The promised new DLSS 5 model is set to launch in a matter of days, alongside the new RTX Spark chip powering a bunch of new and expensive laptops. As we hoped and expected, the new model shrinks down the overall footprint and therefore the performance overhead, too. But that's not the only issue that's seemingly been fixed.
Nvidia's own stats, which we'll be able to verify soon enough, state that it has half the GPU hit the September version launched with, and offers up a reduction in 4K VRAM usage of 20% as another little statty tidbit. Nvidia says it has done this by refining the training data and reducing the model size down to around 118 million parameters; roughly 24% smaller.
Which is great, because once the feature had released—in NBA2K27 and subsequently pretty much any other game you could think of—the biggest issue we've had with it is the significant performance hit you get just from enabling the feature. Originally Nvidia told us that they expected around a 60% performance hit from turning it on in NBA2K27, and that is now going to be just 30%.
I've spent a long time playing around with DLSS 5, in mods and the official games, and I've been enjoying it. Sometimes the performance hit isn't worth the upgrade, but with that gap closing it looks like it will get there.
This is a different model, and from talking to developers at a recent Nvidia event, you would be able to see some differences were you to put them cheek-by-jowl. Yet those differences should be subtle enough that the performance improvement will still be the main thing you takeaway from the experience.
Considering it's pretty light-touch stuff in NBA2K27—especially when you're spending most of your time zoomed out, taking in just the top third of the court—30% is a far more acceptable performance drop compared to losing over half your frame rate.
The other big issue we had with DLSS 5 was obviously what it was shown to do to character models in the initial reveal back in March this year. The most obvious example was the yassified Grace, who became the unwanted poster child of DLSS 5. And it's been quite telling that none of the games that were revealed back then, including Resident Evil Requiem, have released DLSS 5 updates to their games.
Until now.
Yes, finally Hogwarts Legacy is getting its DLSS 5 glow up. But it's very clear from the side-by-side shots that Nvidia is now presenting on its blog about the new update that the developers have been affected by the negative publicity the feature got on its announcement.
Looking at the new images and the effect seems to be almost entirely one of environmental lighting and materials. Pull the before/after slider across the images with characters in and you'll see their features charge not one iota. Compare that with the initial Hogwarts reveal and the difference is night and day. Or DLSS on or off, if you will.
The devs have clearly pulled those sliders back a whole lot, if not masked off the character faces entirely.
The new update is coming on November 5 if you want to see the world of Hogwarts Legacy getting some finer ambience. What doesn't yet have a date is the only other official game to get a Neural Rendering update: Where Winds Meet. The action RPG will get confirmed support "in the near future" and it's a similar situation to Hogwarts where the only real impact of DLSS 5's update is on the environment. It looks great, but clearly the devs are once more swerving serving up an AI beauty filter for its characters.
We'll get you some of our own numbers on the new DLSS 5 model very soon.