Foveated rendering, a technique long used in VR to save performance, is now being applied to DLSS 5 through community mods. The idea is simple: render sharp detail only where the eye is looking, and drop resolution at the periphery where fine detail is barely noticed. That reduces the workload of DLSS 5's Neural Rendering, which otherwise loads a full AI model into the GPU and renders images in real time.
Two independent projects implement this approach. Maximedgoulet's Foveated DLSS5 is a ReShade add-on, while ClarkCheekyKent's CheekyFoveatedDLSS works as a standalone integration. Both let users adjust the size of the high-quality center area, with independent width and height controls, as well as the falloff rate beyond that region. Reddit commenters say the standalone version is more convenient and polished, though both reportedly deliver large performance gains.
In one test, Maximedgoulet reported The Witcher 3 running at 48 FPS without the mod and 80 FPS with it, at an ultrawide resolution of 7680x2160p on an RTX 4090. That suggests foveated DLSS 5 could make Neural Rendering playable on high-resolution ultrawide monitors where it previously struggled, though the claim comes from a single user's benchmark rather than independent testing.