NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 controls roll out to GeForce NOW cloud gaming

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Oct 15, 2026, 13:20 UTC

On October 15, 2026, NVIDIA pushed DLSS 4.5 controls to its GeForce NOW cloud gaming service as part of a GFN Thursday update. The feature gives GeForce NOW members manual control over image quality and performance settings inside supported cloud-streamed games. Crucially, the update does not require players to own the latest local NVIDIA hardware, meaning the capability arrives through the cloud infrastructure rather than a GPU upgrade. The same update window coincided with Keen Games releasing Enshrouded version 1.0, the full launch after the game's early access period.

The broader significance lies in what this says about DLSS as a technology strategy. DLSS 4.5 had previously been tied to local GeForce hardware, so its extension into the cloud marks a shift in how NVIDIA can distribute its upscaling and frame generation tools. Historically, features like this acted as a selling point for buying newer GPUs. Making them available through a subscription cloud service changes that calculus somewhat, raising genuine questions about whether cloud access supplements or competes with hardware sales, and what manual control settings actually mean for visual fidelity compared to the automatic defaults GeForce NOW previously applied.

None of the three camps, Pro-AI, Anti-AI, or Middle Ground, had published reactions to this story at the time of writing. Pro-AI commentators would typically welcome the move as democratizing access to advanced AI-driven graphics technology for players who cannot afford cutting-edge hardware. Anti-AI voices would more likely focus on concerns about AI upscaling substituting for native rendering quality and whether cloud dependency creates new points of corporate control over gaming experiences. A middle ground perspective would probably acknowledge the convenience while asking whether image quality targets are genuinely met or whether the manual controls are meaningful in practice.

The clearest thing to watch going forward is how NVIDIA expands the list of supported games on GeForce NOW with DLSS 4.5 controls enabled, and whether the company eventually makes DLSS access through the cloud a tiered feature tied to higher membership levels rather than a baseline offering.