First DLSS 5 game tested: DLSS 5 humbles RTX 5090 with over 50% performance loss
With the launch of the NBA 2K27, version five of Nvidia Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS 5) is officially here. DLSS 5 aims to bring more realism to games through the use of “3D-guided neural rendering”. But DLSS 5 seems to have an enormous performance cost, which can make it prohibitively expensive for many gamers.
Digital Foundry has benchmarked various GPUs in NBA 2K27 with and without DLSS 5. The results are quite dismal from a performance standpoint. For instance, an RTX 5090 running NBA 2K27 at 4K/ultra experiences a massive 51.2% performance loss with DLSS 5 active. The average frame rate tanks from a super smooth 128.4 FPS to 62.7 FPS. DLSS 5 seems to have an 8.3 ms frame time cost when using an RTX 5090 for 4K.
Things get worse for the RTX 5080. Many gamers see the RTX 5080 as a 4K-capable GPU. While an RTX 5080 can run AAA games at 4K with smooth frame rates, DLSS 5 brings the RTX 5080 to its knees. In NBA 2K27 at 4K with ultra settings and ray tracing on, DLSS 5 eats up an eye-watering 58% of performance, and the RTX 5080 barely manages to stay above 40 FPS.
As expected, mid-range GPUs like the RTX 5070 and the RTX 5060 also don’t fare any better. DF reports a 55% performance loss for the RTX 5070 and a 41% performance loss for the RTX 5060.
Multi-Frame Generation is unlikely to help
We know Multi-Frame Generation (MFG) needs a smooth base frame rate to make the game feel the best. As DLSS 5 has a massive frame time cost on even an RTX 5090, MFG can’t do much to smooth out the experience. This means that, while 4x MFG will boost frame rates quite a bit in NBA 2K27 with DLSS 5, the game will still suffer from added latency and experience a loss of responsiveness.
That said, we are still in the early days of DLSS 5. Nvidia has alleged that DLSS 5 has seen a massive performance gain over the past months. So, it is reasonable to expect that the tech will improve further in the future and become easier to run.
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