DLSS 4.5 Preset M significantly improves upon DLSS 4.0 Preset K by eliminating visual artifacts like banding, ghosting, and flickering, while enhancing motion handling, detail preservation, and image stability across various games. Although some minor issues remain, Preset M offers a cleaner, more stable, and visually pleasing experience, marking a notable advancement in NVIDIA’s DLSS technology.
The discussion centers around the improvements brought by NVIDIA’s DLSS 4.5 Preset M compared to the earlier DLSS 4.0 Preset K. Over the past year, the Preset K model exhibited several weaknesses, such as banding and ghosting effects in volumetric fog in games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Preset M addresses these issues effectively, eliminating both the banding lines and ghost shadows, resulting in a cleaner and more stable visual experience across multiple titles.
Another notable enhancement of Preset M is its improved handling of motion and detail. While Preset K showed better motion adaptation than previous CNN models, it sometimes produced pixelated patterns or “disocclusion fizzle” behind moving objects, such as Aloy’s gear in Horizon Forbidden West. Preset M smooths out these artifacts, preserving anti-aliasing and detail without the distracting pixelation. Similarly, in Cyberpunk 2077, Preset M fixes the issue of texture smearing near moving cars seen in Preset K, restoring normal texture clarity during fast movement.
Preset M also improves the rendering of thin and small objects, such as power lines in Forza Horizon 5, where Preset K caused ghosting lines behind these objects during motion. While Preset M does not completely eliminate aliasing in these cases, it removes the distracting ghosting, making the visuals less jarring. Additionally, rain effects in games like Death Stranding are better preserved with Preset M, showing more visible raindrops in the air compared to Preset K, although it still falls short of the clarity seen in fully super-sampled images.
Image stability is another area where Preset M excels. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Preset K suffered from flickering pixels and unstable edges in distant vegetation and building details, creating a distracting “fizzle” effect. Preset M significantly reduces this instability while sharpening the image, resulting in more consistent and visually pleasing scenes. This improvement is strong enough that the reviewer feels comfortable recommending playing older games like Miles Morales on PC with Preset M enabled.
Finally, Preset M offers better particle rendering at a distance, as demonstrated in The Outer Worlds 2, where particles appear fuller and less prone to disappearing or ghosting compared to Preset K. Despite these many improvements, some minor issues remain, particularly with rasterized elements, suggesting that while Preset M is a substantial step forward, further refinement is still possible in future DLSS iterations. Overall, DLSS 4.5 Preset M represents a meaningful evolution that addresses many of the previous generation’s shortcomings and enhances visual fidelity and stability across a range of games.