DLSS 5 Hands-On: Neural Rendering Tested in Skyrim, GTA, Cyberpunk
An early hands-on test of DLSS 5 neural rendering across Skyrim, GTA 5, and Cyberpunk 2077 reveals real gains and a few visible glitches.
What is DLSS 5 and how is it different from earlier versions?
DLSS 5 is Nvidia’s next iteration of its AI upscaling and frame generation suite, and the version that surfaced early through a mod moves further into what’s being called neural rendering. Instead of just upscaling resolution and generating in-between frames, this version appears to rework lighting, surface detail, and texture behavior in real time using an AI model layered on top of the game’s original assets. Early testers pulled a rendering DLL from NBA 2K27 and used it to enable the feature in other titles ahead of an official Nvidia release, running it on RTX 50 series hardware. The results, tested across Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Cyberpunk 2077, show noticeably sharper faces, more convincing lighting, and reflections that no longer rely on traditional screen space techniques, since those effects appear to be generated by the neural engine itself.
TL;DR
- Early access came through a leaked DLL, pulled from NBA 2K27 and used to enable DLSS 5 style neural rendering in other games before any official Nvidia rollout.
- Testing covered Skyrim, GTA 5, and Cyberpunk 2077, all running on an RTX 5090, with the feature apparently locked to RTX 50 series cards for now.
- Performance varies a lot by hardware, with one report of an RTX 5060 dropping from 86 fps to 34 fps when the feature was enabled, showing a real GPU cost.
- Multiple visual presets exist, including natural, cinematic, and a sharper default look, each changing color grading and perceived realism rather than adding new geometry.
- Faces and lighting see the biggest jump, while animations, NPC behavior, and object counts stay tied to the original game, so nothing is hallucinated in that sense.
- Intensity sliders let users control AI strength, with separate controls mentioned for skin structure and local structure, letting testers dial in how aggressively the neural model reworks a scene.
- Small glitches showed up during testing, including a tree reflection missing leaves that were present on the actual tree, suggesting the neural renderer doesn’t always perfectly reconcile reflected geometry.
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How does neural rendering actually change what you see on screen?
The core shift with this version of DLSS is that the AI model isn’t just filling in pixels between rendered frames anymore. It’s reinterpreting lighting, skin texture, and surface reflections on top of the game’s existing assets. In the hands-on testing, this showed up most clearly on character faces. NPCs in Skyrim and Cyberpunk 2077 gained detail that made them look closer to real photography, particularly in close-up shots where skin, eyes, and cloth all picked up extra fidelity. Screen space reflections were turned off entirely in one test, with the reflections still appearing on screen, which points to the neural engine generating them independently rather than relying on the game engine’s built-in reflection system.
Importantly, the underlying game doesn’t change. Object counts, animations, and NPC behavior stayed exactly as they were in the base game. A beggar NPC in Skyrim still delivered the same dialogue and had the same rigid animation cycle, but her hair and the surrounding lighting looked sharper and more physically grounded. This is a meaningful distinction: the neural model is a visual layer, not a content generator. It doesn’t hallucinate new objects or invent detail that wasn’t hinted at somewhere in the original scene.
What did testing show across different games?
Grand Theft Auto 5, an older title, saw a real frame rate boost alongside the visual upgrade, likely because the base game is light enough on modern hardware that the neural rendering overhead didn’t create a bottleneck. Character faces and vehicle details picked up a level of legibility that stood out against the game’s decade-old base assets.
Skyrim, tested through its remastered version, held up well to close scrutiny. Lighting was singled out as the standout improvement, particularly in interior and cavern scenes and around a lighthouse scene, described as looking close to an actual photograph. Some shimmering appeared around fine details like arrows and tree foliage, and one reflection bug showed a tree with no leaves in its own mirrored image, even though the source tree still had them. This is likely a good example of the neural model working from incomplete information when generating reflections it wasn’t explicitly fed pixel data for.
Cyberpunk 2077 arguably showed the most dramatic jump, and that tracks with it being one of the titles Nvidia has previously used to demo neural rendering techniques. Facial detail on NPCs, hand and skin texture on the player character, and ambient lighting from cans, signs, and streetlights all contributed to a much more photorealistic look. NPC behavior remained as repetitive and scripted as the base game, reinforcing that the visual layer and the simulation layer are separate systems entirely.
Are the visual presets and sliders worth using?
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DLSS 5 in this early form exposes several presets, including a default look, a natural preset, and a cinematic preset, along with intensity sliders that appear to control how strongly the AI reshapes textures and skin. The default preset pushed more contrast and clarity. Natural pulled back on that punch and looked more neutral. Cinematic muted colors slightly and leaned toward a filmic look that testing suggested was the most photorealistic of the three, even if it sacrificed some sharpness.
Separate sliders for skin structure strength and local structure strength let users control how aggressively the AI reworks close-up textures. Pushing these toward maximum strength changed lighting interaction more than the base texture itself. Past a certain point, roughly the top of the intensity range, further increases produced diminishing returns. This kind of granular control is unusual for a graphics feature at this stage and points to Nvidia (or whoever finalizes the official release) treating this less like a toggle and more like a creative tool, similar to a color grading suite.
Is DLSS 5 worth trying before an official release?
For anyone with an RTX 50 series card and a willingness to install early, unofficial mods, the visual upgrade is substantial enough to notice immediately, especially in RPGs and open world games where lighting and character close-ups matter. The tradeoffs are real, though. Performance cost varies significantly by hardware, and the RTX 5060 result (an 86 fps to 34 fps drop) shows this isn’t free even on modern cards. Frame generation options exist to offset that cost, and combining them with the neural rendering pass appeared to keep gameplay smooth and responsive in testing, though some ghosting and motion blur trade-offs came with that choice.
There’s also the matter of taste. Games are built around a specific aesthetic, and pushing every title toward hyperrealism isn’t automatically an improvement. Stylized or intentionally authored looks might not benefit from, or may even fight against, a strong photorealistic pass. Whether Nvidia’s final release includes the same preset flexibility, and whether it opens up beyond RTX 50 series hardware, remains to be seen. Given how early and unofficial this build is, treat performance numbers and visual results as a preview rather than a final benchmark.
Frequently Asked Questions
What GPUs currently support DLSS 5?
Early testing points to RTX 50 series cards as the only hardware currently able to run this feature, since the mod enabling it appears locked to that generation for now.
Does DLSS 5 change game content or just visuals?
Just visuals. Object placement, animations, and NPC behavior stayed identical to the base game in every title tested. The neural model reworks lighting, textures, and reflections without altering what’s actually in the scene.
Which preset looks the most realistic?
Cinematic was described as the most photorealistic option in testing, with natural offering a more neutral middle ground and the default preset adding more contrast and sharpness.
Does DLSS 5 hurt performance?
It can. One report showed an RTX 5060 dropping from 86 fps to 34 fps with the feature enabled, though pairing it with frame generation helped recover playable frame rates in testing on higher-end hardware.
Which games were tested with DLSS 5 so far?
Hands-on testing covered Skyrim (remastered), Grand Theft Auto 5, and Cyberpunk 2077, all run on an RTX 5090, with NBA 2K27 serving as the source of the rendering file that enabled the mod.