Gamers are right to be disgusted by NVIDIA's DLSS 5
TL;DR
NVIDIA announced DLSS 5, an AI feature that adds 'photorealistic' lighting and materials to in-game models and environments.
Key Points
- Social media and Reddit reactions were overwhelmingly negative, with virtually no genuine enthusiasm found.
- NVIDIA markets DLSS 5 as the 'biggest breakthrough in computer graphics' since RTX ray tracing launched in 2018.
- Critics see it as another layer of 'AI slop' – AI-generated content replacing actual artists and real rendering work.
- Earlier DLSS iterations with AI upscaling and generated frames already drew suspicion; DLSS 5 amplifies that sentiment significantly.
Nauti's Take
The outrage this time is warranted, not just reflexive. DLSS 4 already blurred the line between real and simulated performance with generated frames – DLSS 5 does the same to the visuals themselves.
That is not an upgrade; it is a substitution. NVIDIAs habit of framing every AI feature as a 'historic breakthrough' is wearing thin, and players have learned to parse the buzzwords.
When 'photorealistic lighting' means a model is guessing what a scene should look like instead of an artist deciding, that is a quality problem – no matter how polished the benchmark screenshots appear.
Video
Sources