HOW-TO · TEXTURE FILTERING · CHECKED ON NPI 3.0.2.3
LOD bias, anisotropic filtering and texture quality, explained
LOD bias decides how sharp textures are: negative values are sharper, positive blurrier. With DLSS, games should lower it automatically. If textures look blurry, set Texture Filtering - LOD Bias (DX) to the value our calculator gives for your DLSS mode and keep Negative LOD bias on Allow. We did not measure image quality or FPS, so the calculator applies NVIDIA's published formula and shows the exact NPI value.
You need
- NPI
- 3.0.2.1 or newer
- A DLSS game
- with blurry textures
- Time
- 3 minutes
LOD bias calculator
Texture Filtering - LOD Bias (DX) 0x00738E8F
- NVIDIA's recommendation
- -1.585 rounds to -1.6250
- Milder, without the extra -1
- -0.585 rounds to -0.6250
Also keep Texture Filtering - Negative LOD bias (0x0019BB68) on Allow, or the driver clamps negative values.
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Method. Bias = log2(render width divided by output width) minus 1.0, from NVIDIA’s DLSS programming guide. OFFICIAL · DLSS SR guide, section 3.5 NPI stores the DirectX value in steps of 1/8 and the OpenGL value in steps of 1/16, as signed numbers, and accepts minus 3 to plus 3. The milder line drops the extra minus 1, because the guide itself notes that high-frequency textures can shimmer at the full value. CODE · NPI value lists Which games and APIs the driver setting visibly affects is not documented, and we could not test it.
| Bias | Steps of 1/8 | Hex value |
|---|---|---|
| -3.000 | -24 | 0xFFFFFFE8 |
| -2.000 | -16 | 0xFFFFFFF0 |
| -1.625 | -13 | 0xFFFFFFF3 |
| 0 | 0 | 0x00000000 |
| +2.000 | +16 | 0x00000010 |
What LOD bias is
A game stores each texture in several sizes, called mip levels, and the GPU picks one by distance and angle. LOD bias shifts that choice. A negative value picks larger, sharper levels. A positive value picks smaller, blurrier levels. DLSS renders below the output size, so the game should lower the bias to keep textures sharp after upscaling. OFFICIAL · DLSS SR guide We have no before and after screenshots, because this site has no NVIDIA GPU.
Clamp or Allow?
↗ has two values, Allow (0) and Clamp (1). Clamp stops negative LOD bias from taking effect. If you set a negative value and nothing changes, check this row first.
CODE · NPI value list Leave it on Allow for the calculator’s values to work.
Setting a manual LOD bias
Open the game profile
Use the game’s own profile, not Global. A negative bias in Global affects every game. Add the game if it has no profile.
Search for LOD
Pick the value
Choose the value from the calculator. The list holds 51 DirectX steps from minus 3.0 to plus 3.0.
Apply and restart
Click Apply Changes and restart the game.
↗ (LOD Bias Auto-Adjust for SGSSAA) is a separate setting for supersampling anti-aliasing and is covered in compatibility bits.
Texture filtering quality and anisotropic filtering
| Setting | ID | Values |
|---|---|---|
| Texture Filtering - Quality | ↗ | High quality 0xFFFFFFF6, Quality 0 (default), Performance 0x0A, High performance 0x14 |
| Anisotropic Filtering - Mode | ↗ | Application-controlled 0 (default), User-defined or Off 1 |
| Anisotropic Filtering - Setting | ↗ | Off (point) 0, Off (linear) 1, 2x, 4x, 8x, 12x, 16x |
| Trilinear Optimization | ↗ | On 0, Off 1 |
| Prevent Anisotropic Filtering | ↗ | Off 0, On 1 |
To force anisotropic filtering over a game’s own setting, set Mode to User-defined and then pick a level in Setting. We did not measure the FPS cost.
Competitive use and fairness
A positive LOD bias makes textures and foliage blurrier, which some players use to remove visual detail. Several games treat that as an exploit. Crytek reported bans in Hunt: Showdown for NPI-based visibility advantages, and DayZ servers discuss it as well. OFFICIAL · Crytek, 22 Nov 2024 Do not use it in online games. See is NPI safe.
Questions people ask
What negative LOD bias should I use with DLSS?
NVIDIA's programming guide gives log2(render width divided by display width) minus 1. That is about minus 1.585 for Quality and minus 2.0 for Performance. NPI rounds to steps of 1/8 in DirectX, so Quality becomes minus 1.625. Many games already apply this themselves.
Should negative LOD bias be Clamp or Allow?
Allow, if you want a negative LOD bias to take effect. Clamp tells the driver to block negative values, which undoes a sharpening setting.
Does anisotropic filtering cost FPS?
It costs some GPU time, more on weak GPUs and at 16x. We did not measure it and do not give a number.
What does texture filtering quality do?
It trades filtering optimisations for speed. High quality turns the optimisations off and High performance turns them on. NVIDIA does not document the exact changes.
Sources
- NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution Programming Guide github.com · accessed 8 Nov 2026 · official
- NVIDIA NVAPI header github.com · accessed 8 Nov 2026 · official
- Crytek huntshowdown.com · accessed 8 Nov 2026 · official