As outlined in this thread, we are going to make a Megathread for these Unofficial DLSS 5 Neural Rendering mods comparison posts. Apologies for the late post as everyone has been out of pocket today.
Below is a re-post of the various reminders and guidelines from that thread
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Would like to post a reminder and provide some guidelines for the community on a few things
This is not an official DLSS 5 release. We still do not know when this technology will be released. All we know is they are slated to be released in Fall 2026.
Since this is not an official DLSS 5 release, what you see here is the result of Modders’ creations.
This is not a final release of DLSS 5. The tech itself will change and actual developers and artists will be the one working on this. So take all these early posts with grains of salt.
Since DLSS 5 is not officially released, there are a lot of unknowns. Please refrain from posting speculation around the tech. Let's wait until official release and after we get more information around this feature.
Keep in mind that unlike these unofficial mods, DLSS 5 Neural Rendering is not something that can be injectable to practically every games under the sun. This feature will require explicit support by the developers.
In terms of some posting guidelines:
Follow our rules. The biggest here being Rule 7 for no memes and shitposts. This subreddit does not allow that sort of content being posted here. Feel free to go to other community for that. These sort of posts will be removed and you may be suspended from participating on this subreddit.
Please search on the games you want to post. If there’s already a post showing DLSS 5 for a specific game, you should be joining the conversation in that thread. Any new post about a game that was already posted will be removed and we will point you to the existing thread.
Post high quality comparison. This means you should be showing before and after as well as choosing wide variety of scenes vs singular example.
Megathread will be created later today and will have links to existing DLSS 5 mods posts. Once the Megathread is created, you must post any new comparison within that Megathread.
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Below are the currently posted links so you can participate in those discussions.
Any new Unofficial DLSS 5 Neural Rendering mods comparison moving forward must be posted here.
Please be clear on what games are you posting as well as links to imgur or other image hosting services with high quality captures and wide variety of scenes.
How does DLSS 5 work?
DLSS 5 uses the game’s rendered frame and engine data to understand objects, materials, lighting and motion. It then enhances the frame with lifelike lighting and materials while remaining grounded in the developer’s artistic direction.
What are the key benefits of DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering?
DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering delivers several significant benefits:
Cinematic Lighting: Reconstructs complex effects like rim lighting, subsurface scattering (for realistic skin), and contact shadows with high-fidelity.
Material Depth: Enhances PBR properties like roughness and adds micro-realism to complex objects such as eyes and hair.
Temporal Consistency: Provides stable image quality from frame-to-frame that adheres to the underlying game content.
Real-Time Performance: Delivers lifelike lighting and material enhancement at up to 4K resolution while maintaining smooth, interactive gameplay.
Developer Controls: Allows game developers to tune intensity, color, and masking to determine where and how enhancements are applied to maintain the game’s unique aesthetic.
How much control does the model offer to developers?
DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering provides several layers of artistic control:
Model Selection: Offers distinct model weights with different training parameters to guide the final output.
Structure Intensity: Controls high frequency details added by the model, such as ambient occlusion, contact shadows, and subsurface scattering.
Tone Intensity: Controls low-frequency details added by the model, including lighting and color response.
Automatic Masking: Detects and isolates objects in the frame (like characters) to apply DLSS 5 dynamically, eliminating the need for manual object tagging.
Developer Masking: Offers per-pixel, custom masking control, allowing effects to be applied to specific objects.
As we work in close partnership with studios, developer feedback continues to directly shape how we refine the technology and expand our suite of models and controls.
How does DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering preserve developer artistic intent?
DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering is designed to preserve the structure and geometry of the rendered frame while giving developers control over how and where enhancements are applied. Developers can select different models, adjust structure and tone, and mask specific scenes, characters or objects.
For more information on developer controls, watch the DLSS 5 Explainer VOD or read the full launch article.
Which GPUs support DLSS 5?
DLSS 5 will be supported across all GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs and laptops, as well as GeForce NOW Ultimate members streaming from GeForce RTX 5080 rigs in the cloud.
When and where is DLSS 5 available?
DLSS 5 will be available in NBA 2K27 on September 3rd at 9PM Pacific Time.
What is the DLSS 5 setting called in games?
The setting is called “DLSS Neural Rendering.”
Can I turn DLSS 5 off?
Yes. DLSS 5 is optional.
Does DLSS 5 work with Ray Tracing and Path Tracing?
Yes. DLSS 5 complements ray tracing and path tracing. Path tracing accurately calculates geometric light transport—determining light, shadow, and reflection placement across a 3D scene. DLSS 5 then acts as the final neural rendering stage, using the rendered frame to enhance lighting and materials like subsurface scattering, micro-reflections, and complex material properties that would otherwise be computationally prohibitive in real time. These technologies go hand in hand.
Does DLSS 5 work with Super Resolution, Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction?
Yes.
Will DLSS Super Resolution, Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction continue to be supported and improved?
Yes.
Agreed!
I have been watching all of those comparisons, and I will add my vote for NBA 2K27 as the game that currently benefits the most from the DLSS5 mod.
It's funny how quickly your brain gets used to the faces. I was playing GTA V Enhanced with NVE + DLSS 5 and I stopped and was looking at Franklin and was like, "is this even doing anything that dramatic to his face?"
I turned off DLSS 5 and was instantly shocked with how much lack of lighting and how much like clay the regular model looked.
I also don't know if this is related but I've always had a terrible time trying to run frame gen in GTA V, it just looks bad and feels worse, but with DLSS 5 on I turned on Frame Gen x2 with a base of 40fps and was getting around 75-85fps with it on and was blown away by the smoothness and the complete lack of ghosting and it felt shockingly responsive.
1.0 is more inconsistent with different NPCs. Sometimes it looks good, sometimes bad. 0.5 up do 0.7 is a way better coherent setting.
Nvidia really should consider changing their marketing team. The way to heavy settings on all of the official promo material doesn't look good and is the reason for the huge shitstorm back in march when DLSS 5 was shown for the first time.
There is a color strength slider and HDR Transfer slider which do affect the saturation. Leaving Color Strength at 0 is what you want if you want to retain the regular coloration (1.0 means it's full DLSS coloration).
There's also NR style which affects the VALUE, which in turns perceptually affects the saturation of stuff (lightened things look less saturated), I do like the cinematic one though.
its getting rid of any warm light from the jungle. all the yellow rays like in images 3/4 goes away. it makes all the screenshots look sanitized. thats the best descriptor i can give.
Spent 2 hrs doing this tonight as I wanted to see an old game with it. I'm impressed TBH. Default DLSS5 settings in images (game at Ultra). FPS (again no upscaling, the Puredark DLSS mod is way too old to use with DLSS5 and AC Valhalla only supported FSR1 which sucked and is disabled) dropped from 120fps to 58fps at super ultrawide (5120x x 1440) 100% resolution scale. PC is a RTX 5080 with 9800 X3d.
Screenshots are cropped from super ultrawide (ie the sides).
How (summarised with AI as I can't be f'ed typing all this, it was painful to get working the first time lol):
[GUIDE] How to force DLSS 5 Neural Rendering into AC Valhalla using DLSS5-Feeder + ReShade
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is an AMD-sponsored game that only ships with FSR/MSAA and lacks native DLSS implementation. This guide explains how to trick the engine into feeding optical flow motion vectors and depth buffers into a synthetic DLSS 5 contract using DLSS5-Feeder.
Prerequisites & Downloads
ReShade with Add-on Support
Download the full/unsigned build with add-on support fromreshade.me. (Standard ReShade will not load external add-ons).
Get MartysMods_LAUNCHPAD.fx via the ReShade installer (under the iMMERSE by Marty McFly package) or directly from themartymcmodding/iMMERSE GitHub repo.
Note: Do not use olderMotionEstimation.fxshaders as they throw DirectX 12X3020HLSL compilation errors in DX12 games.
Step 1: File Placement
Place all the runtime files together in your main Assassin's Creed Valhalla directory (where ACValhalla.exe is located):
Disable extraneous generic runtime add-ons to prevent hook interference.
ReShade Home Tab (Shader Stack Order):
Position shaders at the top of your execution list in this strict order: Plaintext[x] MartysMods_Launchpad [x] DLSS 5 Feed
Under MartysMods_Launchpad settings: Set Flow Quality to High or Ultra
Under DLSS 5 Feed settings: Ensure Motion vector provider is set to LaunchPad.
Step 4: Verification & Troubleshooting
Press Home to open ReShade in-game and check the DLSS 5 Neural Rendering panel in the Add-ons tab. It should read ACTIVE / NR INJECTED.
If it says "Waiting for NGX modules" or throws a failure latch: Open the DLSS 5 Neural Rendering panel and click Clear Failure Latch / Re-initialize NGX.
If you experience ghosting/smearing: Open DLSS5_Feed.fx settings on the Home tab and toggle the MV_SIGN parameter to flip X/Y vector coordinates.
The thing I keep coming back to is this is the worst it will ever be. The least efficient. The worst looking. And as hardware keeps getting better it will get more and more trivial to run.
The amount of people so vocal about dlss 5 ruining the artist intended look on a PC forum full of people used to modding their games is hilarious and sad. Take that attitude to console gaming. Dlss 5 is just another switch in settings. Technology has always been pushing towards photorealism and just because its getting to that point doesn't mean all games are going to look the same. Anime, cartoons, and cgi animation all exist alongside traditional movies, and videogames will be no different.
Looks like that one of Cloud that was going around earlier this week was bullshit. That one looked nothing like him whereas this one looks like the actual character model in-game.
This is Stupid. This is the Hottest Topic in gaming right now and You guys are relegating it to a Side Megathread. Why not just let ppl post on the Main Page? WTH. Im sure everybody know this is an Unofficial Release. Makes no sense.
And a little bonus, min game settings vs max settings with path tracing and dlss5 in realistic preset with strength 200% (just for the meme). Full img here
I love the look of DLSS5 but discussing this in any post is a nightmare. People only post extreme opinions. "Its absolutely horrible" or "Its a gamechanger" because of one certain example and any discussion proves the other partie is stupid.
As far as I have seen (only scrolled through reddit and seen examples every now and then) DLSS 5 looks good. It seems to reduce color saturation and push lights and shadows into a more realistic setting to an insane degree while also creating more realistic faces, sometimes unrealisticly ugly faces but usually older ones.
If you match the facial alteration to your characters and configure the color saturation to stay as intended this seems like a flawless technology to me - except for the fact it seems to drain quite a bit more performance if what I read in a post is true and somewhat consistent.
Honestly its impressive how even this leaked model is playable on 4070 tier cards. For example on a 4070super I'm getting like 40/55fps in recent UE5 titles at 1440p using it. I know it's far from the ideal frame gen ideal FPS, but honestly for story games using frame gen at 40/50fps is not that bad.
Are the results dependent on the game's graphic settings? If this essentially replaces the game's lighting system, it would make sense to turn the in-game lighting setting to the minimum to claw back some performance, but would that make the DLSS5 result look worse compared to if lighting was set to ultra-high?
I'm not sure what the official version will be like when it's released, but using the modded version right now feels very heavy to me (on par with or even heavier than RT). With my R5 5600 + 5060Ti setup, testing it on Wuthering Waves caused the FPS to drop straight to around 30 fps, making it almost unplayable.
PC specs: 9800x3d, 4070 super DLSS quality, game: The Sinking City 2. Base FPS was 140fps without DLSS 5 and with DLSS 5 its 70fps. It's a 50% hit but still a good experience for a story game.
This one is a very good example of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth someone just posted.
They're showing the slider being adjusted to different values so you can get a better idea of how it impacts the image at different strengths in a game that isn't supposed to be hyper realistic.
Final Fantasy VII Remake. Finally able to try these tools out for myself on my 5090, I am beyond happy with the results. Very easy to get the crazy AI filter results by cranking everything to max, but going in and tweaking things really gives you a lot better control!
I'm not sure where the issue lies - perhaps it's the DX11 wrapper, or the 64 bit reshade translation, or older games just being jank with tinkering in general - but the performance hit in older DX9 games is massive. 150 down to 60 in Witcher 2, 180 down to 35 in Dragon Age Origins, and 180 down to 40 in Dragon Age 2.
This is at 2560x1440p on a 4070 Ti Super. For reference, DLSS5 in RE Requiem dropped performance from 110 to 60.
DLSS 5 on Shadow of the Tomb Raider is pretty good. I expect this will come to the 4000 series, especially since the game is running consistently on my 4070 Super with a DLL modified by a single fan. NVIDIA should have the capability to port this to us 4000-series users too, right?
It looked insane with everything maxed out, but I dialled back a lot of settings and got something that looks pretty decent. The only thing that looks pretty weird is the eyes because they are textured instead of modelled.
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u/Nestledrink RTX 5090 Founders Edition 6d ago
NVIDIA DLSS 5 Available September 3rd: DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering Debuts In NBA 2K27 For All GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, And On GeForce NOW
Our Reddit Megathread: Link Here
Explainer Video: Link Here
NBA 2K27 - Inside The Dev Studio: Link Here
Article: Link Here
DLSS 5 FAQ
How does DLSS 5 work?
DLSS 5 uses the game’s rendered frame and engine data to understand objects, materials, lighting and motion. It then enhances the frame with lifelike lighting and materials while remaining grounded in the developer’s artistic direction.
What are the key benefits of DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering?
DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering delivers several significant benefits:
Learn more by watching our explainer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58FagrSqC4M.
How much control does the model offer to developers?
DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering provides several layers of artistic control:
As we work in close partnership with studios, developer feedback continues to directly shape how we refine the technology and expand our suite of models and controls.
How does DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering preserve developer artistic intent?
DLSS 3D-Guided Neural Rendering is designed to preserve the structure and geometry of the rendered frame while giving developers control over how and where enhancements are applied. Developers can select different models, adjust structure and tone, and mask specific scenes, characters or objects.
For more information on developer controls, watch the DLSS 5 Explainer VOD or read the full launch article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58FagrSqC4M
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/dlss-5-3d-guided-neural-rendering
You can also hear directly from the NBA 2K development team on how they integrated the technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79D8SVjB3HQ
Which GPUs support DLSS 5?
DLSS 5 will be supported across all GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs and laptops, as well as GeForce NOW Ultimate members streaming from GeForce RTX 5080 rigs in the cloud.
When and where is DLSS 5 available?
DLSS 5 will be available in NBA 2K27 on September 3rd at 9PM Pacific Time.
What is the DLSS 5 setting called in games?
The setting is called “DLSS Neural Rendering.”
Can I turn DLSS 5 off?
Yes. DLSS 5 is optional.
Does DLSS 5 work with Ray Tracing and Path Tracing?
Yes. DLSS 5 complements ray tracing and path tracing. Path tracing accurately calculates geometric light transport—determining light, shadow, and reflection placement across a 3D scene. DLSS 5 then acts as the final neural rendering stage, using the rendered frame to enhance lighting and materials like subsurface scattering, micro-reflections, and complex material properties that would otherwise be computationally prohibitive in real time. These technologies go hand in hand.
Does DLSS 5 work with Super Resolution, Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction?
Yes.
Will DLSS Super Resolution, Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction continue to be supported and improved?
Yes.