DLSS 5 vs DLSS 4: not the next rung

What each version actually does

DLSS 4, in January 2025, brought the transformer model to Super Resolution and Multi Frame Generation to RTX 50. DLSS 4.5, in January 2026, added a second-generation transformer for Super Resolution with five times the compute of the first, for every RTX card, and 6× and Dynamic Multi Frame Generation for RTX 50. In August 2026 DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction followed, again for every RTX card.

All of that is about making frames: rendering fewer pixels and reconstructing the rest, denoising ray tracing, inventing whole frames between real ones. The goal is the same picture, sooner.

DLSS 5 does something else. NVIDIA describes it as infusing the scene with photoreal lighting and materials, anchored to the game's 3D content, with developer controls for intensity, colour grading and masking. The goal is a different picture — and it takes time to make it.

Where DLSS 5 sits in the frame

ComputerBase describes the order: the frame is rendered with Super Resolution or Ray Reconstruction first, DLSS 5 then reworks the lighting, and Multi Frame Generation can come after that. Guru3D puts it the same way — the final stage of the graphics pipeline, applied to the finished frame.

So DLSS 5 stacks on top of DLSS 4.5; NVIDIA says it builds on Super Resolution, Multi Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction. In NBA 2K27 they are separate lines in the menu, and Neural Rendering is its own on/off switch, with F9 to toggle it while playing.

Why the cost moves so much

There is no single «DLSS 5 costs X%». On ComputerBase's bench the RTX 5090 at 1440p loses about a third of its frames, while an RTX 5070 at 4K loses more than two thirds. The pattern is the one you would expect from a model that runs on every output pixel: more pixels and fewer Tensor Cores both make it worse.

Other outlets land in the same range. Digital Foundry measured the RTX 5090 at 4K going from 128.4 to 62.7 fps, a 51% drop; Guru3D measured 140 to 59 fps at 1440p without Frame Generation.

Frame Generation recovers the displayed number — ComputerBase got 378.7 fps on the RTX 5090 and 98.3 on the RTX 5060 at 1440p with DLSS 5 and 4× Multi Frame Generation — but not the responsiveness. Digital Foundry measured 50–60 ms of latency on the RTX 5090 with 4× Frame Generation, and above 60–70 ms on the RTX 5080 and 5060. NVIDIA's own «up to 370 fps» figure for the RTX 5090 is with the full suite, Frame Generation included.

It also draws more power

The same work that costs frames costs watts. ComputerBase measured the RTX 5090 in NBA 2K27 at 1440p going from 299 to 500 W with DLSS 5 on, and from 417 to 561 W at 4K. The RTX 5060 barely moved, 136 to 144 W — it was already the frame rate that gave.

What DLSS 4.5 has that DLSS 5 does not

An override. DLSS 4.5's models can be forced from the NVIDIA App through DLSS Override – Model Presets, in games that shipped an older DLSS. DLSS 5 cannot: NVIDIA confirmed it must always be integrated into the game itself, so it arrives one game at a time.

And range. DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction run on every RTX card; DLSS 5 is RTX 50 only for now. NVIDIA's statement of 3 September says it will work on expanding official support to RTX 40 once RTX 50 performance is more fully tuned, with the RTX 50 model updates expected later this fall. The «later this fall» belongs to the RTX 50 updates, not to RTX 40 — several reports read it the other way.

What it changes on screen

In NBA 2K27, ComputerBase found the lighting better with the geometry untouched, most visible in close-ups and subtle during play. HotHardware, which called it a post-processing filter in which the model becomes authoritative to an extent, gave it a conditional recommendation.

The reveal demos in March went less well: faces that came out smoothed and glossy, and the argument that one model applied to many games makes them look alike. That is the reason the developer controls exist — and the reason what ships in each game may look milder than the demos.