Overnight, an early access build of NBA 2K27 was found to contain a mysterious DLSS-NR, or DLSS Neural Rendering, DLL that many believe is a pre-release or release-candidate version of DLSS 5. Weighing in at 158 MB, which is much larger than any other DLSS package, including the new DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction, modders are already starting to mod it into existing titles with DLSS support.
Earlier today we saw how it looked in Remedy's Control, which uses the new DLSS Neural Rendering tech to add realistic lighting, shadows, and more to the characters and world. With various sliders for controlling the intensity, the overall effect can be subtle or transformative - for good or bad. The downside, at least so far, is that the cost to performance is high - halving the frame rate on an RTX 5070 Ti when enabled in Control.
With DLSS 5 now in the hands of modders, we'll probably see a flurry of examples pop up online. And with that, one that we've spotted from YouTube channel PureDark adds this pre-release and leaked version of DLSS 5 or DLSS-NR to Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. As one of the biggest RPGs of all time and one of the most modded games of all time, it's also a game where the consensus is that character faces all look pretty bad and dated. So yeah, we can chalk this DLSS 5 Skyrim mod up as one of the better examples, as it definitely transforms characters to make them look more realistic and detailed.
Here are a few side-by-side comparisons captured from PureDark's video, covering characters and environments. DLSS 4 Off shots are on the left with DLSS 5 shots on the right. Although it's unclear which GPU is being used, we do see a big performance hit in the character creation screen, dropping from around 80 to 120 FPS to 60 FPS. This also looks like a modded version of the game, and out in the world, when DLSS 5 is enabled, performance drops to around 45-50 FPS.
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Although it alters the game's original art direction, it showcases DLSS 5's power as a post-processing shader that can give lighting an almost path-traced look. The DLSS-NR controls include different modes, an intensity slider, and other sliders, so it confirms developers will have granular control over how they use it and the end result. Check out both of PureDark's videos on DLSS 5 in Skyrim below to see it in action.
