(Credit: Michael Justin Allen Sexton/PCMag)
Good news for owners of RTX 4000 GPUs: You're getting access to Nvidia’s DLSS 5 tech too, no mod required.
DLSS 5 was initially announced as exclusive to the current-generation RTX 5000 GPUs. But on Thursday, Nvidia surprised gamers by announcing in a forum post that it's bringing the photorealistic effects to the preceding RTX 4000 line.
“DLSS 5 is our most computationally demanding model to date,” the company wrote. “Since we initially announced it in March, we’ve achieved a 5X performance gain, and there’s more to come. Our current focus is on optimizing performance for the GeForce RTX 50 Series, with model updates expected later this fall. Once RTX 50 Series performance is more fully tuned, we plan to work on expanding official support to the GeForce RTX 40 Series.”
Unfortunately, no timeline was given. For now, DLSS 5 is only available on NBA 2K27, but Nvidia says teams are working to integrate the graphics technology into other games, too.
DLSS 5 has been making waves for its ability to add photorealistic effects to PC games, although some critics have derided the tech as AI slop. Whatever your opinion, the AI-driven feature hogs GPU resources and can lead to a 50% to 60% hit on frame rates. We found this in our own testing of NBA 2K27 with DLSS 5 on, with the frame rates falling to around 70fps, down from 140, despite running on an RTX 5090 card.
However, Nvidia’s forum post suggests it sees room to optimize DLSS 5 for better performance not only for the RTX 5000 series but also for the preceding generation. The company announced the news after some Reddit posts complained that Nvidia was "artificially locking" DLSS 5 to the RTX 5000 series.
In the meantime, the gaming modding community has already found unofficial ways to get DLSS 5 running on RTX 4000 GPUs in select games, such as Cyberpunk 2077. But again, you can expect a 60% drop in FPS.
About Our Expert
I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.
Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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