On the latest episode of The Vergecast, host David Amell welcomed Linus Sebastian and David Gautier from Linus Tech Tips to discuss Nvidia's recently released DLSS 5 technology, which dropped on September 3rd. The trio delved into why this new iteration of deep learning supersampling has sparked significant controversy within the gaming and developer communities.
Historically, DLSS aimed to upscale lower-resolution renders using machine learning to fill in missing pixels, much like enhancing a low-resolution photograph. However, Linus Sebastian explained that DLSS 5 goes beyond this, "instead of just, you know, adding pixels that weren't there, it seems to be adding elements of the scene that weren't there or adding colors that weren't there." Nvidia has been explicit in stating their belief that "Moore's law... is completely dead," and that this "neural rendering" is the future. They envision a world where developers could simply command "barrel," and a photo-realistic barrel would be generated instantly and cheaply, without rendering all the pixels conventionally.
However, David Gautier's hands-on experience with DLSS 5 on various games, including "Expedition 33" and a "Final Fantasy" title, paints a different picture. While acknowledging Nvidia's vision, he noted that the current implementation is far from the "magic barrel" ideal. Gautier likened it more to an "Instagram filter," emphasizing that its biggest limitation is the need to render 60 times a second, which restricts the AI's "creativity." He observed that good input yields better output, but it still retains an "AI look" that can elicit a "disgust reaction" from those averse to AI-generated content.
The discussion quickly turned to the impact on artistic intent. Amell highlighted Gautier's observation that DLSS 5 could transform a stylized anime character into a "real person," potentially stripping away a game's unique aesthetic. The current controversy is complicated by the fact that the DLSS 5 DLLs being used by testers were leaked; only "NBA 2K27" has been officially tuned by Nvidia. Linus believes the technology will likely only benefit games striving for photorealism, while stylized games suffer. Gautier also noted a tendency for DLSS 5 to "suck the color out of it," akin to "lazy color correction in film." Some developers, like the creative director of "Kingdom Come Deliverance 2," have defended it, claiming it fulfills their original artistic vision that lacked the resources to achieve.
Performance and cost were major points of contention. DLSS 5 incurs a "catastrophic" performance hit, even on a high-end 5090 GPU, with early demos reportedly requiring two 5090s. Linus questioned the value proposition, noting the "insane" cost of upgrading hardware (5080s at $1,500-$1,600). He suggested Nvidia's messaging is confusing, pushing high frame rates, resolutions, ray tracing, and AI enhancements simultaneously, which current hardware struggles to deliver. Gautier argued that Nvidia intentionally makes DLSS 5 demanding to ensure users require its performance uplift, thereby reinforcing dependence on their ecosystem. This forces PC gamers, accustomed to maxing settings on high-end hardware, into compromises.
Both guests acknowledged Nvidia is reacting to the backlash, evidenced by plans for a "4000 series version of DLSS 5." While they expect improvements, Linus warned that newer generations of cards will always have superior "neural capabilities," leading to different "variants" of DLSS 5 tailored for specific hardware, potentially leaving older cards behind.
The conversation also touched upon the "GTA 6" drop, which, despite its massive budget and handcrafted approach, serves as a counterpoint to the perceived "laziness" that DLSS 5 might enable in other studios with fewer resources.
Looking ahead, Linus believes that while Intel and AMD will eventually develop competing technologies, the leaked DLSS 5 applied to webcams is not "true" DLSS 5, as it lacks the critical vector data needed for accurate object prediction, leading to "weird glitches." However, both Linus and Gautier concluded that this is "the worst version of DLSS 5 that you'll ever see." They anticipate it will significantly improve, become "more and more normalized," and eventually, it will be harder to distinguish between AI-generated and natively rendered content.