Nvidia's DLSS 5 (also referred to as DLSS Neural Rendering or DLSS NR) has received its October update, aiming to reduce the performance demands on hardware compared to its previous iteration. This new model is designed to be half as demanding, targeting a 30% hardware hit versus the previous 60% and featuring a smaller parameter count and reduced VRAM usage. These improvements are being tested in NBA 2K27, the only game to officially implement the technology.
Testing the updated DLSS 5 model on the Asus ProArt P16 laptop, equipped with the Nvidia RTX Spark platform, revealed a noticeable performance improvement over the original DLSS 5 implementation. At 1080p resolution with DLSS set to Balanced and 4x Multi-Frame Generation enabled, the game achieved an average of 168 FPS with the October update, an increase from the 143 FPS seen with the original DLSS 5 model. In comparison, running the game with DLSS 5 turned off yielded an average of 227 FPS.
The performance difference becomes more pronounced at 1440p. With DLSS 5 disabled, the game ran at a healthy 200 FPS. Enabling the original DLSS 5 model reduced this to approximately 100 FPS, a significant 50% drop. The October update improved this scenario, bringing the average frame rate up to around 134 FPS, a still substantial 33% reduction from native performance. While this represents a considerable improvement over the initial DLSS 5 implementation, the visual benefits are often subtle and primarily noticeable during cutscenes.
During actual gameplay, especially when zoomed out, the enhanced lighting and tonal details provided by DLSS Neural Rendering do not significantly enhance the player's experience. This raises questions about the utility of enabling the feature, particularly given the performance cost.
Further testing revealed that enabling VSync by default negatively impacted performance, reducing frame rates to 60 FPS on the laptop's 120 Hz OLED panel and introducing significant frame generation artifacts. Disabling VSync resolved these issues and allowed frame rates to increase, but the initial experience was jarring.
While the reduced performance hit of the October DLSS 5 update is technically impressive, especially considering the hardware it's running on, NBA 2K27 may not be the ideal title to showcase the full potential of DLSS Neural Rendering. The game's visual design means the fidelity improvements are often not readily apparent during typical gameplay. For DLSS 5 to truly convince players, developers will need to integrate it into games where its visual enhancements are more consistently impactful, and Nvidia will need to continue refining the technology to further minimize the performance penalty.