NVIDIA's DLSS 5 update on October 13 comes down to one number: the neural rendering model now runs twice as fast as the September version. NBA 2K27, still the only game with DLSS 5, gets it on October 16, the same day DLSS 5 reaches RTX Spark laptops. Hogwarts Legacy follows on November 5, Where Winds Meet in late November, and RTX Remix modders get it on October 23.
RTX 40 owners get nothing new on DLSS 5 here, though they do get a faster Frame Generation mode, with the steps to turn it on further down. If you came for the mods that run DLSS 5 on Radeon and Intel Arc, those live in our DLSS 5 guide. This one is about NVIDIA itself.
A 24% smaller model and up to 40% more fps in NBA 2K27
According to NVIDIA, the October model has roughly 118 million parameters, 24% fewer than before (which puts the old one at about 155 million). It needs 20% less VRAM at 4K and half the GPU overhead of the September build, with image quality NVIDIA calls comparable. Against the GTC demo in March, that adds up to a 10x speedup.
- October 16. The new model lands in NBA 2K27 on GeForce RTX 50, RTX Spark laptops and GeForce NOW, with up to 1.4x the frame rate.
- Default from now on. Every future DLSS 5 game ships with this model.
- What's missing. NVIDIA didn't say which card, resolution or settings the "up to 1.4x" comes from.
- No independent numbers as of October 13. TechPowerUp and ComputerBase haven't tested the new model yet.
The September bar on the chart is our arithmetic from NVIDIA's two figures (10x since March, 2x since September); the company never quoted it directly. I'd treat "up to 1.4x" as the best case for now. A basketball game full of player close-ups is a very different load from an open world.
Hogwarts Legacy on November 5, and the faces stay put
The Hogwarts Legacy patch arrives November 5 for RTX 50, RTX Spark and GeForce NOW. It also moves the game's other DLSS features to their latest versions; Multi Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction are already in. NVIDIA says Avalanche Software used the SDK controls to keep DLSS 5 in line with the game's art style.
You can see it in the official comparisons. I cropped the girl in the green hat out of NVIDIA's 4K shot: same face, with a deeper shadow under the brim and a bit more texture on the skin and in the braids. Nothing like the "new face" effect people complained about after the first DLSS 5 videos. VideoCardz also noticed that the faces in the new Hogwarts Legacy footage look quite different from the earlier demo.
Where Winds Meet in late November, RTX Remix on October 23
Where Winds Meet, Everstone Studio's open-world wuxia RPG, is the third DLSS 5 game. There's no exact date, just "late November". NVIDIA points to demand: more than 100 million players and a Steam peak above 250,000.
RTX Remix is the bigger deal for anyone who replays old games. On October 23 it gains DLSS 5 with the new model plus the faster Frame Generation mode, and modders get the same controls studios have: exclude content from DLSS 5, mask parts of a scene, pick a preset per object. A few modders had early access. Sparkles (Kim2091) ran their in-progress Fallout 4 RTX through it, SoftSoundd did the same with Mirror's Edge RTX.
The helmet picks up reflections and the neck gets proper shadowing. Until now the only way to get DLSS 5 into older games was mods like Aeon SR (covered in our piece on DLSS 5 mods for old games). NVIDIA hasn't named any other cards for DLSS 5, so in Remix it will most likely be RTX 50 only as well.
No DLSS 5 for RTX 40 yet, but Preset C works: how to enable it
Officially DLSS 5 runs on RTX 50, RTX Spark laptops and GeForce NOW. In September NVIDIA said it would look at RTX 40 once RTX 50 performance is fully tuned, without a date, and the October post doesn't mention it at all.
The new Frame Generation Performance Mode, on the other hand, covers RTX 40 and RTX 50. NVIDIA's frame generation uses two models: one tracks motion from game data such as motion vectors and depth, the other computes optical flow for things like UI and ray-traced effects. Preset C swaps that second model for a lighter algorithm. You lose a little image quality and gain speed, up to 35% on an RTX 5060, in Frame Generation, Multi Frame Generation and Dynamic Multi Frame Generation alike. To turn it on:
- Get the beta. Update the NVIDIA app, tick "Opt in to access Beta or experimental features" under Settings, About, then install the beta when it downloads.
- Pick a game or all of them. In Graphics, choose a game with Frame Generation, or Global Settings at the top.
- Set the preset. Driver Settings, DLSS Override - Model Presets, Custom, then Preset C in the Frame Generation drop-down, and Apply.
- No Preset C in the list? Reboot.
If crosshairs or on-screen text start smearing afterwards, switch back to the default preset. UI was exactly what the replaced model handled.
What the lighter model means for the Radeon and Intel Arc mods is still open. They run NVIDIA's library from the game, and the new model arrives with the NBA 2K27 update on October 16. We'll check how DLSS-NR on AMD, AMDNR and the Intel port handle it and add the results to the guide.
Sources
NVIDIA, "DLSS 5 Comes To Hogwarts Legacy & RTX Spark, Powered By 2X Faster Model", Andrew Burnes, 13 October 2026: all figures, dates and the Preset C steps. The comparison images come from the same post; the face and helmet crops are ours, cut from the full 4K shots. Club386, 4 September 2026: NVIDIA's RTX 40 plans. VideoCardz on the Hogwarts Legacy faces. Tom's Hardware on the model size. Hogwarts Legacy on Steam.
