{"id":1036968,"date":"2026-09-01T14:01:02","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1036968\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T14:01:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T14:01:02","slug":"nvidias-dlss-5-explained-the-verge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1036968\/","title":{"rendered":"Nvidia\u2019s DLSS 5, explained | The Verge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nvidia knows that DLSS 5 left a bad first impression<\/a>. In March, many gamers took one look at Resident Evil Requiem protagonist Grace Ashcroft\u2019s DLSS 5-ified face<\/a> and declared it AI slop. So this week, the company\u2019s re-introducing its controversial \u201cneural rendering\u201d with firm messaging about how it \u201cpreserves artistic intent,\u201d \u201crespects the rendered frame,\u201d and gives game developers full control.<\/p>\n

Now, ahead of its September 3rd launch<\/a>, with an official Nvidia briefing under our belt and some hands-on time with the version that leaked onto the web<\/a>, we think we finally get the picture. Here\u2019s what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

The critics weren\u2019t wrong: DLSS 5 largely is a generative AI filter for video games. Kind of like a camera filter on your phone, DLSS 5 analyzes and modifies a real-time stream of 2D images after your 3D game engine is done spitting them out. It can indeed make game characters look terrible if applied poorly, like they\u2019ve aged 20 years in a split-second. It uses a lot of GPU power, and can easily cut framerate in half \u2014 even applied well, you could argue that existing games look better without it.<\/p>\n

But DLSS 5 isn\u2019t what we typically think of when we think of generative AI. It doesn\u2019t change shapes, or hallucinate words on a sign, or place brand-new fake objects in view. Instead, it imagines light, shadow, color, and detail that make the same shapes appear differently.<\/p>\n

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Image: Nvidia<\/p>\n

DLSS 5 can make dull, pasty characters look far more photorealistic. It can fill their hair and clothing and nearby foliage with signs of realistic light. It can ground characters and objects and clothing so they don\u2019t look like they\u2019re floating above video game surfaces.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example I captured myself in Yakuza Kiwami: with DLSS on, see how contact shadows underneath each character make them seem like they\u2019re actually standing on the ground?<\/p>\n

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DLSS 5 off. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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DLSS 5 on. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

(Later in this story, you should really check out how Steph Curry\u2019s jersey casts shadows on his video game body, so it looks more like he\u2019s wearing it.)<\/p>\n

And unlike AI-generated photos and videos, that usually produce different results with the same prompt, Nvidia claims DLSS 5 is deterministic, so games should look the same every time.<\/p>\n

DLSS 5 is also not one-size-fits-all. Despite what it sounds like, \u201cDLSS 5 On\u201d and \u201cDLSS 5 Off\u201d isn\u2019t just an on-off switch. Developers (and apparently modders) can drag various sliders to change how DLSS 5 plays with color and light, and they have three different AI models to work with at launch, giving your graphics \u201cdefault,\u201d \u201cnatural\u201d or \u201ccinematic\u201d looks.<\/p>\n

Plus, developers can decide whether to apply DLSS 5 everything in a scene, just a character\u2019s face and skin, just foliage, just silverware or furniture or even just food.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re saying game studios could leave character faces alone? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yep. The toolset can automatically cut out a mask, like in Photoshop, to isolate a character\u2019s face and skin from everything else:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The automated mask precisely selects this character\u2019s face, so game developers can enhance it \u2014 or make sure it\u2019s left alone. Image: Nvidia<\/p>\n

If they don\u2019t like the automated mask, devs can cut one out themselves. That\u2019s the little \u201cDeveloper Masking\u201d checkbox in the image above. \u201cThere\u2019s no limit to how many masks, how many groups, they could implement,\u201d says Nvidia\u2019s director of real-time content technology Gabriele Leone.<\/p>\n

Would game studios actually leave the faces alone? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably not! The first game brave enough to ship with the tech<\/a> is NBA 2K27, and I suspect that\u2019s because Steph Curry actually looks a bit better with detailed skin, a uniform that doesn\u2019t seem glued to his body, and a bit more glint in his eye. Take a look at Nvidia\u2019s images for yourself:<\/p>\n

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That basketball, too \u2014 doesn\u2019t it feel a bit more lifelike now most of its detail is in shadow?<\/p>\n

But what about DLSStelle<\/a> and all the other horrific AI faces<\/a> I\u2019ve seen since modders got hold of the tech?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Truly deranged. But these games are supposed to look like animation, and surely their creators would never do anything like this to them, right? Right??<\/p>\n

\u201cThe soul and goal of GeForce is to achieve photorealism in real-time rendering,\u201d Nvidia\u2019s director of applied deep learning Edward Liu told journalists. And games with more realistic art styles don\u2019t look anywhere near this bad. But even realistic games can look wrong if the sliders are set too aggressively.<\/p>\n

What do you mean by \u201ctoo aggressively?\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m willing to bet that if you\u2019ve seen the leaked DLSS 5 modifying an existing game, the unofficial DLSS 5 mod was set to its default level of around 80 percent intensity or even higher. Some creators will even pump it up to 200 percent to make the difference between \u201cDLSS on\u201d and \u201cDLSS off\u201d especially clear.<\/p>\n

But I believe even 80 percent is far too aggressive for many existing games. It can feel like you\u2019re artificially aging a character by weathering their skin and deepening the wrinkles and creases in their face.<\/p>\n

To show you, I fired up Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Here\u2019s what Lara Croft looks like with DLSS 5 at 0 percent, 80 percent, and 200 percent intensity:<\/p>\n

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0 percent intensity (DLSS 5 off). Tap to enlarge; use arrows to compare. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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80 percent intensity. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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200 percent intensity. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

She seems\u2026 weathered, no? But at 40 percent intensity, she still looks like the same video game character to me, only with a bit more life in her eyes:<\/p>\n

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0 percent intensity (DLSS 5 off). Tap to enlarge; use arrows to compare. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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40 percent intensity. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

Similarly, here\u2019s Kazuma Kiryu from Yakuza Kiwami once more. In this part of the game, he\u2019s supposed to be 27 years old, and nowhere near the grizzled veteran he is by Yakuza 6. But as I ramp up the intensity from 0 to 40 to 85 percent, you can see his furrowed brow gets more furrowed, his hair lightens, and the increased shadow across his cheeks makes his face appear slightly gaunt.<\/p>\n

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0 percent intensity (DLSS 5 off). Tap to enlarge; use arrows to compare.<\/p>\n

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40 percent intensity.<\/p>\n

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85 percent intensity.<\/p>\n

He looks older \u2014 even if the underlying geometry of his face hasn\u2019t actually changed. In a cutscene at 85 percent, it even looks like his hair might be tinged with grey:<\/p>\n

\"Does<\/a><\/p>\n

Does this look like a 27-year-old man to you? Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

But again, it\u2019s something developers and modders can control with some granularity. I\u2019d probably enjoy a version of DLSS 5 for older games that ignores the faces but enhances a character\u2019s gear. Kiryu\u2019s sworn brother and antagonist Nishiki, below, doesn\u2019t quite look right to me \u2014 but his eyepatch and necklace look excellent.<\/p>\n

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DLSS 5 off. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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DLSS 5 on. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

By the way, these are just me playing with the overarching DLSS 5 slider when set to its \u201cdefault\u201d model. There are actually three different AI models, each with a slightly different look, and two different sliders, one for \u201ctone\u201d and one for \u201cstructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m telling myself that \u201ctone\u201d is about light and color, while \u201cstructure\u201d is about shadows and definition. But it\u2019s probably easier to show you by isolating each:<\/p>\n

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Tone intensity 0, structure intensity 0. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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Tone intensity 100, structure intensity 0. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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Tone intensity 0, structure intensity 100. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

Officially, Nvidia says that \u201cstructure intensity\u201d controls a mix of ambient occlusion, contact shadows, reflections and subsurface scattering (read: how light scatters through materials like hair, skin, and leaves), while \u201ctone intensity\u201d controls color and \u201cbroader lighting\u201d details.<\/p>\n

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What about the three different AI models?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nvidia only called them Model A, Model B and Model C in my briefing, but the DLSS 5 mod I used describes them as \u201cdefault,\u201d \u201ccinematic\u201d and \u201cnatural.\u201d Here\u2019s the image Nvidia provided to show the difference:<\/p>\n

\"Nvidia\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n

Nvidia\u2019s three AI looks. Image: Nvidia<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s my own comparison in Shadow of the Tomb Raider \u2014 you may need to blow these up and cycle through to spot the differences.<\/p>\n

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DLSS 5 off. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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\u201cDefault,\u201c 80 percent intensity. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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\u201cCinematic,\u201c 80 percent intensity. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

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\u201cNatural,\u201c 80 percent intensity. Screenshot by Sean Hollister \/ The Verge<\/p>\n

Is this really an AI filter? It doesn\u2019t use the game engine at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nvidia says that DLSS 5 can take some cues from game engines. But it\u2019s based on the colors and motion vectors that it sees in the flat 2D frames, after they\u2019re rendered and after other techniques like DLSS Super Resolution are applied.<\/p>\n

When we asked how DLSS 5 knows the difference between a character model, an object, and a piece of foliage, Liu replied that the model was trained to recognize what it sees. \u201cJust like a person, if you look at anything, you know where things are.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can even technically run DLSS 5 on video capture from a Nintendo Switch 2<\/a>, and modders have already found ways to inject it into earlier games that used OpenGL and DirectX 9.<\/p>\n

Will game developers actually buy into DLSS 5? Will they use it well? <\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the big remaining questions \u2014 and one that Nvidia left unanswered during and after our briefing.<\/p>\n

While Nvidia said in March that DLSS 5 would come to at least 16 different games including Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, and Resident Evil Requiem, the company did not answer questions about when DLSS 5 might come to any game beyond NBA 2K27, nor did it confirm that other titles are still coming following the original backlash. Perhaps Nvidia and its partners will wait and see how reviewers and gamers react first.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that this may be a niche technology to start: while it no longer requires two RTX 5090 GPUs to function, it still uses a lot of horsepower. Officially, DLSS 5 is only coming to the latest RTX 50 series GPUs, which have become quite expensive: even a lower-mid-range RTX 5060 retailers for around $470 these days.<\/p>\n

Nvidia claims that an RTX 5060 is enough to play NBA 2K27 at 1080p with ultra settings, ray tracing, and DLSS 5 enabled \u2014 assuming you\u2019re pairing it with a fast gaming CPU and a whole heap of RAM.<\/p>\n

\"These<\/a><\/p>\n

These framerates are with 6x frame-gen enabled, so divide by six to get a better idea of how responsive the game might feel.<\/p>\n

Just how much of a performance hit are we talking?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With NBA 2K27, Nvidia claims the performance hit is 50 to 60 percent on average across all Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs. When I ran the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark at 1440p with on an RTX 5090 at Highest spec, DLSS Quality and an unofficial DLSS 5 mod, I saw framerate exactly cut in half \u2014 312fps with DLSS 5 off, 156fps with it on.<\/p>\n

Will gamers be able to tweak DLSS 5 the way they like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The DLSS 5 mods are so easy to apply, it seems like the cat is out of the bag. But Nvidia\u2019s message is that the developer has full control, and it didn\u2019t answer questions about whether it\u2019ll provide controls to gamers, too.<\/p>\n

Which mod should I install? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t yet feel comfortable recommending one \u2014 there\u2019s been a feeding frenzy for DLSS 5 mods ever since the leak and we haven\u2019t been able to properly vet. I installed one on a completely fresh system, just in case something went wrong.<\/p>\n

How have gamers reacted to Nvidia\u2019s re-introduction of DLSS 5 so far? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The reactions have been all over the place since DLSS 5 leaked and modders began posting their work. I\u2019ve seen people say that DLSS 5 looks like a free next-gen remaster of any game you like, and I\u2019ve seen people say it looks as terrible as it did before. I\u2019ve seen people suggest that even if it looks good, it\u2019ll make every game look too similar once developers start using it as a crutch.<\/p>\n

But many of those impressions were based on images and videos of the tech at its extremes. Once people realize there\u2019s granular control, perhaps reactions will become more measured.<\/p>\n

Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/p>\n