DLSS 5 gets toned down for its Hogwarts Legacy debut next month

The Verge News

Summary

Nvidia's DLSS 5 will debut in Hogwarts Legacy on November 5th with significantly toned-down facial and environmental alterations after gamer backlash, alongside an October update making the model twice as fast on RTX 50-series GPUs with 24% fewer parameters.

<figure> <img alt="An image of Nvidia’s logo" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/STK083_NVIDIA_2.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" /> <figcaption> </figcaption> </figure> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">When Nvidia originally showed off DLSS 5 earlier this year, the technology immediately got branded as gen AI for video games. To gamers, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/games/895753/nvidia-dlss-5-slop-face-fake-frames">Nvidia had lost the plot</a>. I personally couldn't get over how faces were transformed using DLSS 5. The 15-year-old student from <em>Hogwarts Legacy</em> suddenly looked much older, and Grace from <em>Resident Evil Requiem</em> looked yassified.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Now more than six months later, DLSS 5 is about to debut properly in <em>Hogwarts Legacy</em>, and it looks like it has been seriously toned down. Nvidia published new comparison screenshots today, where the changes to faces are as <a href="https://www.theverge.com/tech/986378/nvidia-dlss-5-launch-nba-2k27">subtle as they are</a> in <em>NBA 2K27</em>. Teenagers no longer look like …</p> <p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/1009904/dlss-5-hogwarts-legacy-changes-improvements">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>
Original Article
View Cached Full Text

Cached at: 10/13/26, 03:55 PM

# DLSS 5 gets toned down for its Hogwarts Legacy debut next month Source: [https://www.theverge.com/news/1009904/dlss-5-hogwarts-legacy-changes-improvements](https://www.theverge.com/news/1009904/dlss-5-hogwarts-legacy-changes-improvements) [![Tom Warren](https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/Tom_BLURPLE.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=96)](https://www.theverge.com/authors/tom-warren) Tom Warren is a senior correspondent and author of[*Notepad*](https://www.theverge.com/notepad-microsoft-newsletter), who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years\. When Nvidia originally showed off DLSS 5 earlier this year, the technology immediately got branded as gen AI for video games\. To gamers,[Nvidia had lost the plot](https://www.theverge.com/games/895753/nvidia-dlss-5-slop-face-fake-frames)\. I personally couldn’t get over how faces were transformed using DLSS 5\. The 15\-year\-old student from*Hogwarts Legacy*suddenly looked much older, and Grace from*Resident Evil Requiem*looked yassified\. Now more than six months later, DLSS 5 is about to debut properly in*Hogwarts Legacy*, and it looks like it has been seriously toned down\. Nvidia published new comparison screenshots today, where the changes to faces are as[subtle as they are](https://www.theverge.com/tech/986378/nvidia-dlss-5-launch-nba-2k27)in*NBA 2K27*\. Teenagers no longer look like middle\-aged men, and even the environmental changes look more subtle\. ![](https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/nvidia-dlss-5-geforce-rtx-hogwarts-legacy-comparison-001-off.jpeg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400) ![](https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/nvidia-dlss-5-geforce-rtx-hogwarts-legacy-comparison-001-on.jpeg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400) *Nvidia’s DLSS 5 in Hogwarts Legacy in March\.* ![](https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/hogwarts-legacy-nvidia-dlss-5-3d-guided-neural-rendering-geforce-rtx-50-series-comparison-002-off.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8125%2C0%2C84.375%2C100&w=2400) ![](https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/hogwarts-legacy-nvidia-dlss-5-3d-guided-neural-rendering-geforce-rtx-50-series-comparison-002-on.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=7.8125%2C0%2C84.375%2C100&w=2400) *Nvidia’s new Hogwarts Legacy DLSS 5 comparisons\.* Nvidia has always maintained that developers have “detailed artistic control” over DLSS 5, and ultimately make the choice on how to implement the technology in their own games\. DLSS 5 will now appear in*Hogwarts Legacy*on November 5th, and it’s also coming to*Where Winds Meet*late next month\. Nvidia is also improving the performance hit of DLSS 5 with an October update to the neural rendering system that should make it twice as fast on RTX 50\-series GPUs and the upcoming RTX Spark laptops\. “The DLSS 5 October update shrinks the footprint by 24 percent to roughly 118 million parameters while reducing 4K VRAM usage by 20 percent,” s[ays Nvidia’s Andrew Burnes](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/dlss-5-faster-ai-model-hogwarts-legacy-rtx-spark-laptops/)\. This new DLSS 5 model will debut first in*NBA 2K27*on October 16th and “will ship by default with future DLSS 5 games\.” Alongside the DLSS 5 updates, Nvidia has also shipped a new Nvidia app beta update that includes a faster performance mode for Frame Generation on RTX 40\- and 50\-series GPUs\. The updated AI model uses a “faster and lighter algorithm to boost frame rates” for Frame Gen, Multi Frame Gen, and Dynamic Multi Frame Gen\. Nvidia says it has “minor trade\-offs in image quality,” and that performance mode for Frame Generation should now be up to 35 precent faster\. **Follow topics and authors**from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates\. - Tom Warren

Similar Articles

Nvidia’s DLSS 5, explained

The Verge

The article explains Nvidia's DLSS 5, a generative AI technology for video games that enhances lighting and detail, addressing past criticisms and emphasizing developer control ahead of its September launch.