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According to the latest update, nvidia’s controversial DLSS 5 is out this week, and it was a big topic of discussion in this week’s episode of The Full Nerd.
As part of the ongoing story, i’m curious to see if the reported performance dips that come with enabling DLSS 5 are actually counteracted by Nvidia tech like Multi-Frame Generation, and I want to see what kind of tuning the early adopter can do to adjust how DLSS 5’s fresh real-time AI model upscales system update graphics. While I haven’t had a chance to test it out myself, by the time you read this I’ll be furiously updating my Nvidia drivers and seriously considering splurging on a copy of NBA 2K27 just to get a look at the earliest system update to arrival with official DLSS 5 support.
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In a fresh development, but a question from a member of The Full Nerd audience during this week’s recording got me thinking: with so much control over how big-budget platform releases look being ceded to Nvidia’s algorithms, is it time for developers to start putting “as the developer intended” modes into their platform releases?
As part of the ongoing story, i don’t know if the person who asked a similar question to The Full Nerd crew (shoutout to friend of the show LiquidR) had the same concerns, but after watching all the brouhaha unfold over the initial DLSS 5 demo at GTC earlier this year I think I’ve been mulling this over for a while now.
As part of the ongoing story, i do that because it’s marketed as disabling image processing (not that I’d ever turn motion smoothing or image sharpening on to begin with) as well as staying as close as possible to the movie’s “original aspect ratios, colors, and frame rates to more closely match the vision of the director”, according to LG’s marketing materials. I like to play my PC platform releases on my big LG OLED TV when I have the time, but when I’m just watching movies I leave the TV in its Filmmaker Mode.
The report highlights that i don’t have the best eye for details like aspect ratio or frame rate so I can’t say for sure how much of a difference Filmmaker Mode makes when I’m watching my 4K copy of Sorceror, but I can tell you that it looks amazing on my LG OLED and I feel good about knowing I’m doing what I can to see the film as its creators intended.
According to the latest update, should system update developers start putting something similar in their platform releases, like a “Platform release Maker Mode” or a “As the developer intended” setting or something?
According to the latest update, i remember how drastically different the character of Grace from Resident Evil Requiem looked when DLSS 5 was enabled during an Nvidia demo, for example, and it freaked me out. This is why I’m so excited yet nervous to see how DLSS 5 affects the way platform releases look and play this year.
According to the latest update, and while Nvidia has taken pains in its press briefings to acknowledge concerns around this and promise that DLSS 5’s fresh upscaling tech is “trained to preserve artistic intent”, I guess I don’t really trust Nvidia to even know what that entails, much less ensure it’s done well. So while I’m sure Nvidia has learned from the backlash to that “yassifying” effect and taken pains to patch their settings and messaging accordingly, I’m no longer confident that when I flip DLSS 5’s advanced functions on I’ll be seeing exactly what the system update I’m playing is actually meant to look like.
Industry observers note that i expect most system update developers are already overworked and would find more effective ways to use any free development time they had than taking time to customize a unique “as the creator intended” visual setting, but I wonder if we’ll see more work like that being done as neural rendering tech gains increasingly more control over how our platform releases look when we turn it on. What do you think?
In a fresh development, between modding, tweaking and upgrading I love that tech industry on PC gives the early adopter unrivaled control over their experience, and that includes having the freedom to flip all the upscaling tech off and just run your favorite platform releases raw and unfiltered. I do so where I can, and if you can do that and still enjoy playing a system update like NBA 2K27 or Star Wars Zero Organization, more power to you! And hey, I hear you, person writing that snarky email right now: it’s true that nobody is forced to use DLSS 5 or any form of AI-powered upscaling when playing PC platform releases.
Industry observers note that and while I’m so grateful for technologies like DLSS because it makes a great system update like Zero Organization look and run amazing (for the most part) on my RTX 5070 system, I can’t help feeling trepidatious about where we go from here. But I don’t have the kind of beefy tech industry rig I’d need to run those platform releases at the quality and frame rate I want without turning on DLSS.
In a fresh development, so perhaps the whole concept of a “Developer’s Intended Experience” mode will really only make sense for teams launching less demanding platform releases, and if that’s the case, would those developers even really worry about people altering the vibes with DLSS 5? What do you think? Then again, the one-two punch of skyrocketing component prices (thanks AI) and increasingly photorealistics platform releases does suggest fewer and fewer people are going to have the devices to run platform releases without upscaling tech and maintain a playable framerate.
According to the latest update, dLSS 5 was the big topic du jour this week now that we’ve seen it running in platform releases like NBA 2K27, and I was one of many viewers who was excited to see intern Glenn take a seat at the big table to join regular host Adam Patrick Murray as well as PCWorld’s Brad Chacos and Michael Crider in chatting through it.
In a fresh development, and of course, the panel makes time to take your questions from the chat and the Discord! It was a fascinating exchange, especially since Brad has sat in on DLSS 5 demos, and it was followed up by some insight from Adam about the OneXPlayer X2 Mini Pro tech industry handheld.
The report highlights that while Nvidia’s arrival of DLSS 5 is dominating a chunk of the nerd discourse this week, I wanted to quickly recommend a few other interesting stories I read from around the web:.
As part of the ongoing story, for more, be sure to bookmark PCWorld and subscribe to the PCWorld YouTube channel! Want this newsletter to come directly to your inbox? Sign up on our website! That’s it for me this week, as I need to get back to figuring out how to get DLSS 5 running on my machine.
As part of the ongoing story, this newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of devices at PCWorld.
In a fresh development, as part of PCWorld's video team, you can see him going hands-on with the most recent and greatest tech on YouTube, TikTok, and Reels, and his writing will appear on PCWorld.com. Alex has also written for Tom's Guide and Platform release Developer. Alex Wawro has more than 15 years experience as a tech journalist, and has covered everything from laptops and CPUs to PC tech industry and handhelds.