In short
DLSS 5 arrives on GeForce NOW on September 3, 2026 at 9 p.m. Pacific, on the Ultimate plan. NBA 2K27 is the first game with it, and NVIDIA has named fifteen more, Starfield and Hogwarts Legacy among them. You turn it on in the game’s video settings, under DLSS Neural Rendering, and F9 switches it off and on during play. There is nothing to install, because the driver runs on NVIDIA’s machine. The free plan and Performance do not get it.
NVIDIA first showed DLSS 5 in March. Since then the debate has been about one thing: the faces look real, and some players want their games to look the way the studio drew them. On September 3 it arrives in a game you can play, and on a stream. Here is what it does, how to switch it on, and which plan and which games get it.
What DLSS 5 changes on screen
- What it is
- A final pass, run by an AI model, after the game has drawn the frame
- What it changes
- Lighting and materials: skin, hair, fabric, metal, water, glass, reflections and shadows
- What it keeps
- The geometry, the textures and the lighting the studio made. The model reads them and cannot move them
- Who tunes it
- The studio, per object, with two dials (Structure and Tone) and masks
- Same frame in, same frame out
- Deterministic. The same input always gives the same picture
- Works with
- Super Resolution, Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction, which keep doing their jobs
It is not an upscaler and it is not frame generation. Those are DLSS 4.5, and our guide to the DLSS 4.5 controls says what each one does in the cloud. DLSS 5 is a separate pass. It changes what the frame looks like, not how many frames there are.
The studio decides where it applies. In NBA 2K27, Visual Concepts used a per-pixel control mask to put the detail on the players. Ray tracing is not required.
How to turn on DLSS 5 on GeForce NOW
- Be on the Ultimate plan. Its RTX 5080 rigs are the machines that run DLSS 5.
- Start NBA 2K27 from the GeForce NOW app. The game has to be in the Steam library you linked.
- Open Video Settings in the game and turn on DLSS Neural Rendering.
- Press F9 during a game or a replay to switch it off and on, and compare on the same play.
There is no driver to download. DLSS 5 needs the Game Ready driver of September 3, and on GeForce NOW that driver sits on NVIDIA’s machine. On your own RTX 50 PC, installing it is the first step.
Which GeForce NOW plan gets DLSS 5
Ultimate only. It costs $19.99 a month and runs on RTX 5080 servers, the same generation of card DLSS 5 needs at home. Ultimate also gives sessions of eight hours, up to 5K at 120 fps, and 100 hours a month. NVIDIA does not list the free plan or Performance for DLSS 5.
What DLSS 5 costs in frames
NVIDIA’s figures for NBA 2K27 combine DLSS 5 with Super Resolution and 6x Multi Frame Generation: up to 410 fps at 1440p on an RTX 5080, the card in an Ultimate rig, and up to 370 fps at 4K on an RTX 5090. The cost of the DLSS 5 pass on its own is not published.
In the cloud the stream sets the ceiling. Ultimate streams at up to 120 fps, or 360 fps at 1080p in competitive mode. Frames above that are never sent. Our network test says what your connection can carry.
Which games get DLSS 5 on GeForce NOW
NBA 2K27 is first. NVIDIA says the DLSS 5 update is available to Ultimate members from September 3 at 9 p.m. Pacific, the same hour as on RTX 50 PCs. The game releases on September 4, 2026, on Steam on PC, and early access opened on August 26. NBA 2K26 streams on Boosteroid and Xbox Cloud Gaming, not on GeForce NOW.
At the reveal in March, NVIDIA named fifteen more games, with no date for any of them: AION 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Black State, CINDER CITY, Delta Force, Hogwarts Legacy, Justice, NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, NTE: Neverness to Everness, Phantom Blade Zero, Resident Evil Requiem, Sea of Remnants, Starfield, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered and Where Winds Meet. Each one gets DLSS 5 through a game update. The ones below already stream on GeForce NOW.
- Starfield — Steam or Xbox copy.
- Hogwarts Legacy — Epic, Steam or Xbox copy.
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows — Ubisoft or Steam copy.
- Resident Evil Requiem — Steam copy.
- Where Winds Meet — Free to play, from the Epic version.
- NARAKA: BLADEPOINT — Free to play. Epic, Steam or Xbox version.
- Delta Force — Free to play, from the Steam version.
- NTE: Neverness to Everness — Free to play.
The release dates of the unreleased ones are on our calendar. This page will list each game as its update reaches the service.
Why the clips going round look different
The before-and-after videos of Control, Skyrim and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth come from a leak, not from a game that supports DLSS 5. On August 28, 2026 the DLSS 5 library leaked out of NBA 2K27’s early access build. With the RenoDX tool, modders injected it into games that were never tuned for it. Those games have none of the settings a studio sets: no masks, no dials. NBA 2K27 is the first game where a studio set them, and F9 shows both versions of the same play.
How DLSS 5 got here
What changed
- March 2026NVIDIA reveals DLSS 5 at GTC on March 16. The first demos draw a wave of criticism for changing how characters look, and NVIDIA answers that the studio keeps control of the geometry and the textures.
- August 2026NBA 2K27 early access opens on August 26. On August 28 the DLSS 5 library leaks out of that build, and modders inject it into games that do not support it.
- September 2026On September 1 NVIDIA gives the date, September 3 at 9 p.m. Pacific, for RTX 50 cards, RTX 50 laptops and GeForce NOW Ultimate. NBA 2K27 releases on September 4.
Sources
NVIDIA, read on September 2, 2026: DLSS 5 debuts in NBA 2K27, the GTC post of March 16 that names the fifteen games, the DLSS games post of September 1, the GeForce NOW server upgrade page and the GeForce NOW FAQ. 2K: the NBA 2K27 page for the dates, the editions and the PC store.
Reporting: NVIDIA’s newsroom for the GTC reveal and the GPT moment line, Tom’s Guide on Jensen Huang’s answer to the critics at GTC, Kotaku on the August 28 leak, Back2Gaming and igor’sLAB on what the published figures do and do not isolate. Which games stream on GeForce NOW, and with which copy, comes from our own catalogue.
Questions
Is DLSS 5 on the GeForce NOW free plan?
No. NVIDIA lists Ultimate only, the plan on RTX 5080 servers. The free plan and Performance do not get it.
Do I need to install a driver to use DLSS 5 on GeForce NOW?
No. The driver is on NVIDIA’s server. On your own RTX 50 PC you need the Game Ready driver of September 3, 2026, from the NVIDIA app.
Which games have DLSS 5 on GeForce NOW?
NBA 2K27, from September 3, 2026. NVIDIA has named fifteen more without dates. Starfield, Hogwarts Legacy, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Resident Evil Requiem, Where Winds Meet, NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, Delta Force and NTE: Neverness to Everness already stream on GeForce NOW and get it with a game update.
Does DLSS 5 replace DLSS 4.5?
No. It is a separate pass. Super Resolution, Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction keep working, and NVIDIA’s NBA 2K27 figures use all of them together.
Does DLSS 5 change the art style of a game?
The studio decides. The model reads the frame the game drew and cannot move geometry or textures. Two dials and masks set how strong it is, per object. The leaked clips ran with none of that.
Can I turn DLSS 5 off?
Yes. In the game’s video settings, or with F9 during play in NBA 2K27.
Is DLSS 5 on Boosteroid or Xbox Cloud Gaming?
Not announced. DLSS 5 needs an RTX 50 card, and GeForce NOW Ultimate is the cloud plan that runs on one.
How much does GeForce NOW Ultimate cost?
$19.99 a month in the US. It gives an RTX 5080 rig, sessions of eight hours, up to 5K at 120 fps, and 100 hours a month.
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