Nvidia DLSS 4.5 is a cheat code for gaming laptops — here's what I found testing it on the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI

(Image credit: Future)

DLSS 4.5 is officially here, and I’ve been testing it for a while now. Simply put, it’s Nvidia’s top piece of AI trickery that extracts better performance from your games by rendering the game at a lower resolution using the GPU and upscaling it with a neural network trained on the game itself.

It’s almost shocking how effective it is — watching it upscale a game from looking like a pixelated potato to something actually playable is insanely cool, and a real demonstration of how impressive DLSS 4.5’s Performance (Model M) and Ultra Performance (Model L) are in piecing together details.

But while I’ve been testing DLSS 4.5 on desktops mostly, I wanted to see what it does for the best gaming laptops. So I fired up my Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI and put it to the test. Spoiler alert: it’s an absolute beast.

By the numbers

Deep Learning Super Sampling can come with a compromise to the visuals, such as telltale ghosting (faint outlines around fast moving objects), jagged edges to surfaces and shimmering (brightly lit objects being a little blown out).

And while that is the case when blown up to a big screen for a desktop (though DLSS 4.5 does reduce it significantly), on the 16-inch OLED panel of the Helios Neo 16S AI, you’d be hard pressed to spot any of it.

Then when you turn to the numbers, it starts to feel like you’ve unlocked secret performance with a cheat code.

That is a near 50% jump across the board for all of these, while maintaining that detail you’d see in more quality-driven modes of DLSS!

Make sure you use DLSS 4.5 right

Quick PSA on DLSS 4.5. Nvidia itself has provided a handy guide on when to use these models you can pick between in the app.

Model K: This is DLSS 4 and much better-built for quality and balanced DLSS modes
Model M: This is DLSS 4.5 with a model tuned for performance mode
Model L: This is an offshoot of DLSS 4.5, which is meant for ultra performance mode

Using DLSS 4.5 in quality or balanced DLSS modes can be a little more taxing on the GPU, and result in reduced performance, as I found out when putting it to the test across both desktop and laptop systems.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

DLSS 4.5 test across 3 systems
System	Black Myth Wukong (DLSS 4 Balanced)	Black Myth Wukong (DLSS 4.5 Model M)	Cyberpunk 2077 (DLSS 4 Balanced)	Cyberpunk 2077 (DLSS 4.5 Model M)
RTX 5080 PC	53 FPS (4K Cinematic)	53 FPS (4K Cinematic)	84.53 FPS (4K Ray-tracing overdrive)	68.96 FPS (4K Ray-tracing overdrive)
RTX 5070 Laptop	52 FPS (1200p High)	44 FPS (1200p High)	77.84 FPS (1080p Ray-tracing low)	70.17 FPS (1080p Ray-tracing low)
RTX 5060 Ti (16GB) PC	47 FPS (1440p Cinematic)	45 FPS (Cinematic)	n/a	n/a

But if you make sure you pick the right model for the right purpose, you can extract the highest possible performance from your games. Smoother-running multiplayer titles are the difference between winning and losing critical battles after all.

Bottom line

So what did I learn from this experiment? Well, DLSS 4.5 is showing its strength in desktops for sure, but it really comes into its own in gaming laptops like the Helios Neo 16S AI.

The performance jump is significant, while you don’t lose any noticeable fidelity or detail thanks to that 16-inch OLED display. Blown up to a massive gaming monitor, you may spot the imperfections, but in something like this, your eyes won’t catch it.

And the point stands — this is near-esports levels of frame rates in a portable system with great ergonomics and all the I/O you’d need. Team Green just introduced a turbocharger to its V8 engine.

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Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.

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