DLSS 5 Might Be the Wildest Graphics Tech NVIDIA Has Shown Yet

NVIDIA went all in at GTC in San Jose today, announcing DLSS 5, and this one is drastically different from the usual DLSS updates. Instead of just improving upscaling or generating extra frames, DLSS 5 leans heavily into neural rendering and improving the visual fidelity, at least at first glance.

What is DLSS 5?

During the keynote, NVIDIA Founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, called this a “GPT moment for graphics”

NVIDIA used bits from Resident Evil Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy, and Starfield to showcase what’s really happening here. The first clip included the opening mission of Resident Evil Requiem, where Grace is standing in the middle of a busy street surrounded by neon lights. The keynote switches from DLSS 5 disabled to enabled, revealing noticeably different facial structure, lighting, enhanced hair strands, richer textures on the clothes, and better-defined details on Grace’s knuckles.

DLSS 5 Might Be the Wildest Graphics Tech NVIDIA Has Shown Yet

Photo Credit: NVIDIA

In the Hogwarts Legacy demo, wrinkles are more clearly defined on the face and clothing. Starfield was also among the games shown in the demo, and it looked like a massive leap in terms of visual quality after DLSS 5 was turned on.

Another demo showcased EA Sports FC 26, featuring Virgil van Dijk in a Netherlands jersey, preparing to take a shot, seemingly part of a replay sequence.

In its current stage, clothing, hand details, environmental structures, and hair strands all seem to benefit significantly from DLSS 5. However, facial details can appear different from the original render, giving them a somewhat aggressive, AI-processed look in certain scenes, which can feel a bit off-putting in close-up shots. I'm hoping that's just an early-stage thing and that these facial structures look "real" before the Fall rollout.

Photo Credit: NVIDIA

But, how does it work?

NVIDIA says DLSS 5 uses neural rendering, where AI helps create parts of the final image instead of relying entirely on traditional rendering. It processes colour and motion vector information from each frame and feeds it into an AI model that enhances lighting and material interactions while remaining grounded in the original 3D scene data.

The company says DLSS 5 operates in real time at resolutions up to 4K and is designed to maintain consistent, deterministic output rather than introducing unpredictable visual artefacts. NVIDIA is positioning DLSS 5 as more of a shift in the rendering pipeline rather than simply another frame-generation upgrade. The AI model has been trained to recognise scene elements such as skin, hair, fabrics, and different lighting conditions, allowing it to refine complex visual effects like subsurface scattering and fabric reflections.

Photo Credit: NVIDIA

Digital Foundry has unsurprisingly published an excellent hands-on video from GTC, where they mention that the current demo is running on 2x NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs. In this setup, one GPU runs the game itself while the other is dedicated purely to running DLSS 5.

That won’t be the case when the technology eventually rolls out, but it does suggest NVIDIA is still figuring out how to optimise it for normal GPU setups without significantly impacting performance or consuming too much VRAM. Digital Foundry also noted that the demos were running with 2x frame generation enabled.

What Games Will Support DLSS 5?

NVIDIA says it is already working with developers to integrate DLSS 5 into upcoming and some existing titles. According to the company, “DLSS 5 provides game developers with detailed controls for intensity, colour grading and masking, so artists can determine where and how enhancements are applied to maintain each game’s unique aesthetic.”

The integration is also expected to be relatively straightforward for the devs, as it relies on the same NVIDIA Streamline framework already used for existing DLSS features and NVIDIA Reflex.

Photo Credit: NVIDIA

NVIDIA says it is working with several major publishers and studios, including Bethesda Softworks, Capcom, Ubisoft, NetEase, Tencent, and Warner Bros. Games.

DLSS 5 is expected to arrive in a range of upcoming games, including: