ARC Raiders DLSS 4.5 performance hit

ARC Raiders and The Last of Us Suffer Major Performance Hit With DLSS 4

Sportsdunia Desk

Published - Jan 08, 2026, 07:36 AM

4 min

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Summary

DLSS 4.5 improves visual clarity by reducing ghosting and motion blur.
Players report significant FPS drops and higher system load in ARC Raiders and The Last of Us Part II.
Many gamers are rolling back to DLSS 4.0 while waiting for better optimization.

Many PC gamers are highlighting an ARC Raiders DLSS 4.5 performance hit after the recent Nvidia driver update. This time, the focus is on DLSS 4.5, Nvidia’s newest upscaling technology. Players testing the update in popular titles like ARC Raiders and The Last of Us Part II are reporting noticeable drops in frame rates, even on powerful graphics cards.

While the update improves image clarity and reduces visual issues, many gamers feel the performance cost may be too high, especially in ARC Raiders.

ARC Raiders DLSS 4.5 Performance Hit

Player reactions to the DLSS 4.5 ARC Raiders update have been strong. Many Reddit users report that switching from DLSS 4.0 to 4.5 results in significant FPS losses. One RTX 4090 owner reported a drop from approximately 150 FPS to 95 FPS at 4K Quality mode. Performance mode helped, but visuals suffered. Players on RTX 40-series cards also report losing 15–20 FPS at 1440p and higher, along with increased power usage, leading some to advise others against updating their drivers for now.

Aspect	Details
DLSS Version Compared	DLSS 4.0 vs DLSS 4.5
Reported FPS Drop	15–55 FPS depending on GPU
High-End GPU Example	RTX 4090 dropped from ~150 FPS to ~95 FPS at 4K Quality
Mid-Range GPU Impact	RTX 40-series users report 15–20 FPS loss at 1440p
Power Usage	Increased by 20–30 watts
Visual Quality	Cleaner image, less ghosting
Community Advice	Avoid updating or use older DLSS presets

The Last of Us Part II shows similar issues. Players report noticeable FPS drops and increased system usage, although many agree that the visuals seem better. For most, the performance trade-off still feels too steep unless using Nvidia’s newest GPUs.

Aspect	Details
DLSS Mode Tested	DLSS 4.5 Quality Mode
Reported FPS Drop	Around 14–15%
Resolution Tested	1440p
GPU Usage	Noticeable spike after update
CPU Usage	Increased in some cases
Visual Improvement	Reduced ghosting and motion blur
Best Hardware Fit	RTX 50-series shows smaller performance hit

Aside from this, a developer recently opened up about the ARC Raiders' aggression-based matchmaking, which you can check out on our official website.

DLSS 4.5 FPS Hit in Other Games

Independent tests from Tom’s Hardware found upto a 24% FPS drop in Cyberpunk 2077 on an RTX 3080 Ti at 4K with ray tracing, and around a 14% drop in The Last of Us Part II at 1440p using DLSS Quality mode.

Community Reaction

Player reactions across gaming and Nvidia subreddits are mixed around the ARC Raiders DLSS 4.5 update. While many like the cleaner visuals DLSS 4.5 offers, they are frustrated by the noticeable drop in performance. As a result, common advice includes sticking with DLSS 4.0 or avoiding the heavy Preset M if FPS drops too much.

Many players also recommend skipping DLSS 4.5 on RTX 20 and 30-series GPUs unless there is extra performance to spare. Others say it only makes sense to use DLSS 4.5 in Performance mode at very high resolutions. For now, many players are rolling back and waiting for better optimisation.

This was our entire coverage on the DLSS 4.5 ARC Raiders update. Meanwhile, consider checking out our coverage on the ARC Raiders update 1.7.0 patch notes.