DLSS 5 mod brings next-gen tech to old Ampere GPUs, but frame rates are horrible — most games tank to single digits, high-end GPUs can hit up to 40 FPS in some cases

(Image credit: Nvidia)

Nvidia's upcoming DLSS 5 neural rendering tech leaked earlier this week through a pre-release version of the DLL inside NBA 2K27 (which is in early access). The community quickly got it working on RTX 50-series GPUs, some of the best graphics cards, but modders later patched the DLL to work on RTX 40-series GPUs, too. Now, thanks to rapid development in the RenoDX Discord server, the DLL has once again been patched to work on RTX 30-series GPUs.Go deeper with TH Premium: GPUsScouring through the server, the general sentiment is mixed. DLSS 5 works on Ampere cards, but performance tanks in almost every case. Any time a user shows decent framerates, it comes at the cost of base visual fidelity. To use DLSS 5 to make the game look more realistic, you need to turn the in-game settings all the way down. It's a balancing act to avoid the point of diminishing returns.The net result is a more photorealistic image that looks noticeably different (better?) than native rendering. However, it introduces an insane latency penalty where most of the frame pacing is now formed exclusively by neural rendering. In worst-case scenarios, your frametimes can multiply by ten compared to before. If all of this still sounds enticing, then let's talk about the results.