Several months have passed since the announcement of DLSS 5, NVIDIA's new technology designed to further improve the visual rendering of video games. After the first official demonstrations and experimental versions made by modders, DLSS 5 is finally preparing to debut in a game available on the market.
The technology will officially arrive on Thursday, September 3, to coincide with the launch of NBA 2K27, which will be the first title to support it. The announcement came in the past few hours from NVIDIA, close to Gamescom 2026 and a few days before the start of IFA.
DLSS 5 will sacrifice performance for visual quality
Unlike previous versions of DLSS, DLSS 5 was not created with the aim of increasing the number of frames per second. On the contrary, the use of the new technology will involve a rather important performance cost, with a reduction in performance that, according to NVIDIA, can reach between 50% and 60%.
The reason is related to the functioning of the technology, which focuses mainly on changing the lighting and improving the details of the image. The developers will still retain control over the changes introduced by DLSS 5, thus being able to decide how and where to apply the interventions on the graphic rendering.
For the moment, NBA 2K27 is the only title to have officially implemented DLSS 5. The first results seem to be quite convincing, especially when compared to what NVIDIA showed during the presentation of the technology and in the trailers of recent weeks.
RTX 5090 up to 590 FPS at 1440p
NVIDIA has also published several graphs dedicated to DLSS 5 performance on NBA 2K27, comparing video cards ranging from the RTX 5060 up to the RTX 5090 and different resolutions, from 1080p up to 4K.
According to the data provided by the company, an RTX 5090 would be able to reach around 370 FPS in 4K, using the Ultra preset and active ray tracing. Switching to 1440p resolution, the result would rise to 590 FPS instead.
Decidedly high numbers, but which must be contextualized considering the performance cost declared by NVIDIA for the activation of DLSS 5. The new technology therefore seems to follow a different direction than that taken by previous versions of DLSS, focusing more on image quality rather than on increasing the frame rate.
More games coming soon
NBA 2K27 will only represent the first step for DLSS 5. NVIDIA has in fact confirmed that additional compatible titles will be announced over the coming weeks and months.
It will be with the arrival of these games that it will be possible to better understand the real potential of the new technology and, above all, if the significant drop in performance will be justified by the visual improvements offered.
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