UE5 Upscaling Issues: DLSS vs PSSR and Legacy Denoisers

Modern upscalers like DLSS 4.5 can outperform legacy engine denoisers when properly configured in Unreal Engine 5.

Hardware by Tanvir Kabbo on Feb 15, 2026

Recent findings in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) indicate that the noiser toggle in UE5D can have a substantial impact on upscalers, even beyond DLSS. DLSS 4.5 delivers amazing results when the in-game denoiser is turned off. However, this may also occur with other upscalers, such as TSR, PSSR, and Axis.

It looks like the main problem is how older games handle denoising and how newer upscaling solutions interact with them. When the in-game denoiser is disabled and control is handed over to DLSS, the results are often better than native quality. This suggests that contemporary upscalers can outperform older engine-specific denoisers in some cases.

UE5 Upscaling Issues, DLSS, PSSR, Legacy Denoisers, NoobFeed

Legacy Upscaling Challenges

The issue arises from developers creating denoisers with a narrow focus. For instance, when Epic adds reflection denoisers, it usually only considers TSR and doesn't consider how well they work with third-party upscalers like PSSR or XeSS.

Because of this, other upscalers may struggle to keep reflections and other visual effects clear. How efficiently an upscaler handles these engine-specific denoising limits determines how well it works. In real life, DLSS's higher-end models, like the L or Ultra variants, tend to give the most consistent results.

Impact on PSSR and other engines

PSSR has long had problems with reflections and denoising, which can sometimes lead to visual abnormalities, such as flashing. Some of these problems have been fixed in new versions of PSSR, as evidenced in games like Jedi Survivor. However, compatibility is still not 100%.

Even though PSSR has several problems, developers often use it anyhow because it's hard to get the same visual quality with other methods. Because PSSR is so complicated and the engine's default denoising methods are so bad, there are times when turning off the engine's denoiser completely could make a big difference.

DLSS as a Superior Denoiser

When set up correctly, DLSS can perform better than older denoisers, according to observations. Reflections and other post-processing effects typically look sharper and more coherent when you turn off the in-game denoisers and let DLSS handle denoising.

In real life, this means adding a simple command to an engine. Using an ini file or a similar configuration file can make a big difference. For instance, if you set reflection temporal denoising to 0, DLSS 4.5 can better handle the output, making the images look cleaner.

UE5 Upscaling Issues, DLSS, PSSR, Legacy Denoisers, NoobFeed

Configurability and Future Considerations

The most important thing to remember is that it's crucial to be able to change the backend. For users, enabling DLSS and disabling the engine's built-in denoiser is a simple way to improve graphics quality. It will be very important for developers to make sure that upscalers like DLSS, TSR, or future versions of PSSR work well with older content.

Some people say that PSSR 2 might address some of these long-standing problems, making it easier to integrate and improving the overall quality of the visuals.

Final Thoughts

In short, the problems with the UE5D noiser toggle indicate that upscalers have greater compatibility issues. DLSS 4.5 does a great job of handling legacy denoising; other upscalers like TSR and PSSR might require more setup or future updates to achieve the same results.

Users may already be using these insights to change engine settings, and developers are still working to ensure that both old and new games work well with them.

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