Nvidia's DLSS 5 Launched in NBA 2K27, but Performance Costs Raise Questions
Nvidia's DLSS 5 technology has been launched in NBA 2K27, but it comes with a catch - exclusivity to RTX 50-series Blackwell GPUs. This means that only owners of these high-end graphics cards can access the new neural rendering feature.
The launch marks the first time Nvidia's DLSS 5 has been available in a shipping title, and it uses a new rendering path called 3D-Guided Neural Rendering. This mode sits on top of the existing DLSS toolset, rather than replacing it, and appears as its own selectable option in the game's settings menu.
However, reviewers have noted that DLSS 5 comes with a significant performance cost, with some configurations losing roughly half their frame rate compared to DLSS 4.5. This is a departure from the usual value proposition of DLSS, which has always been trading a small quality compromise for a large performance gain.
Nvidia's decision to make DLSS 5 exclusive to RTX 50-series cards raises questions about the company's gaming strategy and whether it is genuinely pushing technological progress or simply justifying an upgrade cycle that has already pushed flagship cards well past MSRP.