Next-Gen Visuals in Phantom Blade Zero With DLSS 5 and Path Tracing
by John Papadopoulos · DSOGamingS-Game has just released Phantom Blade Zero on PC. Powered by Unreal Engine 5.7.4, the game uses Path Tracing on PC. And although it does not support DLSS 5, I’ve decided to use a mod to experiment with it. Can DLSS 5 improve the game’s already amazing graphics? Let’s find out.
Since Phantom Blade Zero does not have native support for DLSS 5, I used the latest version of the RHI Mod to enable it. To test and capture the following screenshots, I also used an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, 32GB of DDR5 at 6000Mhz, NVIDIA’s RTX 5080, and RTX 5090. I also used Windows 10 64-bit and the NVIDIA Game Ready 621.01 driver.
Here are the DLSS 5 settings I used. Contrary to my previous articles, this time I wanted to get a “next-gen” boost in image quality. This comes at a cost that I’ll detail below.
For now, let’s look at some comparison shots. The vanilla Path Tracing images are on the left, and the DLSS 5 shots are on the right.
In my opinion, everything looks better with DLSS 5. Look at the skin of the main character, the armor, the extra shadows in the environments, and the better lighting. This is a big improvement in a game that already looked amazing with its default Path Tracing.
However, there are downsides to using the DLSS 5 settings I used. The first is the white outline you can spot around the character. There was nothing I could do to remove it. The other downside is that the lighting changes whenever you move the camera. It can be easily noticed in some scenes. This may frustrate some of you.
The good news is that you can minimize these effects by reducing the Extra Neural Style of DLSS 5 to 6.00 or 5.00. You can also completely fix them by dropping that setting to 1.00. The game will still look better, but you won’t get that “wow” and “next-gen” effect.
Here are a couple of side-by-side comparisons. On the left is the vanilla version. In the middle is DLSS 5 with its default settings. On the right is DLSS 5 with Extra Neural Style 5.50. As you can see, the images on the right look much better. However, DLSS 5 with its default settings still looks amazing. So, if you don’t want to mess around with the DLSS 5 settings, you can simply use its default values.
DLSS 5 with Extra Neural Style at 5.50 comes with a significant performance hit. It’s also heavier than DLSS 5 with its default settings. So, this is only meant for those who own an RTX 5090. At least in my opinion. Owners of weaker GPUs should stick with the default values, which can also noticeably decrease performance.
Without DLSS 5, I was getting 260 FPS at 4K with DLSS 4.5 Quality and MFG X4 in one of the most demanding areas. With DLSS 5 default, I was getting 210 FPS. And then, with my custom DLSS 5 settings, I was getting 188 FPS. The game was fully playable without any major input latency issues. By dropping DLSS 4.5 to Performance Mode, I was able to get over 60 FPS at all times (without using Multi-Frame Gen). So, in my opinion, this is the best way to play Phantom Blade Zero on a high-end GPU. Owners of an RTX 5080 can use these settings for a smooth experience at 1440p.
All in all, Phantom Blade Zero is a game that greatly benefits from DLSS 5. While it can take a while to find the best settings, it can really make the game look like the “next-gen” DLSS 5 videos you’ve seen online. If you don’t want to mess around with the DLSS 5 settings, you can stick with its default values, and the game will still look better than the vanilla version!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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