DLSS 5 mod brings next-gen tech to old Ampere GPUs, but frame rates are horrible - most games tank to single digits, high-end GPUs can hit up to 40 FPS in some cases

Modders have gotten Nvidia’s DLSS 5 running on older Ampere graphics cards, but the results are mixed at best, with most users reporting severe performance penalties that often drop frame rates into single digits. The unofficial effort targets RTX 30-series GPUs, and while the technology does produce a more photorealistic image that some find superior to native rendering, the cost in frame pacing and latency is extreme. In the worst cases reported, frametimes can multiply by ten compared to running the game without DLSS 5, as the neural rendering process dominates the pipeline.

Users across Discord and social media have shared benchmark results that illustrate the trade-off. One user ran Grand Theft Auto V at 20-30 FPS on an RTX 3080 Ti at 1440p, while another played Dying Light 2 at roughly 40 FPS on an RTX 3080, noting the image was very noisy. Hogwarts Legacy hit 30 FPS on an RTX 3090, Mortal Shell 2 reached 34 FPS on an RTX 3080 Ti with shimmering, and Ready or Not ran at 30 FPS on an RTX 3080. Even NBA 2K27 on a mobile RTX 3070 managed only 25 FPS with DLAA at 1080p.

The failures are more dramatic. Several users reported being stuck in single-digit FPS territory, with the worst being 2 FPS in Hogwarts Legacy on an RTX 3070. One user on X ran Deep Rock Galactic with DLSS 5 at 4 FPS on an RTX 3080, down from 130+ FPS without it, while another on Discord saw Cyberpunk 2077 drop to 7 FPS on an RTX 3080 Ti. The most interesting result came from a user who reached 41 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077, but only by dropping the resolution to 720p and using the ultra performance upscaling preset, sacrificing base fidelity to gain neural fidelity.

The community reaction has been notable for its pivot on AI. Many users who initially rejected AI features are now considering selling their Ampere cards to buy Blackwell GPUs, specifically to access more AI capabilities. The jump from RTX 30-series to RTX 50-series is substantial, but the improvements are concentrated in the AI department, and this mod appears to have convinced some users that the upgrade is worth it. Nvidia has not officially announced when DLSS 5 will launch or which GPUs it will support.

The latest official iteration, DLSS 4.5, supports RTX GPUs back to the 20-series, but industry observers deduce the 50-series will be first to receive DLSS 5, as it is the only family that can natively read certain FP8 libraries the technology depends on. For now, Ampere owners who want to try DLSS 5 must accept the balancing act of lowering in-game settings to avoid diminishing returns, or face the brutal frame rate drops that most users are experiencing. The net result is a technology that shows promise for photorealism but remains impractical for everyday gaming on older hardware.

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