Nvidia’s newest upscaling tech shipped into real games this month, and it’s arriving at an awkward moment for the gaming hardware market. DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction, unveiled at Computex 2026 in late May and confirmed as available now in Nvidia’s Gamescom 2026 post, folds two separate AI models into one transformer network that handles both denoising and super-resolution for every GeForce RTX GPU still in use. Nvidia is pitching it as the biggest quality jump to Ray Reconstruction since the feature launched with RTX 40-series cards, and it now covers all GeForce RTX GPUs, from RTX 20-series cards through the newest RTX 50-series laptops, just as console makers hike prices and squeeze buyers toward PC hardware.
The timing matters. Microsoft raised Xbox Series X and Series S prices by $100 to $150 on August 1, 2026, and PlayStation and Xbox hardware sales have both slumped to multi-decade lows, according to a Ground News aggregation of console sales data. Meanwhile, Nvidia is doubling down on RTX 50-series desktop cards, laptops, and even handheld-adjacent form factors with a software update that promises sharper image quality without new silicon. For anyone deciding whether to buy a console or build a gaming PC in the back half of 2026, DLSS 4.5 is a real factor in that math, not just a marketing bullet point.
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What DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction Actually Changes
From Two AI Models to One Transformer
Ray Reconstruction first shipped alongside DLSS 3.5 in 2023 as a way to clean up the noisy, grainy look that path-traced and heavily ray-traced games produce before the image gets upscaled. It worked by running a dedicated AI denoiser ahead of the separate DLSS Super Resolution model, effectively stacking two neural networks in the rendering pipeline. DLSS 4.5 collapses that pipeline into a single second-generation transformer model that performs denoising and super-resolution together, according to Nvidia’s own Computex 2026 announcement. Nvidia disclosed in June 2026 that the new transformer processes 35% more input data than the model it replaces while running with 20% more parameters at an equivalent compute budget, and the company says this unified approach produces sharper detail in reflections, fewer smeared textures during camera motion, and steadier image stability in scenes with heavy path tracing, the kind of workload that has always been the hardest test for real-time upscaling.
Why a Unified Transformer Model Is a Bigger Deal Than It Sounds
The technical distinction here matters more than the marketing framing suggests. Convolutional neural networks, the architecture behind the original Ray Reconstruction denoiser and DLSS 2 before it, process an image through fixed local filters that struggle to weigh distant pixels against each other in a single pass. Transformer architectures, drawn from the same model family that powers modern large language systems, use attention mechanisms that let every pixel in a frame reference every other pixel when deciding how to denoise or upscale it. That difference is a big part of why one unified transformer can outperform two separate specialized networks stitched together in sequence: instead of a denoiser making its best guess and handing an already-imperfect frame to a separate upscaler, a single network handles both jobs with full context of the whole image at once, rather than passing along whatever errors the first model introduced. Nvidia has been migrating its entire DLSS stack toward transformer-based models since DLSS 4 launched alongside the RTX 50-series, and Ray Reconstruction was the last major piece still running on the older architecture until this update. Nvidia’s June 3, 2026 Computex writeup put a number on that payoff, crediting the unified model with a 35% efficiency gain in the denoiser itself on top of the architectural shift to attention-based processing. Viewed that way, DLSS 4.5 is less a standalone feature drop and more the final step in a multi-year architecture migration Nvidia started with DLSS 4, closing the gap between its newest and oldest supported upscaling models.
Available Now on Every RTX Generation
The practical upshot for gamers is that DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction is a driver and game-integration update, not a hardware requirement. Nvidia says the new model runs on all GeForce RTX GPUs, a scope that stretches back to RTX 20-series cards from 2018, not just the RTX 40-series and RTX 50-series hardware Nvidia is currently marketing alongside it. That’s a wider net than most DLSS feature updates get, and it means a seven-year-old RTX 2060 is eligible for the same unified denoising model as a brand-new RTX 5090. Getting it requires GeForce Game Ready Driver 580.88 WHQL or newer, which Nvidia pushed live for the Early Access opt-in inside the NVIDIA app on August 25, 2026, with Nvidia targeting a full official release in September 2026. Tool-side support is also landing in Blender 5.3 later this fall for 3D artists who rely on RTX-accelerated rendering outside of games.
DLSS 4.5 Launch Snapshot: Drivers, Games, and What’s Next
The move from “announced” to “shipped” is the biggest change since this story first broke. Nvidia’s Gamescom 2026 post confirms DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction is available now, not just promised for later in the year, and lays out exactly what it takes to run it today.
| Detail | Status |
|---|---|
| Availability | Live now (Early Access via NVIDIA app) |
| Official release | September 2026 |
| Required driver | GeForce Game Ready Driver 580.88 WHQL or newer |
| GPU support | All GeForce RTX GPUs (RTX 20-series and newer) |
| Games at launch | 30 games |
Source: Nvidia’s Gamescom 2026 GeForce announcement, August 2026.
How to Turn It On Right Now
Getting DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction today means opting into Nvidia’s Early Access program through the NVIDIA app rather than waiting for a standard driver push. Anyone running GeForce Game Ready Driver 580.88 WHQL or newer can enable it ahead of the broader rollout, a staging pattern Nvidia has leaned on for prior DLSS jumps: put the feature in front of enthusiasts and reviewers first, then convert Early Access into the default state once game-side bugs get worked out. A step-by-step guide published by DropReference in August 2026 spells out the manual override some titles still need: open the NVIDIA app’s per-game settings and select “Latest” under the Ray Reconstruction dropdown to force the 4.5 model, since a handful of games still default to the older two-model pipeline until you switch it yourself. That matches the timeline Nvidia laid out at Gamescom, with Early Access running now and an official release slated for September 2026.
The Games List Is Growing Fast
Nvidia lists 30 games supporting the new Ray Reconstruction model in the NVIDIA app at launch, up from the 27 games Nvidia had already cited in a June 2026 news post and that Tom’s Hardware separately confirmed as the initial rollout count as of August 2026. A three-game jump in a matter of weeks suggests Nvidia and its studio partners are patching titles in quickly rather than front-loading the entire list at once, which tracks with how past DLSS version bumps have rolled out: the highest-profile path-traced titles get day-one support, with the rest following in waves through driver and game patches. Expect that count to keep climbing between now and the September official release.
What Early Access Status Means for Reliability Right Now
Opting into Early Access carries a real trade-off worth weighing before flipping the toggle. Nvidia runs features through an opt-in Early Access stage specifically because it’s still gathering telemetry and bug reports from the wider range of hardware and game configurations that only show up once enthusiasts and reviewers start using a feature, not just internal QA. In practice, that means the 30 games listed at launch may not all behave identically: some titles integrated the unified transformer model earlier and have had more time to work through edge cases, while others were patched in closer to the Gamescom 2026 announcement and haven’t had the same runway. Anyone who prioritizes stability over being first should treat the current Early Access window as a preview rather than a final verdict, and wait for the September 2026 official release, when Nvidia typically folds in fixes surfaced during the opt-in period before the feature becomes the default state on every supported GPU. That doesn’t change the underlying quality argument, since the unified transformer model itself isn’t in question, only its polish across 30 different game engines in the span of a few weeks. It does mean early adopters flipping on Early Access today are effectively doing informal quality testing on behalf of everyone waiting for the roughly one-month gap between the Gamescom reveal and the planned September rollout.
Computex 2026: The RTX 50-Series Expansion Behind the Update
New SKUs and Board Partner Hardware
DLSS 4.5 didn’t arrive alone. Nvidia used Computex 2026 to broaden the RTX 50-series desktop lineup with additional SKUs and mid-cycle refresh cards aimed at gamers who skipped the initial 2025 launch wave, according to Nvidia’s partner product showcase recap. Board partners also introduced a new wave of GeForce RTX 50-series gaming laptops and pre-built desktops, alongside new G-SYNC Compatible displays, which puts fresh RTX silicon into systems well below the flagship price tier for the first time since launch.
The Rumored 24GB Mid-Cycle Card
The most closely watched rumor out of that cycle is a Q3 2026 mid-cycle refresh card carrying 24GB of GDDR7 memory, roughly 50% more than the RTX 5080’s stock configuration, according to tracking by The GPU Radar’s launch calendar. That card is still unconfirmed by Nvidia directly, but the pattern fits how Nvidia has handled prior generations: ship the flagship first, then backfill with higher-VRAM variants once yields improve. A write-up from IT Creations’ Computex 2026 recap frames DLSS 4.5 as the software half of that push, designed to make sure even buyers who aren’t springing for the highest-VRAM card still see a visible jump in ray-traced image quality.
Why This Update Lands Differently in August 2026
Console Prices Climb Across the Board
Console pricing has moved sharply against buyers this summer. Microsoft’s August 1 increase pushed the 1TB Xbox Series X to $799.99 and the Xbox Series S to $599.99 in the US, while discontinuing the 2TB Xbox model entirely because of ongoing component shortages, according to GamingBible’s coverage of the price hikes. PlayStation 5 Pro now sits at $899.99, and even the standard PS5 has climbed to $649.99. Nintendo’s newest console, priced at $449.99 at its 2025 launch, is scheduled for its own $50 increase to $499.99 on September 1, 2026.
Why This Favors PC Buyers Right Now
Those increases have hit console sales hard. Xbox hardware sales fell to their lowest point ever recorded in mid-2026, and PlayStation hardware sales dropped to their weakest levels since roughly 2000, per the Ground News sales aggregation cited above. Against that backdrop, an RTX 50-series gaming laptop or prebuilt desktop that gets a meaningful visual upgrade through a free driver and game update, rather than a $150 price hike, looks more attractive to buyers who were already comparing console and PC total cost of ownership. It’s not a one-to-one substitute, since PC gaming still carries a higher entry price than a base console, but the direction of travel this month favors Nvidia’s pitch that RTX hardware improves without you spending anything new.
2026 Gaming Platform Price Snapshot
| Platform | US Price (August 2026) | Change vs. Pre-Hike Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xbox Series X (1TB) | $799.99 | +$150 | 2TB model discontinued |
| Xbox Series S (1TB) | $599.99 | +$150 | 512GB model up $100 |
| PlayStation 5 Pro | $899.99 | Unchanged this cycle | Premium 4K/high-refresh tier |
| PlayStation 5 (standard) | $649.99 | Unchanged this cycle | Digital edition at $599.99 |
| Nintendo current-gen console | $449.99 (rising to $499.99 Sept. 1) | +$50 pending | Still cheapest major console |
| Valve Steam Machine (base config) | ~$1,050 | N/A (new category) | PC-class hardware in console form |
| ROG Xbox Ally X handheld | ~$999.99 | N/A | Handheld PC hybrid |
Source: GamingBible and Ground News reporting, August 2026.
How Ray Reconstruction Compares Across GPU Vendors
No Direct AMD or Intel Equivalent Yet
Nvidia remains the only GPU vendor with a dedicated AI denoising-plus-upscaling pipeline built specifically for path-traced ray tracing. AMD’s FSR line and Intel’s XeSS both offer upscaling, and both have added their own frame generation tools, but neither has published a direct equivalent to Ray Reconstruction’s combined denoise-and-upscale transformer model as of this writing. That gap is one reason ray-traced-heavy titles still look meaningfully cleaner on RTX hardware than on comparable AMD or Intel cards at similar price points, a pattern our own testing has shown when comparing the RTX 5080 against the RX 9070 XT and when stacking the RTX 5070 Ti against the same AMD card.
Nvidia’s Software Maturity Lead
That said, the gap isn’t just about raw ray tracing performance anymore, it’s about software maturity. Nvidia has now shipped four major DLSS revisions in three years, DLSS 3.5, DLSS 4, an interim update, and now DLSS 4.5, while AMD has iterated FSR more slowly. Budget buyers comparing options in the sub-$400 range should still weigh raw rasterization performance carefully; our breakdown of the Arc B580 against the RTX 5060 and RX 9060 XT found a 43% FPS gap between the cheapest and priciest cards in that tier, a bigger factor for many shoppers than upscaling quality alone.
The Install-Base Math Behind Nvidia’s Broad Rollout
There’s a strategic reason Nvidia extended DLSS 4.5 all the way back to RTX 20-series cards instead of limiting the unified model to the RTX 40-series and RTX 50-series hardware it’s actively selling today. RTX 20-series launched in 2018, which means Nvidia is asking its newest transformer model to run well on GPUs that are up to eight years old alongside a brand-new RTX 5090, a far wider support window than most competing upscaling updates attempt in a single release. That breadth functions as a retention play as much as a technical achievement: every RTX owner who gets a visible image-quality improvement without spending money has less reason to consider switching to an AMD or Intel card at their next upgrade cycle, since jumping vendors would mean giving up a growing library of Nvidia-exclusive software gains built up over eight years of hardware generations. AMD and Intel don’t face that same install-base math in reverse, since neither has shipped a directly comparable unified denoising-and-upscaling model that its own older cards stand to lose access to. It’s a reminder that DLSS 4.5’s value to Nvidia isn’t just the quality bump itself, but the fact that a single driver and app update reaches essentially every current RTX owner at once, reinforcing brand loyalty across the full breadth of the GeForce RTX lineup rather than just the newest cards.
GPU Feature Comparison: Upscaling and Ray Tracing Tools, August 2026
| Vendor | Upscaling Tech | Dedicated Ray-Tracing Denoiser | Frame Generation | Current Flagship |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia | DLSS 4.5 | Yes (unified transformer model) | Yes (DLSS Frame Generation) | RTX 5090 |
| AMD | FSR (latest generation) | No dedicated equivalent published | Yes (AMD Fluid Motion Frames) | RX 9070 XT |
| Intel | XeSS | No dedicated equivalent published | Limited rollout | Arc B580 |
Source: Vendor product pages and Nvidia’s DLSS technology overview, August 2026.
Handhelds and Laptops: Where DLSS 4.5 Actually Gets Used
Why Thermal-Limited Devices Benefit Most
The desktop flagship conversation gets the headlines, but the more interesting rollout is happening in laptops and handheld-adjacent devices, where thermal and power limits make upscaling far more valuable than raw horsepower. Nvidia’s Computex partner showcase confirmed new RTX-powered gaming laptops shipping through OEM partners this cycle, and DLSS 4.5’s lower per-frame compute cost, a byproduct of merging two models into one, should translate into better battery life and less fan noise at a given visual quality target, though Nvidia hasn’t published exact power-draw figures for the new model yet.
The Handheld Gap Nvidia Still Has to Close
That matters for the broader handheld gaming market too, even outside pure Nvidia hardware. We’ve already tracked how thermal-constrained the current handheld generation is in our comparison of the Legion Go 2 against the MSI Claw 8, where a 53% performance gap showed up almost entirely because of power and cooling differences, not raw silicon. Any upscaling technique that trims compute load without cutting visual fidelity is disproportionately valuable on that class of device, which is why Nvidia keeps pushing DLSS improvements even though its own dedicated handheld presence is limited compared to AMD’s grip on the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and Legion Go lines.
Cloud Gaming Gets a Quiet Assist
GeForce NOW, Nvidia’s cloud gaming service, has been rolling out RTX 5080-class server hardware this year while holding its top subscription tier at $19.99 per month, as we covered in our report on the GeForce NOW RTX 5080 rollout. DLSS 4.5 folds neatly into that infrastructure because it reduces the compute Nvidia’s own data centers need to spend per streamed frame, a meaningful cost lever when you’re running thousands of RTX GPUs simultaneously for subscribers. Nvidia hasn’t confirmed an exact GeForce NOW rollout date for DLSS 4.5, but the server-side economics make it a near-certain addition once game-side integration is stable, likely within the same quarter as the consumer GPU rollout given how the last few DLSS revisions reached GeForce NOW within weeks of their PC debut.
The Component Cost Backdrop
Memory Costs Are Squeezing Every Hardware Maker
None of this is happening in a vacuum. Microsoft explicitly attributed the August Xbox price hikes to rising memory and component costs, including the discontinuation of the 2TB Xbox model over what it called component issues. That same memory crunch has pushed RAM and storage prices up across the PC market too, meaning a new RTX 50-series laptop in late 2026 costs more than the same configuration would have a year earlier, even before accounting for GPU pricing itself. Nvidia’s DLSS 4.5 push, in that light, functions partly as a hedge: if hardware margins are getting squeezed by component costs, a free software update that improves perceived value per dollar is a cheaper lever to pull than a price cut.
Nintendo Follows the Same Pattern
Nintendo’s decision to raise its own console price by $50 starting September 1, 2026, following Microsoft’s move, according to Particle’s aggregated reporting on the console price shifts, shows the RAM and component crunch is hitting every hardware maker, not just Microsoft. That same reporting notes Nintendo has still captured the console market lead this year despite the increase, largely because its console remains cheaper than both Xbox and PlayStation even after the hike.
A Brief History of DLSS: How We Got to 4.5
DLSS 1 Through DLSS 4: The Timeline
Nvidia’s upscaling technology has moved fast by GPU-industry standards. DLSS 1 launched in 2018 alongside the original RTX 20-series cards and was widely criticized for blurry output and limited game support. DLSS 2, released in 2020, rebuilt the approach around a general-purpose temporal upscaling model and became the template every competitor has copied since. DLSS 3 added Frame Generation in 2022, letting the GPU insert AI-generated frames between rendered ones. DLSS 3.5 introduced the original Ray Reconstruction denoiser in 2023, specifically to handle the noise problems inherent to path tracing. DLSS 4 arrived with the RTX 50-series launch and introduced a transformer-based model architecture across the whole DLSS suite, replacing the older convolutional neural network approach. DLSS 4.5 is the first update to apply that transformer architecture specifically to unify Ray Reconstruction’s two separate models into one, which is the headline change that shipped this August.
Why Ray Tracing’s Rise Forced This Merge
That seven-year run from DLSS 1 to DLSS 4.5 tracks almost exactly with ray tracing’s transition from a marketing bullet point to a baseline expectation in AAA releases. Games that once offered ray tracing as an optional, performance-crushing toggle now frequently ship with path tracing as a core visual mode, and DLSS 4.5’s unified denoiser exists specifically because that shift made the old two-model pipeline too costly to keep running as a bolt-on.
Market Impact: What This Means for GPU Buyers
Why RTX 40-Series Owners Don’t Need to Rush
For anyone shopping the current GPU market, DLSS 4.5 changes the calculus slightly but doesn’t upend it. Our recent comparison of the RTX 5090 against the RTX 4090 found roughly a 23% performance gain generation-over-generation with a $673 price gap between them. DLSS 4.5 doesn’t close that price gap, but it does mean buyers sitting on RTX 40-series cards get a real image-quality bump without upgrading. That’s a meaningful data point for anyone weighing whether to hold onto a 4090 or 4080 another cycle rather than jumping to a 50-series card immediately, especially with rumors of a higher-VRAM refresh card still pending confirmation.
The RTX 4090 vs. RTX 5080 Debate
It also reframes the RTX 4090 versus RTX 5080 debate we covered separately, where the used 4090 market has seen prices swing sharply depending on region and timing. A software update that benefits both cards equally doesn’t change which one is faster, but it does mean the visual-quality argument for “just buy new” is weaker than it was a year ago, since older RTX cards keep getting meaningful free upgrades through Nvidia’s driver stack rather than being left behind.
Industry Perspective
Nvidia’s own technical framing, published alongside the Computex 2026 rollout, describes DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction as introducing a second-generation transformer model that unifies denoising and Super Resolution into a single AI network for all GeForce RTX GPUs, according to the IT Creations recap of the announcement. That single-network framing is the core technical claim worth watching as independent reviewers get hands-on time with the August game updates: whether the unified model actually holds detail better than the two-model pipeline it replaces, or whether the gains are mostly incremental image-quality polish dressed up as a bigger architectural shift.
From Promise to Shipping Product
Roughly three months separated the Computex announcement from Nvidia’s Gamescom 2026 confirmation that DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction is live, a fast turnaround by Nvidia’s own historical standards for moving a DLSS architecture change from reveal to Early Access. That gap also matters for the skepticism above: with the feature now running in 30 shipped games rather than existing only as a Computex tech demo, independent reviewers finally have enough real titles to test whether the unified transformer model holds up outside curated demo scenes.
5 Predictions for the Rest of 2026
- DLSS 4.5 reaches GeForce NOW within one quarter. Given the server-cost incentive, expect Nvidia’s cloud gaming tier to pick up DLSS 4.5 well before most standalone PC games finish integrating it.
- AMD responds with an FSR update by early 2027, not this year. AMD has historically trailed DLSS architectural shifts by twelve to eighteen months, and there’s no public sign of a matching unified denoiser yet.
- The rumored 24GB mid-cycle RTX card ships in Q3 or Q4 2026, but at a premium over the RTX 5080. Component cost pressure makes an aggressive price undercut unlikely.
- Console price hikes continue into 2027 if the RAM shortage doesn’t ease. Every major hardware maker has now raised prices in the same twelve-month window, a pattern that rarely reverses quickly once memory supply gets constrained.
- Handheld gaming PCs increasingly market DLSS support as a headline feature, following the same playbook Nvidia is running on laptops, since battery life gains from lighter-weight upscaling models matter more on handhelds than almost any other form factor.
Should You Buy Now or Wait?
For Current RTX Owners
If you already own any GeForce RTX card, from RTX 20-series on up, there’s no purchase decision to make here. DLSS 4.5 is a free update, live now through Early Access in the NVIDIA app for anyone on GeForce Game Ready Driver 580.88 WHQL or newer, with a full official release due in September 2026. If you’re shopping for a new GPU or gaming laptop, the calculus is a little more nuanced. Buyers chasing maximum VRAM for high-resolution path tracing may want to wait for confirmation on the rumored 24GB refresh card before committing to a current RTX 5080. Buyers who just want the best available image quality today have no real reason to delay, since DLSS 4.5 already works across the existing lineup rather than being gated to unreleased hardware.
For Console Shoppers Watching Prices
For console shoppers weighing the August price hikes, the picture is separate but related. If image quality and upscaling flexibility matter to you specifically, that’s an argument that favors PC and PC-handheld hardware over a fixed console generation, since consoles can’t receive an equivalent mid-cycle AI model swap the way a GeForce RTX GPU just did.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction?
It’s Nvidia’s newest AI upscaling update, first announced at Computex 2026 and confirmed as available now in Nvidia’s Gamescom 2026 post, which merges the previously separate denoising and super-resolution models used in ray-traced and path-traced games into a single transformer-based AI network. It’s live today through Early Access in the NVIDIA app, covering 30 games at launch, with an official release planned for September 2026.
Which GPUs support DLSS 4.5?
Nvidia says DLSS 4.5 supports all GeForce RTX GPUs, including RTX 20-series, RTX 30-series, RTX 40-series, and RTX 50-series cards and laptops, not just the newest RTX 50-series hardware. You’ll need GeForce Game Ready Driver 580.88 WHQL or newer to run it.
Do I need to buy a new graphics card to get DLSS 4.5?
No. DLSS 4.5 ships through a driver update and individual game patches, so existing RTX owners get it without any hardware purchase, all the way back to RTX 20-series cards from 2018, provided you’re running GeForce Game Ready Driver 580.88 WHQL or newer.
Is there an AMD or Intel equivalent to Ray Reconstruction?
Not directly. AMD’s FSR and Intel’s XeSS both offer upscaling and frame generation, but as of August 2026, neither vendor has published a dedicated unified denoising-and-upscaling model specifically for path-traced ray tracing.
When is the rumored 24GB RTX card releasing?
Industry tracking from The GPU Radar points to a Q3 2026 window for a mid-cycle refresh card with 24GB of GDDR7 memory, roughly 50% more than the RTX 5080’s stock configuration. Nvidia has not officially confirmed the card.
Why did Xbox and other console prices go up in August 2026?
Microsoft cited rising component and memory costs when it raised Xbox Series X and Series S prices by $100 to $150 starting August 1, 2026, and discontinued the 2TB Xbox model over related supply issues.
Will DLSS 4.5 come to GeForce NOW cloud gaming?
Nvidia hasn’t announced an exact date, but given GeForce NOW’s ongoing RTX 5080-class hardware rollout and the compute-cost savings DLSS 4.5 offers on the server side, it’s a likely near-term addition to the service.
Does DLSS 4.5 improve battery life on gaming laptops?
Nvidia hasn’t published specific power-draw numbers, but because the unified model requires less total compute than running two separate AI models, it should reduce GPU workload per frame on RTX-powered laptops, which typically translates to better battery efficiency at a matched visual quality target.
What driver do I need for DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction?
You need GeForce Game Ready Driver 580.88 WHQL or newer. That unlocks the Early Access opt-in inside the NVIDIA app ahead of the official release, which Nvidia has slated for September 2026.
How many games support DLSS 4.5 at launch?
Nvidia lists 30 games supporting the new Ray Reconstruction model in the NVIDIA app at launch, up from the 27 games named in the original August 2026 announcement, with more expected to be added before the September official release.
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