Ever since its announcement, I have been very curious to see what DLSS 5 will look like in action, in real time. Sure, Nvidia did bless us with very “curated” screenshots and clips of the tech, but those were never going to be representative of the real thing. After months of waiting and multiple GRD updates, I finally got to try DLSS 5 myself, thanks to the DLSS Swapper mod.
And let me tell you, this tech is phenomenal in ways I never expected.
At the same time, trying out this community-made DLSS 5 mod left me confused. While I admire the improvements DLSS 5 brings to the “visual” front, it also sacrifices the core principle on which this tech was built.
My test bench for DLSS 5
The RTX 4070 proved more than enough for DLSS 5, for the most part
For the test setup, I used my main PC, which is powered by a Ryzen 5 5600X and 16GB DDR4 (3200 MHz) memory. I have an RTX 4070 (12GB VRAM) GPU, which offers ample headroom to test games at both 1080p and 1440p. I tested all the games on vanilla Windows 11 with no background applications running, including Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword.
I also tested a few more games, like Monster Hunter Wilds, Elden Ring Nightreign, and Dragon’s Dogma 2. But these titles didn’t offer any substantial visual differences compared to their vanilla counterparts. In Nightreign’s case, the DLSS Swapper didn’t even work, as it repeatedly crashed the game.
I installed all these games fresh on a Gen3 NVMe SSD, with no mods other than the DLSS Swapper.
I also tried running the mod on my RTX 4060. However, the 8GB of VRAM on that GPU was a massive bottleneck when testing games like Onimusha and Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p. That said, I was surprised to see the 4060 even run DLSS 5, despite its limitations.
How does DLSS 5 affect visuals and performance?
DLSS 5 has a major impact on lighting and global illumination, for better or for worse
Right out of the bat, DLSS 5 looks stunning (when it works). However, it often drastically overpowers the “uniqueness” of games and their art style, while also hurting performance. I get the “hype” behind DLSS 5 and have to admit it feels revolutionary, like tech such as Frame Generation. However, at the same time, it’s also doing things that I don’t really expect from “upscaling tech” in a video game.
While my testing was limited to a handful of games, it gave me a fairly good idea of what DLSS 5 can do. For starters, much like in the announcement trailer for DLSS 5, enabling it has a substantial impact on the game’s lighting. In the RE Engine games I tested, DLSS 5 affected both Global Illumination and Reflections, overriding them with something that looks very reminiscent of UE5’s Lumen GI.
Furthermore, the sudden change in lighting has a major impact on character models, which now look more “clean” and artificial but also grounded within the game’s world geometry.
While I was impressed by the visual improvements of DLSS 5, it came with major performance costs.
While the visual impact was very noticeable in Onimusha: Way of the Sword, it wasn’t that impactful in Red Dead Redemption 2. However, I know for certain the DLSS Swapper was working in RDR2, as it took a massive toll on performance. Across all three games I tested using the DLSS 5 mod, performance was a major issue.
This surprised me, since DLSS was created to improve performance in games, not drag it down. In all the games, DLSS 4/4.5 with the Quality preset gave me a substantial edge over the same preset while using DLSS 5 with the swapper.
|
Games Tested |
Average FPS 1080p (with DLSS 5) |
Average FPS 1440p (with DLSS 5) |
Average FPS 1080p (with DLSS 4 Quality) |
Average FPS 1440p (with DLSS 4 Quality) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cyberpunk 2077 |
67 FPS (Ultra + No RT) |
54 FPS (Ultra + No RT) |
82 FPS (Ultra + No RT) |
73 FPS (Ultra + No RT) |
|
Red Dead Redemption 2 |
62 FPS |
57 FPS |
88 FPS |
74 FPS |
|
Onimusha: Way of the Sword |
70 FPS |
62 FPS |
80 FPS |
72 FPS |
That said, the DLSS Swapper is still an unofficial way to run DLSS 5 locally. So I suspect some of the performance issues I faced stem from it not being fully compatible with Nvidia’s current GRD. At the same time, I understand that DLSS 5 uses a completely different pipeline than its previous iterations.
It’s more inclined to overhaul a game’s visuals than deliver performance uplift through upscaling.
DLSS 5 is impressive, but feels very experimental
DLSS 5, even with the DLSS Swapper mod, is quite impressive. The sheer improvement it brings to the lighting (in certain scenarios) is a genuine game-changer. At the same time, it also hurts the game’s uniqueness and its art style. This is mostly evident in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which feature a very distinct art style. While I do appreciate the photorealistic lighting, it shouldn’t come at the detriment of a game’s original visual presentation.
As of right now, DLSS 5, to me, feels very experimental. It feels like a consumer-end version of Nvidia’s RTX Remix, without the additional requirement of the modding software. However, the toll it takes on a game’s art style and performance far outweighs the improvements it brings to the lighting engine.
Although I’m going to keep a keen eye on the development of DLSS 5 and will test the official release, I don’t think it will replace DLSS 4/4.5 for me just yet.