NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 has come out on top in a large blind image-quality test that pitted it against native 4K rendering and AMD’s FSR upscaling. The results are especially interesting because participants judged the visuals without being told which technology they were looking at, focusing purely on which option looked best.
The community-driven blind test gathered feedback from more than 1,000 participants and compared three different rendering approaches across six games: Anno 117, Arc Raiders, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Forbidden West, Satisfactory, and The Last of Us Part II. Each title was presented at 4K output resolution, with native rendering using TAA (temporal anti-aliasing), a common anti-aliasing method that can sometimes look softer or blurrier but is often the only option available in many modern games.
For the upscalers, the test used the Quality preset for both NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 and AMD FSR (listed as FSR 4 in the results). Importantly, the comparison avoided DLAA-style modes, since those are closer to anti-aliasing at native resolution rather than classic upscaling from a lower internal resolution. That decision helped keep the matchup focused on what most gamers actually use when they turn on upscaling for performance.
When all votes were tallied, NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 was the clear overall favorite. Nearly half of participants selected DLSS 4.5 as the best-looking option, with 48.2% (3,249 votes). Native 4K came in second at 24.0% (1,619 votes). AMD FSR upscaling was chosen by 15.0% (1,013 votes). Another 12.8% (866 votes) said they couldn’t see a meaningful difference between the three.
Looking game-by-game, DLSS 4.5 often took the top spot, especially in titles like Horizon Forbidden West and Satisfactory, where it received the strongest preference. Cyberpunk 2077 was closer than the others, with DLSS narrowly edging out native in overall preference while a notable portion of voters felt the options were effectively equivalent.
Beyond the numbers, the biggest takeaway is the question this test helps answer: can upscaling actually look better than native? In this comparison, a significant chunk of players preferred DLSS 4.5 over native 4K with TAA. That lines up with a reality many gamers have experienced firsthand: when people don’t know which mode is enabled, they often pick the cleaner-looking image—sometimes that’s the upscaled one—while biases can kick in as soon as “upscaling” is revealed.
That doesn’t mean upscaling is flawless. Image quality in motion remains one of the toughest challenges for both NVIDIA and AMD, and it becomes even more complicated as frame generation options expand into more aggressive multi-frame modes. Artifacts, shimmering, ghosting, and stability during fast movement are still areas where these technologies can vary widely depending on the game, the implementation, and the scene.
Still, the broader trend is hard to ignore: modern upscaling has evolved dramatically compared to just a few years ago. Whether you’re chasing higher frame rates at 4K, trying to maximize performance on demanding titles, or simply want a sharper image than a game’s native TAA provides, this blind test suggests NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 currently has the strongest perception of image quality among the three options tested—at least in these six games and using Quality mode settings.
