- A user has benchmarked some games and concluded that DLSS 4.5 leads to performance loss.
- In 4K gaming with DLAA, DLSS 4.5 showed a 20-30% performance drop on the RTX 5070 Ti.
- They even witnessed a few graphical glitches that weren’t present with the older model.
Nvidia announced its latest generation of upscaling technology, DLSS 4.5, at CES 2025. It is now available on all RTX cards, even older generations. However, testing shows that the glaring issues with it can’t be ignored.
A user has benchmarked a couple of games using both DLSS 4 and DLSS 4.5, and no, the tech isn’t free; it comes at a 20-30% performance hit, at least on the RTX 5070 Ti.
Why it matters: The visual quality with DLSS has now reached a point where it doesn’t feel like you are compromising on anything, but based on the performance loss, it’ll ultimately depend on the user’s preference.
A Reddit user tested Nvidia’s latest tech on their RTX 5070 Ti with Horizon games and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, both on 4K with maximum visual fidelity, and the results are surprising. DLSS 4 showed better performance than DLSS 4.5.
In Horizon, using DLAA (DLSS 4), the game averaged 90 FPS, whereas with DLSS 4.5, it dropped to 67 FPS. The trend was similar across DLSS modes like Quality, Balanced, and Performance, with DLSS 4 performing much better.
Even in Final Fantasy, DLSS 4.5 showed over a 20-30% drop in performance, signalling an issue with the newer iteration. Only in Performance mode is the drop less prominent, but DLSS 4 still showed better results.
The user said they had some graphical glitches in Final Fantasy with DLSS 4.5, which were absent with DLSS 4. It could be due to the aggressive sharpening with the newer iteration, but overall, it’s underwhelming.
The Redditor recommends that if you use DLSS override in the Nvidia App, you should stick to “Custom K” in the global profile and use the “Latest” model in a select few circumstances when using the performance mode.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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