DLSS 4.5 is here and it is hungry
Nvidia’s latest update for its AI powered upscaling tech, DLSS 4.5, is finally landing in gamers’ hands. On paper it promises sharper images, better stability and smoother high refresh gaming at demanding resolutions like 4K. In reality it delivers on a lot of that, but there is a catch. DLSS 4.5 can pull noticeably more power from your graphics card than previous versions.
If you are already on an RTX 40 or RTX 50 series card and happily pushing ray traced settings at 4K, you might not care about a few extra watts. But the change is big enough that it is worth understanding what DLSS 4.5 is doing differently and why it can make your GPU work harder than DLSS 4.
What changed in DLSS 4.5
DLSS started as a convolutional neural network model. With DLSS 4 Nvidia shifted to a transformer based model, similar in idea to the big AI systems that power modern language and image tools. That move gave Nvidia more flexibility and quality potential, but it also made DLSS more computationally expensive.
At CES 2025 Nvidia explained that DLSS 4 already used around four times more compute than the older convolutional model. With DLSS 4.5, Brian Catanzaro the key brain behind DLSS confirmed that the new version now uses about five times more GPU compute.
More compute on the Tensor cores means:
- Heavier use of the AI hardware blocks in your RTX card
- Longer or more complex inference passes per frame
- More total work the GPU has to push through every second
The end result is that in many games DLSS 4.5 does not just quietly slot in as a free upgrade. It can change how much power your GPU draws even when your frame rate looks similar to DLSS 4.
Real world impact on GPUs and power draw
Testing across multiple games on both a high end RTX 5090 and a more mainstream RTX 3060 Ti shows a clear pattern. DLSS 4.5 is often more demanding on the power supply than DLSS 4, especially at the more aggressive presets.
In Cyberpunk 2077 the benchmarks line up closely enough to see the difference clearly. Using the same settings and comparing DLSS 4 with DLSS 4.5, the RTX 5090 can draw as much as 50 watts more with DLSS 4.5 enabled. That is a significant jump in power for the same card running the same game.
The biggest spikes show up with the Model L preset, also known as Ultra Performance. This might sound like it should just give you higher frame rates for free, but with DLSS 4.5 it is more complicated. The new transformer model is doing more work per frame and that added workload can actually pull frame rates down slightly while still drawing more power overall.
Similar behaviour appears in Spider Man Remastered and Stalker 2, though the comparisons are not quite as perfectly matched as in Cyberpunk. Even so you can still see that the new DLSS version tends to sit at higher wattage levels than DLSS 4 on the same GPU.
The RTX 3060 Ti also shows higher power draw with DLSS 4.5. The numbers are smaller than on the 5090 because the card’s overall power budget is lower, but the pattern is the same. The Tensor cores on both generations are simply being pushed harder by the new model.
Is DLSS 4.5 worth using?
For most PC gamers the trade off will still be worth it, especially if you care about image quality at high resolutions. DLSS 4.5 focuses heavily on improving image stability and visual clarity, and in a lot of cases it succeeds.
If you game at 4K the new Performance mode is a good example of this. With a 1080p internal resolution it delivers surprisingly strong visual quality for the amount of scaling it has to do. That means you can often move from Quality or Balanced to Performance at 4K, keep an image you are happy with and pick up some extra frames per second at the same time.
The catch is that the gains are not as simple as old DLSS versions where you mostly got more fps and lower power draw compared with native. Here you might see similar or slightly lower frame rates compared with DLSS 4, but with better image stability and a clear bump in power usage.
Whether that matters comes down to your setup:
- If you are on a flagship card like an RTX 5090 with a solid power supply you probably do not need to worry about the extra 30 to 50 watts in heavy scenes.
- If you have a mid range GPU and a tighter power or thermal budget you might want to test DLSS 4 versus 4.5 in your most demanding games and watch your temperatures and fan noise.
- If your power cables and PSU are already running close to their limits any extra draw is worth keeping an eye on, especially with the highest performance presets.
Right now DLSS 4.5 is one of the more interesting examples of where PC gaming is heading. We are getting smarter algorithms and nicer visuals, but the AI side of graphics is no longer free from a performance and power perspective. Those Tensor cores earn their keep and you can see it on the watt meter.
For most players though the extra stability and image quality that DLSS 4.5 often brings will justify the extra power draw, particularly at 4K and with path tracing or heavy ray tracing. Just make sure your PSU, cables and cooling are ready for your GPU to work a little harder when you flip that DLSS switch to the latest version.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/nvidias-dlss-4-5-looks-great-and-all-but-im-surprised-at-just-how-much-extra-power-it-demands-from-your-graphics-card/
