DLSS and FSR without the smearing

Upscaling is the largest single frame gain available in 1.0,
and it is also the setting most often configured badly enough that people turn
it off and blame the feature.

NVIDIA (DLSS):

• Set DLSS Preset K. That is what selects the DLSS 4 transformer model, and it

is a large jump in stability over the older presets — far less shimmering on
foliage and chain-link.

• Balanced at 1440p. Quality at 1080p.
• Below 1080p internal resolution the reconstruction has too little to work with

and distant players start smearing into the background. That is the real cost
of Performance mode, not blurriness in general.

AMD (FSR):

• FSR 3.0 at Quality on 1440p, Ultra Quality on 1080p.
• FSR is more sensitive than DLSS to being pushed hard: the failure mode is

ghosting and smeared foliage, exactly where a prone player is hiding. Do not
drop it below Quality to chase frames.

Sharpness:

• Around 1.2 with Balanced at 1440p. Upscaling softens the image and a little

sharpening puts the edges back.

• Push it too far and you get white haloes on every silhouette, which reads as

detail but is actively worse for spotting — the halo is on the terrain edge as
much as on the player.

Set the upscaler first, then re-tune sharpness. Changing quality mode changes
how much sharpening the image wants.