DLSS 5 unlocks AMD RDNA 4 performance
The Modding Community Cracks the Code: Bringing DLSS 5 to AMD Hardware
The graphics world just got a serious upgrade. DLSS 5 officially debuted inside NBA 2K27, signaling a major leap forward in AI-powered upscaling technology. While Nvidia is pushing the envelope with this development, a fascinating workaround has emerged, allowing users with AMD GPUs to experience the benefits of DLSS 5, even when native support is absent.
This ingenuity comes from the modding community, which has stepped up to fill a technological gap. Developer danielblnc has successfully engineered a system that injects DLSS 5 into DirectX 12 games running on AMD’s RDNA 4 GPUs, specifically the RX 9000 series. The magic lies in the project called DLSS-NR-on-AMD.
How does it work? While the specifics of the closed-source mod are guarded, the process is brilliant. It involves dynamically wrapping the graphics API calls to trick the DLSS 5 software into loading correctly on an AMD GPU. It then cleverly extracts the neural network calculations from the core DLSS 5 structure and translates them using AMD’s matrix accelerators, specifically the HIP RT backend, instead of relying on NVIDIA’s CUDA framework.
This ingenious method effectively runs the frame data through the neural model, delivering quality results comparable to what an RTX 50-series GPU would achieve, despite the lack of native Tensor cores. It hooks into the game’s FSR pipeline to run the results, offering a path to high-fidelity visuals on non-Nvidia silicon.
However, achieving this cinematic quality comes with performance considerations. Performance reports show that while the system offers an improvement, it is not without its trade-offs. For instance, testing on a top-end RDNA 4 card like the RX 9070 XT, performance can drop significantly when utilizing DLSS 5, sometimes falling from 80+ FPS natively down to just 11 to 12 FPS with the mod active.
Despite these performance dips, the goal remains ambitious: to match the performance of high-end competitors, like the RTX 5070 Ti, which is closely matched in both rasterization and ray tracing performance. The ultimate aim of this work is to push the boundaries of what AMD hardware can achieve in the age of AI upscaling.
It’s worth noting that the competition is heating up. Although both Nvidia and AMD support FP8 formats, DLSS 5 is inherently tied to Nvidia’s Tensor cores. This dynamic has motivated Nvidia to ensure DLSS 5 will eventually run on last-generation silicon. Meanwhile, the modding community’s persistent efforts ensure that this innovative technology remains accessible and powerful, setting a high bar for future GPU development.
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