS 4.5, because it’s ostensibly extra versatile than Mannequin L.
Predictably, Cyberpunk 2077 serves to indicate the picture high quality adjustments in motion. To not overstate them, thoughts. As we see right here, operating on an RTX 5080 at 1440p (together with Efficiency-level upscaling), there’s actually not a lot in it at a look. Each Mannequin Ok and Mannequin M look crisp and freed from errors:
Nonetheless, a better look confirms that DLSS 4.5 and Mannequin M’s anti-aliasing have the, when you’ll pardon the phrase alternative, edge. Each curved and straight traces look barely much less jagged on the newer upscaler, and really effective particulars aren’t as clearly pixellated, as this little bush demonstrates.
Mannequin M can be extra of a dab hand at lowering ghosting and different flavours of movement-induced wonkiness. Right here’s one other zoomed-in comparability of photographs taken whereas strafing to the correct – on the older Mannequin Ok, there’s a little bit of pixelly warping across the left fringe of the gun, most visibly the place it overlaps with the fence. Mannequin M leaves a lot much less of a visual path.
Perhaps, contemplating the quantity of zoom-and-enhancing occurring on this article, DLSS 4.5 will not be the head-turning improve that FSR Redstone was over FSR 3. However then, it by no means claimed to be, and the enhancements it does make over DLSS 4 are worthwhile, particularly on quicker modes like Efficiency.
Why, then, name it extra of a specialised device than a direct, obsolescence-inducing alternative? The reply lies in efficiency – which is, keep in mind, all the purpose why recreation upscalers to exist within the first place. And constantly, DLSS 4.5 is slower than DLSS 4.
On some {hardware} configurations, this is probably not a lot of a difficulty. Even in a recreation as demanding as STALKER 2: Coronary heart of Chornobyl, switching from Mannequin Ok to Mannequin M barely price our RTX 5080 any frames; Efficiency mode particularly solely misplaced a single frame-per-second on common. Cyberpunk 2077 noticed a much bigger dip on High quality mode, albeit when the RTX 5080 was nonetheless dispensing sufficient frames that you simply most likely couldn’t see the distinction.
In different phrases, you may be effective when you’re already operating a GeForce GPU that’s each a) highly effective and b) new sufficient to have native FP8 help. Once I tried an RTX 3080, then again, Mannequin M’s efficiency dips turned a lot simpler to journey into.
Once more, it appears to be High quality mode that suffers most, dropping about 10% common frames in STALKER 2 and practically 20% in Cyberpunk 2077. With the latter, that’s simply sufficient for a skilled eye – belonging to somebody who owns a 100Hz-plus refresh charge monitor – to identify the downgrade. Efficiency mode is shut sufficient in STALKER 2, however once more, a 20fps-ish fall in Cyberpunk 2077 reveals the price of making an attempt to assert DLSS 4.5’s high quality beneficial properties on older {hardware}.
That mentioned, Efficiency mode particularly does profit significantly on Mannequin M, so when you’ve beforehand been keen to drop that far down the upscaling high quality tiers… y’know what, yeah, I’d say give DLSS 4.5 a go anyway. With Balanced or High quality, the visible variations are naturally going to be tougher to identify, thus making the efficiency price tougher to justify. Until you’re fortunate sufficient to be wielding a monster card just like the RTX 5080, in fact.
Nonetheless, I don’t need to sound down on DLSS 4.5 for being a extra situational step ahead than DLSS 4. Graphics tech is notoriously fast-moving and I’d a lot slightly see smaller but (partially) hardware-agnostic updates arriving extra usually, versus the obvious different of larger revamps solely coming as soon as each two years. Normally with all the very best options locked to a brand new, costlier household of GPUs. Mannequin M additionally appears ok that newer PCs ought to completely give it a crack.
All the identical, if Nvidia are going to provide us the liberty slap newer DLSS variations on older video games, I don’t assume it’s an excessive amount of to additionally ask that they be labelled, defined, or in any other case provided in additional accessible phrases. Between upscaling, ray tracing, path tracing, and about 9 various kinds of body technology, PC gamers have sufficient graphical variables to think about with out additionally needing to study a listing of mannequin codenames.
