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Short answer: In one reported, modded comparison, DLSS 5 made ray tracing look closer to path tracing in some lighting and character details, but the reviewer still preferred path tracing’s lighting—and found the DLSS 5 ray-tracing setup slower in the tests described. This is not an official game mode: CD PROJEKT RED lists DLSS 4.5 with Ray Reconstruction, not native DLSS 5 support.
What the comparison actually tested
The DLSS 5 comparison was an experiment with an RHI mod, not a built-in setting in The Witcher 3 Remastered. DSOGaming’s John Papadopoulos says the game did not support DLSS 5 natively and that he used a mod to enable it. He tested with a Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32 GB of DDR5-6000 memory, an RTX 5080 and RTX 5090, Windows 10 64-bit, and NVIDIA Game Ready driver 617.14. He adjusted DLSS 5 to improve character appearance and slightly improve environments while retaining the game’s original color tone. DSOGaming’s comparison describes that particular setup; its results have not been independently replicated here.
The official PC feature list instead names path tracing, NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 with Ray Reconstruction, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 2.0. FSR 4 is listed for Radeon RX 7000-series and newer GPUs; FSR 2 is used on unsupported GPUs. CD PROJEKT RED’s list does not name DLSS 5. The remaster’s official PC feature list is the relevant guide to built-in support, though future updates could change it.
How the visuals compare
Path tracing and ray tracing are separate rendering options in the remaster. NVIDIA describes the game’s ray-traced lighting, reflections, and related effects as improved, with path tracing available as an additional lighting option. Those are NVIDIA’s descriptions of the game’s features, rather than independent measurements. NVIDIA’s feature overview explains the renderer and its advertised enhancements.
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Lighting and shadows
In the scene DSOGaming examined, Papadopoulos judged that ray tracing with DLSS 5 came closer to path tracing than standard ray tracing did. He nevertheless considered path tracing’s lighting better. He also reported improvements to some environmental lighting, ambient occlusion, and shadows with DLSS 5. These are scene-specific visual judgments from a modded setup, not proof that DLSS 5 closes the gap in every location or lighting condition.
Characters and environments
The reviewer found that DLSS 5 made characters look more detailed and could improve environments slightly. His adjustments were intended to preserve the original color tone. That result is specific to his settings: it should not be read as a guaranteed appearance for every system or as an official visual preset.
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Image stability and trade-offs
The available comparison does not establish a controlled result for image stability, latency, or output quality across matched scenes and identical settings. Those are important factors when comparing reconstruction methods, but there is not enough evidence here to declare a winner on them. A fair comparison would need to hold resolution, upscaling mode, frame generation, scene, GPU, and driver constant—and distinguish the game’s native options from a modded DLSS 5 setup.
What the reported frame rates do—and do not—show
DSOGaming reports two RTX 5090 results at 4K and Ultra+: 55–57 FPS with DLSS 4.5 Performance Mode and Frame Generation off, and 45–49 FPS for the path-tracing-with-DLSS-5 test using DLSS Performance Mode. The article also says ray tracing with DLSS 5 ran slower than default path tracing in its tests. These figures are from the reviewer’s setup and are not a matched benchmark: the stated modes differ, and the numbers should not be treated as a general performance ranking. The test report gives the conditions for those results.
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Frame generation also changes what an FPS figure means. CD PROJEKT RED says its Path Tracing performance configuration was measured with upscaling and Frame Generation enabled, and warns that results vary with scene, system, settings, and resolution. The developer’s announcement provides that qualification.
NVIDIA gives separate, vendor-reported examples of up to 245 FPS on an RTX 5080 and up to 385 FPS on an RTX 5090 at 4K Ultra+ path-traced settings. Both examples use DLSS 4.5, Ray Reconstruction, and 6X Multi Frame Generation; they are not native-rendering results or directly comparable with DSOGaming’s figures. NVIDIA’s numbers describe its stated configuration, not an independent benchmark. NVIDIA’s performance examples include the settings behind those claims.
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Which option should you use?
- Choose path tracing if your priority is the lighting result and your system can run it at a satisfactory frame rate. The cited comparison’s reviewer preferred its lighting in the scene tested.
- Use the built-in ray-tracing option if you want enhanced ray-traced effects without relying on a DLSS 5 mod. The game’s official PC list supports DLSS 4.5 with Ray Reconstruction, alongside the listed AMD and Intel reconstruction options.
- Treat DLSS 5 as an experiment if you are specifically interested in the modded comparison. Its reported visual improvements and performance cost apply to one reviewer’s setup, not an officially supported or broadly validated mode.
There is no controlled head-to-head result here for DLSS, FSR, and XeSS, so the listed alternatives should not be ranked on image quality or speed from this evidence alone.
Hardware and playing remotely
An RTX 5080 is one GPU in NVIDIA’s path-tracing examples, but those figures depend on DLSS 4.5, Ray Reconstruction, and 6X Multi Frame Generation; they do not establish that every player needs that card. Performance still depends on the particular scene, resolution, settings, and system configuration. Players without a local RTX PC capable of the game’s path-tracing and DLSS features can also consider streaming through GeForce NOW, which NVIDIA names as an option for the remaster. NVIDIA’s announcement describes the service option.
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Availability and scope
CD PROJEKT RED announced the remaster as available on September 29, 2026, as a free upgrade for owners on supported platforms, including Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. The visual and performance comparison discussed above concerns the PC version and should not be generalized to other platforms. The developer’s release announcement gives the availability details.
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