DLSS 4.5 to reduce ray tracing artifacts in early access

At Gamescom, the image behind the image is getting a new tool: Nvidia is distributing DLSS 4.5 through an update to the Nvidia app. The new Ray Reconstruction model is designed to significantly reduce ghosting, blur and “boiling” in ray-traced games, without significantly affecting the frame rate. It initially appears as “Preset F” in Early Access.

Ray Reconstruction is an AI denoiser for games with intensive ray tracing. The graphics card calculates light using individual rays, but cannot fully capture every pixel in real time. The initially incomplete, noisy image is then reconstructed. DLSS 4.5 replaces conventional methods with a model that analyzes spatial and temporal image data from the game engine.

The difference is most noticeable where ray tracing is used particularly aggressively. According to the reports available, comparison videos of the new and old models show fewer typical artifacts; “Cyberpunk 2077” and “Alan Wake 2” are mentioned in particular. A preview version had already circulated via a DLL file from “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4” and was subsequently used in other ray-traced games as well.

What’s next? Anyone with a GeForce RTX graphics card who uses one of the currently 30 supported games can try out the image quality now instead of waiting for a new game or graphics card. This requires GeForce Game Ready Driver 580.88 or newer and registration for Early Access versions.

For now, the move remains a test run: Nvidia is initially making the model available only through Early Access. The finished version is due to arrive in September. Until then, its practical reach is limited to the supported games and Nvidia’s RTX hardware.