NVIDIA has announced that DLSS 5 will launch on September 3, introducing its new 3D-Guided Neural Rendering technology with NBA 2K27. The feature will initially be available on GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards and laptops, as well as through GeForce NOW.
NVIDIA describes DLSS 5 as a shift towards using AI to improve visual fidelity in real time, rather than focusing solely on increasing frame rates. The technology uses the game engine’s rendered frame, including geometry, textures, lighting data and motion vectors, as the basis for generating additional lighting and material detail.
According to NVIDIA, the new system is designed to remain deterministic and temporally stable. It analyses scene elements such as objects, materials, spatial relationships and light sources, while using engine data including colour, surface albedo, lighting and surface normals. NVIDIA says this allows DLSS 5 to add effects such as subsurface scattering for skin, light transmission through hair and foliage, and deeper contact shadows without changing the underlying geometry.
The company says the neural rendering model runs locally on a single GeForce RTX 50-series GPU and can operate at resolutions of up to 4K. Developers can integrate the technology through NVIDIA Streamline or an Unreal Engine 5 plugin, while DLSS 5 can be enabled independently alongside existing technologies such as Super Resolution, Multi Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction.
NVIDIA is also giving developers several controls over how DLSS 5 affects a scene. These include different neural models, Structure Intensity and Tone Intensity controls, as well as semantic and engine-level masking. The latter can be used to apply different levels of neural enhancement to specific objects, characters or environmental elements.
NBA 2K27 Will Be the First DLSS 5 Game
NBA 2K27, developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K, will be the first game to support DLSS 5. NVIDIA says the technology will enhance elements such as skin lighting, hair and contact shadows while retaining the facial geometry of scanned athletes.
NVIDIA claims that, with DLSS 5 enabled alongside its other DLSS technologies, NBA 2K27 can reach up to 370 FPS at 4K with the Ultra preset and ray tracing on a GeForce RTX 5090. At 1440p, the company reports up to 590 FPS on the RTX 5090, 410 FPS on the RTX 5080, 350 FPS on the RTX 5070 Ti and 260 FPS on the RTX 5070 under the same general settings.
DLSS 5 will become available in NBA 2K27 on September 3 at 9pm Pacific Time. NVIDIA says players will need the new GeForce Game Ready driver released at the same time and can enable the feature through the game’s Video Settings menu under “DLSS Neural Rendering”.
NVIDIA also says it has achieved a five-fold performance improvement for the DLSS 5 system over the six months since its initial announcement, allowing the technology to run on a single RTX 5090 rather than the two GPUs previously required. The company expects further model updates in the autumn.
For now, NBA 2K27 is the first confirmed implementation of DLSS 5. NVIDIA says more games will integrate the technology in the coming weeks and months.
