You boot up a heavy PC game, flip the DLSS slider to Quality, and assume you are getting Nvidia’s absolute best AI upscaling. But you aren’t. PC gamers who rely entirely on standard in-game menus are completely missing out on Nvidia’s second-generation DLSS 4.5 transformer model.
By default, picking the Quality or Balanced mode actually maps your graphics card to “Preset K”. That relies on the older first-generation transformer model introduced with the original DLSS 4 launch. Nvidia uses this older profile for high-resolution rendering because it preserves raw frame rates. But if you want to eliminate ghosting and lock in high-end temporal stability, you have to bypass the game menu entirely.
The Secret Inside the Nvidia App
To activate the true DLSS 4.5 enhancements, you have to dig into the software yourself. An XDA Developers review recently detailed the manual override process, revealing just how deeply Nvidia buried these options.
You need to open the official Nvidia App, navigate straight to Graphics, and open Global Settings. From there, find the DLSS Override – Model Presets option. Switch it to Custom. Finally, you can select Preset M. This is the flagship DLSS 4.5 model optimized for standard gameplay. If you run a high-end 4K or 8K rig, you can opt for Preset L instead, which is tailored for Ultra Performance.
The CPU Bottleneck Trade-off
Forcing the newer Preset M onto a standard Quality mode makes the game look undeniably cleaner. The visual upgrades are immediate. But that extra graphical clarity comes with a serious performance cost.
This heavier AI workload can easily expose a CPU bottleneck. Gamers running older processors might suddenly experience stuttering and lag, even if they have a brand new RTX graphics card installed. The older your processor, the worse that stuttering gets. That performance penalty is exactly why game developers leave Preset K as the default option in the first place.
Bypassing Game Developer Limitations
Nvidia’s formal inclusion of this override menu is a major software policy shift for the PC hardware industry. Previously, developers decided exactly how AI upscaling functioned in their games. If a studio wanted to use an older, safer DLSS profile to guarantee smooth performance across different hardware setups, consumers just had to accept it.
Now, Nvidia gives users universal control. By moving the DLSS Presets (A through M) directly into the Nvidia App, the hardware manufacturer allows you to globally override the specific game engine. You get to decide whether you want maximum image quality or maximum frame rates, completely ignoring what the original game developer intended.