DLSS 5 leaked from an early-access build of NBA 2K27, and modders are already pushing it into Control, Skyrim, GTA V, and Cyberpunk 2077. The result is not just sharper visuals. It is also uneven performance, with some testers reporting major frame-rate losses and heavier VRAM use.
NBA 2K27 and Neural Rendering
Code for the AI upscaling tech appeared first in NBA 2K27. Members of the RenoDX modding channel on Discord reportedly pulled out the DLSS Neural Rendering file and applied it to Control. That path matters because it turns a closed feature into a tool that can be moved from one game to another without waiting for Nvidia to ship a public update.
Nvidia first announced DLSS 5 in March. The company positioned it as AI that brings photoreal lighting and materials to game graphics in real time. Jensen Huang also said the tool “doesn’t change the artistic control.” The leak is now testing that claim in public, because the modded version is changing faces, shadows, and lighting in ways players can see immediately.
Jesse Faden and CJ
In Control, Jesse Faden’s face shifts depending on the Neural Uplift setting. With the feature disabled, her face looks smooth and uniform. With it turned on in one preset, her face looks paler, with more visible laugh lines and makeup smudged beneath her eyes. In GTA: San Andreas, the same tech appears to put a filter over CJ’s face, make city textures stand out more, and deepen the shadows around him.
The current videos also show the mod affecting motion and image quality across other games. One tester said it “halves” their frames per second in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The same person said “swapping between presets eats a TON of vram.” Another video shows GTA V dropping from 90 FPS to 29 FPS while the sliders are adjusted. That is the practical trade-off for players trying the leak now: stronger image changes can come with a steep hit to performance.
RTX 50-series and RTX 4090
Modders have already run the unofficial DLSS 5 build on RTX 50-series chips. Some have also gotten it working on RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 chips. Earlier demos for Resident Evil Requiem, Starfield, and Hogwarts Legacy drew backlash over character appearance changes, and the reaction to the leaked build is split in the same way. Some players like the new filters. Others call them AI slop and say they look too much like an AI-enhanced filter.
The unanswered question is whether Nvidia will respond to the unofficial modding use, because the current leak is spreading faster than any public DLSS 5 rollout. For now, anyone testing it is choosing between altered lighting and faces on one side and large FPS costs on the other.
