Enthusiasts have found a way to radically reduce the performance hit from neural rendering of DLSS 5. An experimental fork of OptiScaler moves neural network processing to the stage before upscaling, which reduces frame loss by about half.
In recent weeks, modders have been actively experimenting with new NVIDIA technology. There are already solutions that run DLSS 5 Neural Rendering on older graphics cards, as well as workarounds for load optimization.
Neural rendering noticeably improves lighting, shadows, and other visual elements, but it brings even the RTX 5090 to its knees.
In basic mode, neural rendering is applied after the frame has been generated and passed through DLSS Super Resolution. A fork called OptiScaler-DLSSNR-PreSR-Multipass changes the order of operations and runs the neural network before upscaling.
According to the description in the release notes, the model processes the image in its original low resolution. For example, a 1920×1080 frame using 4K DLSS Performance mode, and then DLSS stretches the result to the target resolution. A similar operating principle is used in DLSS 5 Autopilot.
The effect is achieved due to the fact that the neural network no longer needs to calculate a full-size frame in 4K. Reddit user under the name Sad-Victory-8319 tested the approach on the RTX 5070 Ti in Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy and called the result a dramatic change.
Without neural rendering, the game ran around 180fps at 4K with DLSS Performance. After enabling DLSS 5, the frame rate dropped to 80, that is, the loss was about 56%.
After setting up the experimental fork to work until the upscaling stage, the performance penalty was reduced to 25-30%, and the counter already showed about 122 frames per second. The tester said that the picture quality suffered only slightly, and he prefers this exchange for the sake of smoothness.
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The comments noted that the visual differences with the new scheme are still noticeable, and for some users this may be an unacceptable compromise. It is worth remembering that the mod remains an experimental and unofficial solution not supported by NVIDIA.
