Unofficial Test Shows DLSS 5 Dropping RTX 30 Performance to 1 FPS

For some players, these tests served as surprisingly effective advertising for modern graphics cards.

This year, the latest installment of the basketball simulator NBA 2K27 has drawn special attention from PC gamers. The reason is not the gameplay, but the technologies used in the game. Data miners managed to extract the NVIDIA DLSS 5 library from the game files, and users are now attempting to run it in a wide variety of games.

Formally, DLSS 5 is supported on GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards, but tech enthusiasts have not let that limitation stop them. Tests were initially conducted on GeForce RTX 40 level GPUs, and they have now gone even further, with tests being published online from PCs running GeForce RTX 30 (Ampere) hardware.

Performance leaves much to be desired, however. For example, gameplay footage published by a user named flovreq has gone viral within the community. On his GeForce RTX 3080, the frame rate instantly plummeted from 138 FPS to a mere 3 to 5 frames per second after enabling NVIDIA DLSS 5 technology.

Image source: flovreq’s X account

Similar drops are visible in Deep Rock Galactic, where the cooperative shooter’s frame rate plunges from 130 FPS down to 4 FPS. When using graphics cards such as the RTX 3050 and RTX 3060 Ti in certain games, including Control or Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, frame rates can drop as low as 1 FPS.

The capabilities of NVIDIA DLSS 5 have made such an impression on some people that they are considering purchasing more modern RTX 50 series graphics cards.