Nvidia Says its New DLSS 5 Tech is the “GPT Moment for Graphics”

Nvidia introduced DLSS 5 yesterday, the latest generation of its AI technology to improve the visual quality of games. The company published several video comparisons of recent games with and without DLSS 5, and the results received a polarized reception.

Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, boldly claimed yesterday that “DLSS 5 is the GPT moment for graphics — blending hand-crafted rendering with generative AI to deliver a dramatic leap in visual realism while preserving the control artists need for creative expression.” Well, the first video comparisons published by Nvidia clearly show improvements in lighting, shadows, and graphical details, but DLSS 5 can also change how game characters look, sometimes quite dramatically.

The video below shows DLSS 5 running in real time in Resident Evil Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy, Starfield, and EA Sports FC 26. The most impressive changes are probably visible on Resident Evil Requiem and Starfield, where the two characters pretty much look like a different person once DLSS 5 kicks in.

Nvidia explained yesterday that “DLSS 5 takes a game’s color and motion vectors for each frame as input, and uses an AI model to infuse the scene with photoreal lighting and materials that are anchored to source 3D content and consistent from frame to frame.” The technology can render graphics at up to 4K resolution, and it will become available later this fall on select games, and the list also includes AION 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Naraka: Bladepoint, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.

Compared to previous generations of DLSS, which focused on resolution upscaling and frame generation, DLSS 5 is going to be divisive as it really transforms how games look. In some cases, the result is almost reminiscent of “AI slop” videos that are so common on social media these days.

If Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said that the company is “reinventing computer graphics once again,” game developers will still have artistic control over how DLSS 5 changes the visual fidelity of their games. “DLSS 5 provides game developers with detailed controls for intensity, color grading and masking, so artists can determine where and how enhancements are applied to maintain each game’s unique aesthetic,” the company said yesterday.

While DLSS 5 won’t launch until later this fall, Nvidia has yet to share details about supported GPUs. You can see more examples of what DLSS 5 can do in games on Nvidia’s blog post.