First Leak of Nvidia’s DLSS 5 Apparently Makes Games Look and Run Worse

A leaked version of Nvidia's DLSS 5, found in the NBA 2K27 beta and modded into games like Control, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Last of Us Part II, reportedly degrades visuals and cuts frame rates in half, according to modders on the RenoDX Discord server. The AI model, which Nvidia previously admitted ignores much of the rendering pipeline, adds facial lines and alters colors, and early tests show performance drops of up to 50%.

We haven’t heard or seen much of Nvidia’s derided DLSS 5 https://gizmodo.com/nvidia-wants-to-sloppify-your-pc-games-with-its-new-ai-upscaler-2000734176 since the company first revealed the “neural rendering” feature back in March. We now wish it would have stayed that way. Modders have managed to plug what appears to be a newer, leaked version of the AI-infused visual model into several titles, and, to summarize, it appears to be a crow’s feet and laugh line generator that cuts your frame rate in half. Modders https://x.com/SwurvGaming/status/2092993944246259805?s=20 on the RenoDX Discord server have managed to retrofit a supposed DLSS 5 leak into several modern games. The leak apparently stems https://x.com/renan maniero/status/2092762553990447113 from the NBA 2K27 beta, which contained some of these DLSS 5 files inside. You can now see the model running inside a game like Control . Watching all this gameplay and comparing side-by-side shots of games with or without “neural rendering” enabled, we haven’t come away impressed. Early renditions of DLSS 5 set the internet on fire earlier this year, with players complaining the model completely ignored artistic intent and papered over in-game visuals with scenes that came right out of ChatGPT’s image generator. Nvidia later admitted that the AI model applying these visuals does not take into account https://gizmodo.com/does-nvidias-slop-ified-dlss-5-game-lighting-make-any-sense-2000736018 much of the rendering pipeline, like the PBR physically based rendering that designates different types of materials—wood, metal, etc.—to a game engine. DLSS 5 essentially takes a scene and reinterprets it with AI. Nvidia previously noted at the SIGGRAPH 2026 conference that it has toned down some of the harshest aspects of DLSS 5 and got it running on lower-end GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs. Videos of this DLSS 5 mod offers us a glimpse of what controls devs and players may have for DLSS 5 visuals. There’s an on and off switch, plus sliders for neural rendering “intensity” and neural rendering “style.” 🚨DLSS 5 Running On Control with renodx so one of the renodx guys has dlss 5 neural rendering ai filter running on control. This was using the dlss nr dll found in nba 2k27. They have it working on character models only so far. Theres 7 different styles, the video clip… pic.twitter.com/YlEFVCIPJC — SwurvGaming @SwurvGaming August 27, 2026 Immediately upon enabling DLSS 5, Control’s main character, Jesse Faden, grows deeper facial lines that make her appear older than her approximate 35 years of age. Her hair loses much of the red sheen and appears more burgundy. Remedy colored Jesse’s hair for a reason. The game’s color palette is built around drab grays of an office setting punctuated by sparks of deep orange and red. Throughout the game, Jesse is a force of disruption. Her hair color marks her as an agent of change. Muting that color also mutes the character herself. Side by side comparison of the New DLSS 5 in The Last of Us Part 2 pic.twitter.com/0s08HpFYFI — dvesf @dvesf yt August 28, 2026 Other players have managed to install DLSS 5 into other games like Cyberpunk 2077 , Red Dead Redemption 2 , T he Last of Us Part II , and Assassin’s Creed Black Flag: Resynced . Some of these screenshots and videos seem less egregious than the Control example, but it’s difficult to gauge visuals based on stills. One Redditor https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/1w0iqbl/dlss 5 wuchang fallen feathers 4k/ got the model working in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers , where the main character takes on more of a supermodel appearance rather than the typical look you see in many Eastern character models. However, some visuals can appear more vibrant, like the below scenes of driving around Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 using this leaked version of DLSS 5. The modded footage is likely not the final product the company intends to ship. However, there are reasons to be concerned about the full release. Modders on the Discord https://discord.com/channels/1408098019194310818/1541172647059005570/1542573691194572853 server say that Control running with DLSS 5 cuts performance in half. The game hit above 70 fps on a system with an RTX 5070 Ti GPU https://gizmodo.com/the-nvidia-rtx-5070-ti-will-make-your-pc-a-4k-beast-but-only-if-the-price-is-right-2000565590 , but with “neural rendering” enabled, it brought that number down to around 35 fps. The above video of Control shows the same game running at above 90 fps normally with an RTX 5080 https://gizmodo.com/nvidia-rtx-5080-review-2000556119 , while DLSS 5 tanked that down to the low 50s. Ignoring the model itself and its efficacy for PC gaming, part of Nvidia’s issue is simply a case of branding. DLSS 4.5 has proven itself to be easily one of the best upscalers available for improving performance in games. Team Green just launched a new DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction model that fixes some lighting issues caused by all this tech. Now, DLSS 5, the supposed sequel, is essentially offering players the chance to have worse performance and AI slop filters for their games.