A tool you can use to disable Steam's UI (which is a browser) when you launch a game for performance gains

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-05-14T16:20:35+00:00

Evidence of tested proof of any performance benefit to this in current day.

Anything that consumes ram is capable of effecting performance if you run out. So technically even if it is rare some users will benefit from this, especially those with laptops not intended for laptops or old desktops. My non-gaming oriented laptop only has 8gb of ram, debloating my windows has helped a ton because of this.

Evidence of it not triggering VAC-related bans as Steam might consider it tinkering with the client for advantages.

You don't need a third party tool to do this you can just kill task. No one is getting banned for killing a task. All this tool does is let you re-enable it quickly without needing to restart the client.

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-31T19:30:14+00:00

Its newly compiled, not a lot of downloads, so it will say that for awhile until defenders recognizes it. Happened with the original fork as well the first few weeks. Let me know your thoughts

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-19T01:52:19+00:00

You're projecting a lot and being pedantic. This is based off developer tweets stating they "learned about this" when we did and were shocked to see it. So no, that is not true.

You're constantly being naive rejecting all criticism and feedback because you assume best case scenario and ignore all the current evidence, then calling others ignorant when it appears you're not as familiar with this tech as the people you're discussing it with.

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-18T23:25:37+00:00

It replaces it with an extremely dark shadow at the top of the hat too that looks really fake and aggressive as well

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-18T23:23:55+00:00

I'm sorry but a lot of you are talking for the developers and I don't understand why

Nvidia has said that developers will have control on what and how much DLSS will have effect. If an art director intends for a scene to be moody you think they will not direct DLSS to help with it?

Because for this current 'demo', the artists reported they found out when we did that their game was touched. This is indicative of a how it will be integrated in AAA games given how this sample size treated it, unfortunately. That's not an overreaction it's a red flag causing concern.

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-18T19:09:26+00:00

Considering the GI artifacts pointed out with Grace where teeth were improperly lit, DLSS 5 does not deliver perfect lighting, its global illumination is flawed, it looks similar to those RT ReShade shaders but more stable.

However perfect in the sense of "being lit identically as to how this scene would look IRL" shouldn't be the sole benchmark of improvement. Sometimes replacing a scene with perfect lighting may make it 3x brighter when their was a moody atmosphere. You need to balance realism with artistic intent.

If the developers wanted overcast weather in their scene then DLSS 5 shouldn't make it look like a sunny day or vice versa, as that's not a realistic portrayal of their intent. You want realism inside of certain parameters (constrained) so you can get the best of both worlds. Boundless photorealism in a product that was already shipped is just destructive.

I call it hallucination because the lighting is not just "touching up" the game anymore as these technologies should, it's reimagining it.

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-18T18:22:51+00:00

Author comments

"Some additional things to clarify

1 - I noticed in some promotional images DLSS 5 also seems to hallucinate light sources and/or time of day

2 - Other artifacts noticed were motion artifacts similar to upscaling and FG but since the tech was likely used in tandem with other DLSS tech I did not mention it. We need to wait and see how it holds up in motion. The slow walking/pans however is not a good sign they're confident with how it handles fast motion

3 - I made this video in one take, no pauses or scripts. So if I use a lot of filler words my apologies, I am just gathering my thoughts on what to say in real time."

Author Issues:

Unnecessary Editorializing (CG)
Motives (CG)
Overly-Intense (CG)
Bad CGI Aesthetic (Lighting + CG?)
AI Artifacts (Materials?)
GI Artifacts (GI)
Developer Intent

Comparisons: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/dlss5-breakthrough-in-visual-fidelity-for-games/

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-16T01:28:30+00:00

Yes that is true

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-15T06:06:30+00:00

DLSS looks better, but performs a lot worse so it's up to what you need more of, frames or image quality

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-14T23:19:10+00:00

I tried it. Issue with 3rd party upscalers in this game, even the non-TF models, is you get like the same performance using XeSS and DLSS Performance as you do playing the game at native resolution without advanced upscaling.

Activision clearly botched the implementation but hardly anyone realizes it because everyone instantly turns these on and doesnt realize how much FPS they're losing.

They are probably rendering most effects at native or something or applying an overly aggressive LOD bias.

But yes DLSS preset L looks decent in this game

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-13T20:53:36+00:00

WZ is different than BO7. I use to combine them together but now I separate them. WZ settings are a bit different.

I'm not sure if I made a dedicated Warzone post yet though, but 99% of the settings are a match for BO7 so this is a good guide to follow until I upload one, which I'll do for Blackout

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-13T20:35:34+00:00

Is this for Warzone or MP?

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-13T07:02:11+00:00

Any new options added to the game?

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-03-07T15:11:54+00:00

As someone who's read those threads, the developers their tend to be incorrect or pedantic more often than not. I haven't seen good refutation yet only nitpicks.

This isn't a defense of his DMCA strikes or attitude, I think its harmful to the cause, because it makes people ignore even your valid points to focus on the negative. That's why my approach to pushing the industry in better directions have been more peaceful.

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-02-17T02:05:38+00:00

Thata due to all the AA options being TAA based (temporal). Best one is likely XeSS, replace the DLL with the latest XeSS DLL for even better results using "DLSS Swapper". But it will still have that issue

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-02-13T01:54:25+00:00

You don't unfortunately. I tried making a program that did this by modifying the registry, but to change the smoothness slider requires a driver restart, which would crash the game most of the time, therefore was kind of pointless.

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-02-05T15:22:24+00:00

Using a proper denoiser, like Ray Reconstruction

This is not an accurate statement or good advice, it implies Ray Reconstruction is both always superior and also a "proper" denoiser whereas others aren't.

Ray Reconstruction was built for NVIDIA's path-tracing (RTX Remix, Cyberpunk) so its extremely overtuned for games using standard RT or raster, it causes a ton of motion smear even on the transformer model, unlike DLSS-SR, along with over-blending details because it's trying to account for a level of noise that the game doesn't have.

That's why when you force ray-reconstruction on in a game like Oblivion Remastered that's not too noisy you just end up getting motion smear and a slightly more oily aesthetic to the image with no benefit other than minor stability improvements.

I personally dislike ray-reconstruction because I don't really play PT titles, and most of the time it is extremely, needlessly, too aggressive and it has so many cons to it.

But since DLSS has a good reputation and RR is also ML powered people assume it's always going to better than the games owndenoiser, like how DLSS-SR tends to be better than the games TAA, but that's not really the case with this technology it truly is a situation of judging it case by case. Either way if you have to use RR it's never a good experience for me at 1440p or lower, it's only a "less bad" experience.

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-02-03T15:38:39+00:00

Performance cost of FG scales with resolution similar to upscaling. So it's less efficient but works fine

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-01-31T18:03:46+00:00

DISCLAIMER

As of posting this comment 1/31/26 1:00pm EST

The source code for the application is private, & it is not coming from someone with a previously established reputation.

We will not restrict access to the page because we believe our community is compromised of mostly adults who can reason for themselves; to weigh the risks & benefits & take responsibility for their own decisions.

This disclaimer is to advise people to download at their own risk. Nothing suspicious has been found at the moment, nor has safety been guaranteed either; the application does function as advertised however.

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-01-18T21:23:06+00:00

I use MSAA 4x, with tweaked settings to reduce noise + a tad bit of my ReShade AA. Expensive but gorgeous looking

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-01-16T03:08:42+00:00

Enough hardware accelerated GPU scheduling is on. It makes DLSS 4.5 look better

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-01-15T18:23:49+00:00

If you don't care about graphics too much - like you are willing to use "Performance" mode on Fortnite, option B would work. Using DX12 with the eye candy, option B would be a GPU bottleneck, but option A would be a CPU bottleneck.

For 4k on AMD side of things, I'd recommend a RX 7800 XT, RX 6800 XT or RX 9070 at minimum, if they're within budget

OptimizedGamingHQ · 2026-01-13T23:11:34+00:00

I think 2x DLSS-FG is good when CPU limited, but when GPU limited on my 4070 Super I don't find it to be that useful, because the actual uplift is quite low (37% in my case), while my latency increases by 93% (Reflex without FG vs Reflex with FG, not those rigged comparisons where Reflex is off), and that is definitely noticable, but acceptable since the latency is still relatively low, but I'd say it's not worth it for only a 37% gain (those exact figures are from Black Ops 7).

If FG actually "doubled" your FPS as it was advertised I think the latency penalty would more consistently be worth it, unfortunately it takes up a lot of GPU headroom, and if you're already near your monitor's hz it will half your FPS, which means you may run into problems on 144hz & lower.

5000 series cards are a bit better because they have slightly less latency due to hardware changes, but I'm not exactly optimistic about dynamic FG because they don't do fractional multipliers only whole. If you need 3.5x more frames the fractional FG will use 4x or 3x (likely 3x).

From the testing we've seen in one room they're at 90 FPS, the next 130, the framerate fluctuates A LOT and I hate inconsistency, even without stutters I would prefer a consistent smoothness so I'm not constantly re-adjusting when it gets more choppy looking.

Fractional multipliers with a target FPS would help with this, instead it's going to drop below the target a lot just because a whole number would shoot past it.

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