NVIDIA DLSS 5 Debuts in NBA 2K27
NVIDIA is launching DLSS 5, its latest AI-powered graphics technology, on September 3 at 9 p.m. Pacific Time. It will debut in NBA 2K27 and will be available on all GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs and laptops, as well as GeForce NOW Ultimate.
What Is DLSS 5?
DLSS 5 introduces 3D-Guided Neural Rendering, which uses AI to improve visual realism rather than simply increasing performance. Instead of generating an image from scratch, the technology takes the game’s existing rendered frame – including geometry, textures, lighting, color, motion vectors and other engine data—and enhances it.
The goal is to add details that would normally be too expensive to render in real time, such as realistic skin lighting, hair light transmission, deeper contact shadows and more natural material responses.
Unlike traditional generative AI, DLSS (which stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling) 5 is designed to be deterministic and temporally stable, meaning characters and environments remain consistent from frame to frame rather than randomly changing.
Developer Control
DLSS 5 gives game developers extensive control over how much AI enhancement is applied. Developers can adjust Structure Intensity, which affects details such as ambient occlusion, reflections and subsurface scattering, and Tone Intensity, which controls broader lighting and color changes.
Developers can also use semantic and engine-level masks to target specific objects, characters or environments. This allows studios to enhance things like player faces, foliage or water while leaving other elements unchanged.
The quality of the result also depends on the quality of the game’s underlying rendering. Ray-traced and path-traced inputs can provide DLSS 5 with richer information to produce more accurate results.
NBA 2K27 Visual Improvements
NBA 2K27 is the first game to showcase DLSS 5. Visual Concepts is using it to make NBA players and arenas appear more photorealistic while preserving the facial geometry created from real athlete scans.
Examples include improved skin subsurface scattering, more realistic hair lighting and tighter contact shadows on players such as Cade Cunningham, Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum. Spectators and staff also receive improved lighting and material detail.
Performance
NVIDIA says the combination of DLSS 5, Super Resolution and Multi Frame Generation can deliver extremely high frame rates.
At 4K Ultra with ray tracing, an RTX 5090 can reach up to 370 FPS. At 1440p, NVIDIA reports up to 590 FPS on the RTX 5090, 410 FPS on the RTX 5080, 350 FPS on the RTX 5070 Ti and 260 FPS on the RTX 5070.
How to Enable It
Players will need NVIDIA’s new Game Ready Driver launching September 3 at 9 p.m. PT. In NBA 2K27:
- Open Video Settings
- Turn on DLSS Neural Rendering
- Configure other DLSS and Reflex settings
- Press F9 to toggle Neural Rendering during gameplay and replays
The Bigger Picture
NVIDIA describes DLSS 5 as a major shift from using AI primarily for performance toward using AI to improve visual fidelity. It doesn’t replace traditional rasterization, ray tracing or path tracing; instead, it adds a neural-rendering stage that enhances their output.
NVIDIA says the technology has already achieved a 5× performance improvement since its March announcement and expects further model optimizations in the fall. NBA 2K27 is therefore positioned as the first major demonstration of what NVIDIA believes could become a new generation of real-time, AI-enhanced game graphics.
