Nvidia’s DLSS 5 will launch alongside NBA 2K27 on September 3, and it appears to be much more realistic.
NVIDIA is poised to launch DLSS 5, its latest effort to advance real-time game graphics toward photorealism. The company has announced that the new 3D-guided neural rendering technology will be available starting September 3 at 9 p.m. PT, with NBA 2K27 being the first game to support it on RTX 50-series GPUs, laptops, and GeForce NOW.
I had the opportunity to see DLSS 5 in action during NBA 2K27 and the Zorah demo at Gamescom, and I must say: it appears significantly more impressive in motion than the initial announcement might imply.
DLSS 5 does not remove the artist from the process
Nvidia
When NVIDIA initially unveiled DLSS 5, there were immediate concerns that AI-generated visuals could undermine the artistic decisions made by game developers. However, after witnessing the technology in use, it seems that these worries are unfounded.
DLSS 5 examines the rendered frame alongside data like color and motion vectors, utilizing its neural model to comprehend characters, objects, materials, lighting, and their interactions within a scene. Crucially, developers retain control over how much processing occurs.
Nvidia
Nvidia
This control goes quite deep. Developers have the option to use automatic or manual masking and can modify the intensity of structural details such as contact shadows, reflections, and ambient occlusion, in addition to broader lighting and color responses. These controls can be applied globally or to specific objects. Essentially, DLSS 5 does not just enhance a game without input; artists can determine what aspects receive AI enhancement and to what extent.
Nvidia
Nvidia
The technology also becomes particularly captivating in practice. In the demos I observed, DLSS 5 could identify different elements within a scene and address them separately. Characters, their clothing, surrounding objects, and the background can effectively function as distinct components that developers can manage. This leads to a much more believable interaction between lighting, materials, and surfaces.
Nvidia
Nvidia
NVIDIA also highlights that better input results in better output. This is logical: DLSS 5 isn’t creating an entire game from scratch but rather enhancing the final image using information already generated by the game.
Nvidia
From two RTX 5090s to an RTX 5060 laptop
One of the most surprising aspects for me was not just the visual quality but the hardware running it. When DLSS 5 was first introduced, it required two RTX 5090 GPUs. However, at Gamescom, I witnessed the technology running on a laptop equipped with an RTX 5060. This represents a significant reduction in hardware requirements while still delivering impressively convincing results.
While there is a performance trade-off based on quality settings, the visual enhancements are hard to overlook. NVIDIA’s own figures for NBA 2K27 indicate that DLSS 5 can operate alongside ray tracing and DLSS Multi Frame Generation, with an RTX 5060 achieving 258 fps at 1080p High settings, while an RTX 5090 can reach 370 fps at 4K Ultra in Performance mode.
Nvidia
What excites me most is the potential for proper testing. DLSS 5 isn’t merely another option on NVIDIA’s expanding graphics settings menu. From what I’ve observed, it has the capability to fundamentally alter the appearance of lighting, materials, and characters on-screen while still affording developers significant control over the final output.
NBA 2K27 will be the first to implement it on September 3. Based on my observations at Gamescom, I’m eager to see if DLSS 5 can consistently evoke that “wait, that’s actually rendered in real time?” experience once it operates outside of the meticulously prepared demo settings.
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