Choose your DLSS profiles wisely
NVIDIA’s DLSS 4.5 rollout is turning a quiet driver-level toggle into a small mess of letters, and early testing suggests those letters can swing both performance and VRAM use depending on the GPU generation.
There are Reddit threads that focus on “DLSS Override” controls inside the NVIDIA App beta, where users can force DLSS Super Resolution model presets per game. The short version: “Latest” now forces preset M , and that is not the same thing as “set and forget” for every DLSS mode. This may not be desired setting by some users.
Based on the DLSS Programming Guide notes being circulated, preset behavior is now split by mode:
- Preset K : default for DLAA, Quality, Balanced , lower overhead than the new presets
- Preset M : default for Performance , similar artifact fixes to L with less cost than L
- Preset L : default for Ultra Performance , tuned for heavy upscaling scenarios (often discussed as 4K Ultra Performance)
- Preset J : close to K, with tradeoffs (less ghosting in some cases, more flicker risk)
That mapping is what drives the main warning: forcing “Latest” can push M into DLAA or Quality, even when the game would normally run K. to gamers who tested new profiles, selecting Latest inside “DLSS Override – Model Presets” forces preset M , and it does not automatically follow the in-game DLSS mode selection.
Source: Reddit
There are two ways to set up DLSS 4.5 overrides correctly in the NVIDIA App now. The manual method is to match the preset letter to the DLSS mode you plan to use in game: set Preset K for DLAA, Quality, and Balanced, set Preset M for Performance, and set Preset L for Ultra Performance. This keeps the override aligned with how the presets are intended to be used, and avoids forcing a heavier model into modes where he may not want the extra cost.
The second method is to leave DLSS Override, Model Presets on Latest, then set DLSS Override, Super Resolution Mode in the NVIDIA App to the exact DLSS mode you want (DLAA, Quality, Balanced, Performance, Ultra Performance). That combination applies the matching K, M, or L preset automatically, but it also locks DLSS selection at the app level, so changing DLSS settings inside the game will not do anything until he changes the override again.
Why is this important? It’s because RTX 20/30 cards may see a big performance hit if they’re using the wrong profiles.
A Cyberpunk 2077 test shared by a Redditor on RTX 2070 Super owner reported Preset K at 90 fps, Preset M at 62 fps, and Preset L at 55 fps, with DLSS mode held constant for the comparison. Another RTX 3060 owner testing DLAA reported 56 fps with no AA, 52 fps on preset K, and 38 fps on presets L or M, again reinforcing that the newer presets can cost a lot on older hardware. On newer cards, the spread looks a lot smaller.
DLSS 4.5 execution time and VRAM tables
NVIDIA has updated DLSS Programming Guide with new data on how RTX 20, 30, 40 and 50 work with new profiles. NVIDIA’s estimates show why RTX 20 and RTX 30 owners are reporting steep drops when forcing M or L.
Source: NVIDIA
Source: NVIDIA
Why RTX 20 and RTX 30 are getting hit harder
One explanation is hardware support for lower-precision math. NVIDIA guide points to FP8 support on newer architectures as a reason RTX 40 and RTX 50 can run the new transformer-based model with a smaller penalty, while RTX 20 and RTX 30 pay more in both compute and VRAM reservation when forcing M or L.
So while RTX 20/30 users see 20%+ performance loss with DLSS 4.5 profiles, RTX 50 series should see 2-3% impact, according to NVIDIA’s Jacob Freeman:
It uses 5x more compute. On RTX 50 its around a 2-3% performance hit, but the image quality benefits is massive.
— Jacob Freeman (@GeForce_JacobF) January 6, 2026
NVIDIA is shipping this through an NVIDIA App beta path right now. So make sure you have the correct profile selected.
Source: NVIDIA DLSS Programming Guide (Github) , frostNOVA (Reddit) , Wulfric05 (Reddit) , ayh300 (Reddit) , Mostly Positive Reviews (X)
