DLSS 5 Neural Rendering Ported to AMD RDNA 4 GPUs
In a significant development for PC gaming technology, a modder has successfully ported NVIDIA's DLSS 5 Neural Rendering to AMD GPUs for the first time. This breakthrough comes just days after DLSS 5 began appearing on older NVIDIA graphics cards, highlighting the rapid pace at which neural rendering technology is evolving and spreading across platforms.
Introducing DLSS-NR: Bringing Neural Rendering to AMD
Developer danielblnc has released a tool called DLSS-NR for AMD, enabling users with AMD's latest RDNA 4 GPUs to access NVIDIA's advanced neural rendering model in supported games. The installation process is straightforward: users simply place a small installer and NVIDIA's nvngx_dlssnr.dll file into the game's bin folder. Neural rendering can then be toggled using an FSR 3 or FSR 4 profile, integrating seamlessly with existing AMD upscaling options.
So far, DLSS-NR has been tested on titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V: Enhanced. However, support is currently limited to AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs, with older AMD hardware not compatible. Additionally, games with anti-cheat protections will block the necessary DLL, restricting this mod to single-player experiences for the time being.
Performance Challenges and Technical Insights
Early performance results indicate that running DLSS 5 on AMD hardware is still a work in progress. According to testing by YouTuber Ancient Gameplays, initial builds saw Cyberpunk 2077 drop from over 80 FPS to just 11-12 FPS at 1080p on the Radeon RX 9070 XT. The latest Alpha v0.2.7 update has improved performance by approximately 12%, raising frame rates to around 30 FPS. Despite these gains, the performance hit remains significant, especially for a GPU that already handles native rendering efficiently.
The technical reason this port is possible lies in the architecture of AMD's RDNA 4 GPUs. DLSS 5 relies on FP8 (8-bit floating point) math, a feature natively supported by both AMD's RX 9000 series and NVIDIA's RTX 50-series and 40-series cards. This compatibility has enabled modders to experiment with neural rendering across different hardware platforms.
Official Support and the Future of Neural Rendering
NVIDIA has maintained that DLSS 5 is currently exclusive to its Blackwell architecture, but modders have already managed to run it on RTX 40-series and 30-series cards following recent leaks. NVIDIA has since confirmed that official support for the RTX 40-series is in development, which makes sense given their FP8 capabilities.
While the current AMD implementation is unofficial and not yet practical for everyday gaming, it demonstrates the growing interest and rapid adoption of neural rendering technologies. The spread of DLSS 5 beyond NVIDIA's intended platforms underscores the demand for advanced upscaling and rendering solutions across the gaming community.
