Although DLSS 5 looks like it's doing a lot, Huang said that it's just another tool, not an essential feature. "The gamers might also appreciate that, in the last couple of years, we introduced skin shaders to game developers, and many of those games have skin shaders that include sub-surface scattering that makes skin look more skin-like… [DLSS 5] is just one more tool. They can decide what to use," Huang ended the conversation about DLSS 5. Immediately after, without missing a beat, he said 1993's Doom was the most influential video game ever made.
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Jake Roach is the Senior CPU Analyst at Tom\u2019s Hardware, writing reviews, news, and features about the latest consumer and workstation processors. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-18/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Jake Roach Social Links Navigation Senior Analyst, CPUs Jake Roach is the Senior CPU Analyst at Tom’s Hardware, writing reviews, news, and features about the latest consumer and workstation processors.
usertests Best response would be to keep quiet and work on the feature. Possibly scrap it, change how it works, and delay release if it wasn't actually based on "geometry" or whatever. I don't know how well regarded FSR 4.1 is vs. DLSS 4.5, but only Nvidia is likely to make Nvidia lose market share these days. 😉 AMD isn't going to be rushing to introduce a DLSS 5 style capability that everyone is now wary of. Reply
CelicaGT Of course it's not altering geometry because it's processing a 2D image. Jensen is gone full market-speak here and it's sickening regardless of DLSS 5's merits. It is post processing but technically not because it's still in the render pipeline (as I understand it). Doublespeak, like a lawyer he speaks out of two sides of his mouth. The end result is that it does alter the image. But he can totally say it doesn't change the geometry, because it can't. *FWIW I'm in the wait and see camp at this point, I do see some promise but the way this was presented using low settings on the native render etc. is dishonest at best and Jensen jumping to defend it so vehemently and before thinking shows his true colours. He was always a bit cringe but now just comes across as slimy. Reply
usertests This wccftech editorial argues that Nvidia messed up by choosing the Grace thumbnail when more subtle alterations of her face were available: https://wccftech.com/nvidia-dlss-5-reveal-mistakes-op-ed/ https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/nvidia-dlss-5-geforce-rtx-resident-evil-requiem-comparison-002-off-1-scaled.jpeghttps://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/nvidia-dlss-5-geforce-rtx-resident-evil-requiem-comparison-002-on-2-scaled.jpeg Whereas that infamous thumbnail was rightfully criticized by all, this other, far less discussed comparison demonstrates how the technology can largely preserve a game character's original facial structure while still greatly improving its lighting and shading. The image choice suggests that someone at NVIDIA wanted to maximize the wow factor with that specific thumbnail choice, and in doing so, essentially condemned DLSS 5 to a fierce backlash. The writer basically reached the same conclusion that I did above: I would even recommend delaying the actual release of the technology beyond Fall, if at all necessary. I doubt there's any risk of anyone getting a similar neural rendering tech out before NVIDIA, and it's important that the next time DLSS 5 is shown, most of the rational critiques (not the ideological, preconceived ones against any form of AI) are addressed properly. Future versions are likely to be more deeply integrated into 3d engines: DLSS 5 doesn't integrate with a game engine yet (which was one of the side criticisms), but that certainly sounds like the next step for the technology and would ensure better harmony with a game's original style. Reply
TerryLaze CelicaGT said: The end result is that it does alter the image. But he can totally say it doesn't change the geometry, because it can't. The whole point is to change the image, that's the same as what dlss upscaling and frame generation does. This is just applying better, or at least different, lighting instead of increasing resolution that didn't exist or create whole frames that never existed. usertests said: This wccftech editorial argues that Nvidia messed up by choosing the Grace thumbnail when more subtle alterations of her face were available: Wouldn't have mattered because that image still makes her lips seem fuller and redder, which was the one big complain. Reply
CrazyCarrot911 For Flightsims it's only useful without gauges and HuD because it messes them up. As soon as you want to read your VSI you know what I mean…. Fake frames cause real problems Reply
hotaru251 You know, all of the AI-generated content increasingly looks similar, and they're all beautiful… so I'm empathic toward what they're thinking. states hates ai slop then says its all beautiful. really wish people would stop trying to save face and just say their real thoguths outright. also again we have conflicting statements from Nvidia about how much control artists and devs have. and i'd more likely trust the dev who did the Q&A over Jensen ,leather jacket frick gamers, Huang. Let alone Jensen says its not generative ai..its controlled gen ai…which is gen ai still. Reply
PSUpower I know i'm in the minority on this one, but i'm really excited about DLSS 5.0 and its potential impact on gaming. I don't particularly like Jensen these days, but if he somehow manages to deliver even half of the things we saw on the demos, then we'll be talking about a revolution in 3d graphics. However, DLSS 5.0 still needs a lot of refining, before it hits acceptable performance. After all, let's not forget that, 99.99% of gamers out there , can't afford two 5090s. Reply
-Fran- The reason they're not making DLSS5 work in the render pipeline as you'd normally do with most tech aimed to create predictable things, it's because they don't care about it and just want to justify and showcase inference and speed on consumer cards for the AI stuff. Because they're dedicating more and more of the die area for it, I'm sure. With all the money in the world, you'd think they'd at least have the decency to use the "generation" part on the tooling side instead, for developers. Just make different die configs for AI and regular CPUs. The intersection of them is now long past. The "classic" GPU is now in the same crossroad as the CPU was in the late 80s when accelerators were starting to make sense. Regards. Reply
TerryLaze hotaru251 said: Let alone Jensen says its not generative ai..its controlled gen ai…which is gen ai still. It's not generative (making random stuff up) it's deterministic (making always the same specific thing up) Sure for the end user they might not care that there is a difference, but there is one. Reply
Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/nvidia-ceo-says-hes-empathic-to-dlss-5-concerns-jensen-huang-doubles-down-on-defense-while-decrying-ai-slop#main
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- GTC 2026: Ian Buck press Q&A transcript — VP of Hyperscale and HPC speaks out on shelving CPX and shipping LPU decode this year
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