Modders make DLSS 5 work on RTX 40 GPUs with a simple code workaround

Nvidia's leaked DLSS 5 DLL has already been making the rounds among PC modders, with RenoDX and others adding the experimental neural rendering technology to a growing list of games. Now, the latest breakthrough could make the situation even more interesting: DLSS 5 has been modified to run on an RTX 4090.

Modder Uncle Burrito managed to modify Nvidia's leaked DLSS 5 DLL, originally discovered in the early-access build of NBA 2K27, to work with RTX 40-series graphics cards. Nvidia's original DLL contained CUDA binaries that were seemingly restricted to Blackwell-based RTX 50-series GPUs, but the modder patched them to run on the older Ada Lovelace architecture.

The result was once again demonstrated in Control, where DLSS 5 Neural Rendering was running on an RTX 4090. This is particularly interesting because Nvidia has so far positioned DLSS 5 as an RTX 50-series feature, leaving owners of older cards wondering whether they would be left out.

There's a fairly substantial performance cost, however. With DLSS 5 Neural Rendering enabled in Control, the RTX 4090 reportedly drops from around 130 FPS to approximately 83 FPS. That's a roughly 36% reduction in frame rate, although the result shouldn't be treated as representative of the finished technology.

The current implementation relies on a leaked, pre-release DLL and requires modifications from the community rather than proper integration by a game's developer. Nvidia still has plenty of time to optimize the technology, and a native implementation could potentially perform considerably better.

It also remains unclear whether Nvidia ever planned to support DLSS 5 on RTX 40-series cards. The company could still choose to keep the feature exclusive to RTX 50-series GPUs, even if older architectures are technically capable of running it. Nvidia has previously used hardware and software segmentation to differentiate its GPU generations, so technical compatibility doesn't necessarily mean official support.

DLSS 5 is expected to officially arrive this fall, but these unofficial experiments are already giving PC gamers an early look at what Nvidia's next-generation rendering technology can do. For RTX 40-series owners, the RTX 4090 experiment at least offers a glimmer of hope that DLSS 5 may eventually extend beyond Blackwell.

As always, for the latest news on NVIDIA's DLSS technology, RTX graphics cards, AI-powered rendering, and developments across the PC gaming industry, be sure to follow our dedicated hardware coverage.