A skeptical but balanced look at four scenarios where DLSS 5's neural rendering could genuinely improve game visuals: cleaning up path-traced global illumination, improving consistency in massive open worlds, potentially making lower settings look better by offloading work to Tensor Cores, and elevating background NPC quality. Despite identifying these use cases, the author remains critical of DLSS 5's broader direction, arguing it moves gaming away from hand-crafted rendering toward AI-interpreted graphics.
Table of contents
Cleaner global illumination could make path tracing viable for allMassive game worlds could finally hold up under scrutinyEven lower in-game settings could fetch better-looking resultsNPCs might not look like afterthoughts anymoreSort: