Nvidia DLSS 4 at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p: Which Preset is Right for You?

[Scorpus]

Is DLSS 4 Quality mode still the best choice? We put all three presets to the test at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p to see how Balanced and Performance modes stack up. The results may surprise you.

Read the full article here.

Nvidia DLSS 4 at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p: Which Preset is Right for You?

 

[ScottSoapbox]

This raises the question of 4K with more upscaling vs 1440p less.

4K performance is upscaling from 1080p while 1440p quality is upscaling from 960p.

More permutations to try finding the optimal settings in games now that Quality isn’t the automatic go-to.

 

[godrilla]

I prefer 4k dlaa due to my ppi being low on a 48 inch 4k oled. Some at Techpowerup's forums swear that dldsr 8k performance is even better.
For me 4k dlaa with fg> is better than 4k dlss quality without frame gen currently in single player games.
Dlss came a long way but once in a blue moon I still see some glitches that goes way after restarting the game.
I just bought the Lossless scaling app that fell to $4.17 via Steam Summer sale. Going to try the adaptive frame gen and maybe improved latency from secondary gpu to see the delta benefits.

 

[Thatsdisgusting]

Why test presets when you can set custom percentage almost in any game now?

And what about intermediate resolutions, like ultrawide 4K, 1440p and 1080p? Cause from dlss perspective, those have more pixels to work with, so sweetspot shifts up or down, it doesn't care about equal dpi between ultrawide and wide counterpart.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Nvidia DLSS 4 at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p: Which present is Right for You?

None.

 

[fireworksordie]

I saw huge jumps in fps using Performance DLSS in Doom: Dark Ages, and really without any quality degradation at 4k. I turned on 2x framegen and could notice a few things, but mostly seemed fine. This was with a 4070Ti/5600X3D. I went from about 35 fps highest settings to about 120.

 

[kira setsu]

I saw huge jumps in fps using Performance DLSS in Doom: Dark Ages, and really without any quality degradation at 4k. I turned on 2x framegen and could notice a few things, but mostly seemed fine. This was with a 4070Ti/5600X3D. I went from about 35 fps highest settings to about 120.

Whenever I've used framegen I see obvious issues, all those fake frames seem to create strange objects sometimes, at 4k I just use dlss performance for some games and let my 4080-13900 combo just push what frames they can, but my tv can only hit 144fps max and a solid 60 is still perfectly fine for me also.

imho framegen comes in handy for RT heavy games like alan wake 2 or star wars outlaws, raster then dlss itself can get the job done.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Why test presets when you can set custom percentage almost in any game now?

Because that would be a nightmare to test. Tim tested 6 standard presets times multiple games for comparison. But nothing is stopping you from pixel peeping every single custom percentage if you want.

And what about intermediate resolutions, like ultrawide 4K, 1440p and 1080p? Cause from dlss perspective, those have more pixels to work with, so sweetspot shifts up or down, it doesn't care about equal dpi between ultrawide and wide counterpart.

Not really. Upscaling is -as you point out- based on a percentage of the original image. Adding ~30% pixels to the original but also stretching it ~30% more is going to be a minimal change.

 

[EvilRebar]

As I play with path tracing, I’m shocked at how good DLSS4 balanced + frame gen looks. I’m very sensitive to motion blur, and getting 120+ FPS with max settings is fantastic.

3440x1440 really feels like a sweet spot for resolution.

 

[EvilRebar]

Whenever I've used framegen I see obvious issues, all those fake frames seem to create strange objects sometimes, at 4k I just use dlss performance for some games and let my 4080-13900 combo just push what frames they can, but my tv can only hit 144fps max and a solid 60 is still perfectly fine for me also.

imho framegen comes in handy for RT heavy games like alan wake 2 or star wars outlaws, raster then dlss itself can get the job done.

I find that any artifacts pale in comparison to the general motion blur of running at something like 60FPS. Isolated issues versus everything looking bad.

 

[EvilRebar]

I prefer 4k dlaa due to my ppi being low on a 48 inch 4k oled. Some at Techpowerup's forums swear that dldsr 8k performance is even better.
For me 4k dlaa with fg> is better than 4k dlss quality without frame gen currently in single player games.
Dlss came a long way but once in a blue moon I still see some glitches that goes way after restarting the game.
I just bought the Lossless scaling app that fell to $4.17 via Steam Summer sale. Going to try the adaptive frame gen and maybe improved latency from secondary gpu to see the delta benefits.

If you don’t like artifacts, you just wasted $4.17.

 

[EvilRebar]

This raises the question of 4K with more upscaling vs 1440p less.

4K performance is upscaling from 1080p while 1440p quality is upscaling from 960p.

More permutations to try finding the optimal settings in games now that Quality isn’t the automatic go-to.

Until we get super-rez screens that are resolution agnostic, there’s no scenario where non-integer scaling is the optimal IQ.

 

[godrilla]

If you don’t like artifacts, you just wasted $4.17.

Next tear up is a $10,000 entertainment system wasted on just the gpu ( the foreshadowing is real) . I'll take my chances. We quickly forget how dlss started. Besides you can still use transformer model with Lossless scaling.
If anything the $4 app is has superior features as mentioned before adaptive frame generation and secondary gpu to improve latency.
Question what happened to reflex 2.0? Hmm?

 

[EvilRebar]

Next tear up is a $10,000 entertainment system wasted on just the gpu ( the foreshadowing is real) . I'll take my chances. We quickly forget how dlss started. Besides you can still use transformer model with Lossless scaling.
If anything the $4 app is has superior features as mentioned before adaptive frame generation and secondary gpu to improve latency.
Question what happened to reflex 2.0? Hmm?

Supposedly you care about IQ, so features aren't going to uncover it. The Digital Foundary review makes it pretty clear that Lossless Scaling is a gimmick.

 

[godrilla]

Supposedly you care about IQ, so features aren't going to uncover it. The Digital Foundary review makes it pretty clear that Lossless Scaling is a gimmick.

With the landscape of journalist integrity on the line and many outcries on team green's manipulation on journalist favoritism and some like threat interactive yt channel against digital foundries bias.
Digital Foundaries loves the status quo!
I rather experience it for myself instead of a paid journalism blowing smoke up my arse!

 

[redgarl]

In the meantime, DLSS Quality at 2160p, look worst than native 1440p, and perform worst.

Upscaling is the biggest scam ever made by Nvidia. You are better to scale down your resolution than using it!

The only place that upscaling will start make sense will be 4320p Quality Upscaling. Don't bother me with anything else.

 

[redgarl]

As I play with path tracing, I’m shocked at how good DLSS4 balanced + frame gen looks. I’m very sensitive to motion blur, and getting 120+ FPS with max settings is fantastic.

3440x1440 really feels like a sweet spot for resolution.

That's because you are blind.

Cyberpunk is looking better at native without RT than with RT + FG + Upscaling. The downgrade in image fidelity for using FG and Upscaling is more important than RT provide alone...

 

[EvilRebar]

In the meantime, DLSS Quality at 2160p, look worst than native 1440p, and perform worst.

Upscaling is the biggest scam ever made by Nvidia. You are better to scale down your resolution than using it!

The only place that upscaling will start make sense will be 4320p Quality Upscaling. Don't bother me with anything else.

It's fascinating how your perceptions don't match the vast majority of gamers and reviewers. Have you...used DLSS recently?

The trick is that you need to claim something plausible not that rendering non-integer looks better than quality upscaling.

 

[EvilRebar]

With the landscape of journalist integrity on the line and many outcries on team green's manipulation on journalist favoritism and some like threat interactive yt channel against digital foundries bias.
Digital Foundaries loves the status quo!
I rather experience it for myself instead of a paid journalism blowing smoke up my arse!

Threat interactive is a scam with questionable understanding of GPU tech which is trying to convert nerd anger into donations for their vaporware.

Feel free to report back with your empirical findings.

 

[amghwk]

To tell the truth, not much difference with all modes. And especially so when you're fast moving around. Are you playing or stop and looking at every minute texture everywhere?

Just choose any mode that keep pace with at least 60fps minimum 1% at the highest resolution your card can manage.

 

[Kris19]

Frame generation 4 is far better than frame generation 2, 120 frames VS 300 in say dark tide
FG2 is horrible in say MW CLANS
Everything is significantly game dependent
Haven't seen XESS workout
Basic rule of thumb for 4090 and 5090 4k is DLSS quality at default sharpness
If heaps of artificacts FG off
Then just upping the sharpness and seeing if that generates artifacts which it did for Stella blade (but that runs at say 300 frames anyway)
Doom tDA looked garbage without DLSS
4k dlss and then adjusting for framerate was far better than reducing resolution
Same with spacemarine 2
Played lies of P on a 5090 and the frame dips were insane until I forced dlss within the nvidia app, now I have to test Jedi S or other games with forced dlss and look at the frames for that.
Such a mixed bag across different games.
Really miss the days when things looked good at your selected resolution rather than this dlss stuff.
Dlss seems to have made pc gaming for console gamers, just dump it on with a little fiddling.
I love brand new games coming out and having to use quality with a 4090 or 5090. Seems stupid and lazy.
But that's what most devs are doing.
Hopefully we get actual optimisation in the future but I doubt it.

 

[godrilla]

Threat interactive is a scam with questionable understanding of GPU tech which is trying to convert nerd anger into donations for their vaporware.

Feel free to report back with your empirical findings.

Everything is a scam except mega corporate sponsored content got it. Threat interactive is actually making their own game so let's see how your comments will age. Let folks decide scam or a voice for gamers frustration with the brute forced status quo to video game development. New video just dropped.

I donated $5 for their cause to trigger the trolls.