VR Tech Gives DLSS 5 a Big Performance Boost on Ultrawide Monitors

A technology mostly associated with virtual reality is helping improve DLSS 5 performance on ultrawide monitors, VideoCardz reports.

A third-party modder has introduced Foveated Rendering into the DLSS 5 neural rendering pipeline, boosting performance of the generative filter technology by up to 60% in some cases.

Foveated rendering (Emphasis on the FOV) is a rendering technique that saves GPU resources by rendering only at maximum resolution within the player’s field of view. Taking advantage of the way the human eye processes information, cutting the resolution in the periphery is almost indistinguishable. Without eye tracking, this technique is less effective, but withultrawide monitors, where you mostly look at the middle anyway, it might well be a viable solution to DLSS 5 performance issues. While they have improved dramatically since Nvidia first unveiled the technology earlier this year, any help is much appreciated, especially on older hardware.

Developed by modder maximedgoulet, the FoveatedDLSS5 openders the game at maximum resolution in the center, but gradually reduces it as you move toward the edges of the screen. Not for the player, but for the DLSS5 AI model that’s performing the overhaul

(Credit: maximedgoulet via GitHub)

That means the player’s native rendering of the game remains unchanged, but the AI model uses less information for its lighting and coloring pass, allowing it to run much faster by placing less demand on the GPU. In a cited example, the developer said they were able to improve performance in The Witcher 3 using an RTX 4090 by up to 63%. The game ran at 49fps with DLSS 5 previously applied, and up to 80fps average with the FoveatedDLSS5 modification.

Although there is a perceived quality drop around the periphery in the final rendered image, the modder says it’s very hard to spot, making this a potentially worthwhile addition to the mod stack you’re running if you’re playing around with DLSS 5 outside of the officially supported games.

This mod may be particularly useful for those experimenting with older, unsupported graphics cards that support DLSS 5. Although Nvidia has only sanctioned it for use in a handful of games with its latest RTX 50-series GPUs, it runs well enough through mods for almost any game and on almost any card. There are mods that support RTX 40- and 30-series cards, as well as some of the latest AMD GPUs.