Nvidia's DLSS 5 went live on 3 September, and the reaction has been about as divided as anything in PC gaming this year. Half the comments say it's the biggest jump in realism in a decade; the other half say it's a filter that sets your graphics card on fire. I've read through the first proper testing, and I'd put it somewhere in between. For most people in Ireland it changes nothing about what you should buy this autumn.
What DLSS 5 actually is
The name is confusing, because earlier versions of DLSS were mostly about performance: render the game at a lower resolution, then let the graphics card's AI hardware upscale it so you get more frames. DLSS 5 goes the other way. Nvidia calls it "3D-guided neural rendering". The card runs an AI model over each finished frame to make the lighting on skin, hair and eyes behave more like the real thing. It makes the picture look better, and it costs performance rather than adding it.
Nvidia's launch post confirms it needs an RTX 50-series desktop or laptop GPU and Game Ready driver 616.64 or later, and it also runs on GeForce NOW. Nvidia has since said it will come to RTX 40-series cards too, but hasn't given a date.
What the testing shows
Tom's Hardware ran NBA 2K27 on every RTX 50-series card at maximum settings with ray tracing on. Their reviewer was blown away by the look of it. The numbers are the part worth reading carefully:
| 1080p | Even the RTX 5060 averaged close to 60fps with DLSS 5 on |
| 1440p | RTX 5060 Ti is the minimum; RTX 5070 is the real baseline for a good experience |
| 4K | Nvidia only recommends the RTX 5080 and 5090 |
| 8GB cards | RTX 5060, 5060 Ti 8GB and 5050 threw a "Low VRAM" warning at 1440p |
| Performance cost | Sometimes well over 50% on lower-end cards |
| Power draw | Most mid-range cards ran at their power limit |
One quirk catches people out. Normally you'd switch on upscaling to claw frames back, but the DLSS 5 model has a fixed cost that depends on your output resolution, so lowering the internal resolution doesn't help nearly as much as you'd expect. A 1440p monitor is a 1440p job, full stop.
That VRAM warning echoes something I've said before: 8GB cards are running out of road, and features like this are exactly where they run out first.
So should you upgrade for it?
Poor reasons to buy now
- DLSS 5 is in one game, and you don't play it
- Swapping a working RTX 40-series card that's due to get it anyway
- Buying an 8GB card and expecting to run it at 1440p
- Paying well over list price for a feature still at version one
Sensible ways to play it
- Already on RTX 50? Update the driver and try it
- On RTX 40? Wait for Nvidia's update before spending
- Due a new PC anyway? Spec 16GB of VRAM and a 5070-class card or better
- Just curious? GeForce NOW lets you see it without buying hardware
Price is the real problem. Tom's Hardware notes that mid-range Blackwell cards like the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB and RTX 5070 are selling for hundreds more than their launch prices, thanks to the memory shortage I covered in the GPU prices post. Buying at the top of the market for a feature that's in one game is paying a lot for a preview.
My verdict
DLSS 5 looks like a real step forward, and once more developers add it properly it'll matter. Today it's one game on one generation of card, with a big performance cost. Already on RTX 50? Enjoy it. On RTX 40? Wait. And if your machine is due an upgrade anyway, build for 16GB of VRAM and your actual monitor, not for one headline feature.
