NVIDIA DLSS 5 to Launch on RTX 50 Series GPUs on September 3

DLSS 5, the latest version of Nvidia’s super resolution, frame generation, and ray reconstruction technology, will officially arrive on Thursday, September 3. NBA 2K27 will be the first game to support it on PCs with Nvidia RTX 50 Series GPUs, as well as the company’s GeForce Now cloud streaming service.

You may remember that DLSS 5 got a lot of bad buzz when Nvidia first announced the technology back in March, describing it as the “GPT moment for graphics.” The most visible change was on the faces of characters in games like Resident Evil Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy, and Starfield, which looked notably different. Many gamers compared DLSS 5 to AI filters that often make people unrecognizable on social media platforms, perverting developers’ artistic vision along the way.

Obviously, the reality is more complex than that. The main innovation in DLSS 5 is what Nvidia calls “3D-guided neural rendering,” which uses AI to “bring real-time graphics closer than ever to Hollywood-grade photorealism.” Nvidia believes that developers will be able to leverage this technology to “bridge the cinematic gap” and make the creation of games with photorealistic graphics far more accessible.

DLSS 5 does use generative AI to achieve “Hollywood-level realism.” However, developers are in control of where to apply the new neural rendering technology. While DLSS 5 will work as a simple on-or-off toggle for gamers, developers will have different models and parameters to choose from to fine-tune how their games look when the technology is enabled.

“To ensure enhancements are applied only where intended, DLSS 5 features semantic AI masking that recognizes scene objects automatically, allowing developers to boost the environmental uplift while holding back on characters, or vice versa,” Nvidia explained. “Furthermore, engine-level masking allows artists to isolate specific props or asset groups, such as glassware, water droplets, or foliage, and apply custom neural lighting tweaks to specific elements of a game without altering surrounding elements.”

As I mentioned earlier, NBA 2K27 will be the first game to support DLSS 5 on RTX 50 Series GPUs and GeForce Now on September 3. In addition to using 3D-guided neural rendering to bring a new photorealistic look to games, DLSS 5 also continues to use super resolution and multi-frame generation to deliver higher frame rates and improved image quality. Nvidia said that PC gamers with GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs should be able to play NBA 2K27 at up to 370 frames per second, 4K resolution, and the Ultra Preset with DLSS 5 enabled.

“Our optimization curve isn’t flattening out, and we have further optimizations in active development. We expect upcoming model updates coming in the Fall to boost performance beyond today’s baseline,” Nvidia said today. The company plans to announce more games that support DLSS 5 in the coming weeks and months.