Nvidia DLSS 5 Launches September 3 in NBA 2K27

Nvidia has confirmed that its controversial DLSS 5 technology will launch on September 3 at 9 pm PT with NBA 2K27. The AI upscaling feature will be available for all RTX 50 Series GPUs, laptops, and GeForce Now users.

DLSS 5 debuts as 3D-guided Neural Rendering in NBA 2K27. The technology uses an AI model trained to infer how complex features of game scenes such as characters, skin, hair, and environmental lighting should look in the real world. Nvidia says it has closely partnered with Visual Concepts and 2K to deliver a new level of authentic sports experience.

It will reportedly show the natural passing of light through players' ears, light catching hair, and the natural lighting of skin all while preserving the facial geometry scanned from real-world athletes. NBA 2K27 marks a fairly strange launch title for the tech as the series is not primarily renowned for its graphical fidelity.

DLSS 5 draws controversy over its generative approach. The Verge likened the AI upscaling tech to a real-time generative AI filter for video games and motion smoothing for video games but worse following its divisive announcement in March. Nvidia had lauded DLSS 5 as the company's most significant breakthrough in computer graphics since the debut of real-time ray tracing in 2018.

The technology is very resource-intensive with early testing indicating severe drops in frame rate when using it. Nvidia estimates the performance hit at 50 to 60 percent.

Hardware requirements limit DLSS 5 to RTX 50-series and cloud. DLSS 5 will only work with RTX 50-series desktop and laptop GPUs as well as through GeForce Now cloud gaming. The only game with the tech so far is NBA 2K27 which launches September 3 at 9PM PT on PC.

Nvidia claims even a single midrange RTX 5060 can manage to play NBA 2K27 at 1080p with ray tracing and DLSS 5 at ultra spec if paired with one of the fastest gaming CPUs and 6x frame generation enabled. Original DLSS 5 demos had required a pair of RTX 5090 gaming graphics cards.

Developer controls and benchmarks accompany the launch. Nvidia stressed that DLSS 5 gives developers controls that let them decide how changes appear in their games. In examples from NBA 2K27 the changes from DLSS 5 do not appear to be quite as dramatic as the types of adjustments shown in the initial reveal with shadows and textures generally making players look more realistic instead of AI caricatures.

Developers have many sliders at their disposal to determine exactly how much DLSS 5 changes things and can choose to amp up whichever parts of the scene they prefer or even leave characters' faces alone and just enhance silverware or food or foliage. Nvidia has shared its first in-house benchmarks of DLSS 5 RTX Desktop performance alongside the announcement.