Nvidia's DLSS 5 Takes a Massive Toll on Frame Rates in First Real World Tests
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Digital Foundry's testing confirms that Nvidia's new DLSS 5 tech exacts a heavy 40 to 60 percent performance penalty in NBA 2K7, raising questions about the cost of neural rendering.
The hardware experts at Digital Foundry have put Nvidia's controversial new DLSS 5 technology through its paces, confirming suspicions that the gen-AI-powered feature comes with a heavy performance cost. Testing the tech's debut implementation in NBA 2K7, analysts observed frame-rate drops ranging from 40 to 60 percent. Even when running on top-tier hardware like the GeForce RTX 5090 at native 4K, frame rates plummeted from 128 FPS down to 62 FPS. Founder Richard Leadbetter did not mince words, describing the processing overhead as super, super heavy, though he noted it is at least running across the entire RTX 50 series stack, including mobile units.
Unlike previous iterations of DLSS that boosted performance by upscaling lower-resolution images, DLSS 5 introduces neural rendering to dynamically alter lighting and visual details. In NBA 2K7, this translates to subtle improvements in crowd lighting and jersey drop-shadows. While the visual upgrade is far tamer and more convincing than the jarring character changes shown in Nvidia's initial March announcement, the hardware cost remains difficult to justify. Analysts pointed out that spending up to 13 milliseconds of processing time just to add minor lighting details feels like a remarkably expensive trade-off for players trying to maintain fluid performance.
As the first major shift in the DLSS philosophy from performance boosting to heavier graphical processing, DLSS 5 currently remains exclusive to the RTX 50 series and a single official game release. Modding community tests on titles like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Starfield suggest the tech has a long road ahead. While this first attempt will undoubtedly improve through future driver updates and optimizations, players building rigs for high refresh rate gaming will want to weigh the steep performance tax carefully before turning the setting on.
Tags: Nvidia, DLSS 5, PC Gaming, Hardware, Digital Foundry
Original article: Eurogamer