DLSS 4.5 Delivers Cleaner Reflections Without In-Game Denoisers, Testing Shows

We expect NVIDIA to roll out DLSS Dynamic Multi-Frame in April, but new testing already highlights surprising DLSS behavior in real games.

As reported by VideoCardz, Digital Foundry discovered unexpected image quality improvements in NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution.

Preset M and Preset L produced cleaner ray-traced reflections when testers disabled a game’s built-in denoisers.

Unusual DLSS 4.5 behavior results in Crysis 3 and Silent Hill 2

In tests with Crysis 3 and Silent Hill 2, turning off native denoising reduced reflection boiling and blur. Reflections appeared more stable and noticeably sharper, especially during motion-heavy scenes.

Ray-traced effects begin with sparse samples, which forces games to rely on denoisers to control noise and temporal instability. These filters often soften fine detail and can smear reflections, leading to blur and instability in fast-moving scenes.

DLSS Ray Reconstruction is not involved

This behavior does not involve DLSS Ray Reconstruction, which NVIDIA introduced with DLSS 3.5 as an AI-based denoiser replacement.

Digital Foundry notes that Ray Reconstruction has not yet been updated for the newer DLSS 4.5 model, meaning the results come purely from DLSS Super Resolution.

The findings suggest DLSS 4.5 can act as a stronger denoiser than some in-game solutions. However, conflicts appear when games apply standard denoising before DLSS Preset M or L, which can reduce overall image quality.

This behavior complicates plug-and-play use. Achieving the best image quality may require disabling in-game denoisers, which often means tweaking settings or modding games. That extra step reduces accessibility for average players.

NVIDIA allows users to test this behavior through the NVIDIA app using “DLSS Override – Model Preset,” either globally or per game.

NVIDIA’s recommended mappings are:

• Preset M for DLSS Performance
• Preset L for DLSS Ultra Performance
• Preset K for all remaining DLSS modes

In other NVIDIA news, reports indicate delays for RTX 50 SUPER GPUs. Separate rumors suggest NVIDIA could cut RTX 50 series supply by up to 40 percent in the Chinese market, potentially tightening availability further.