DLSS 5 leaks in NBA 2K27: 158 MB that cost half your FPS

Fabian Lainé August 29, 2026 at 7:40 AM

In brief

A DLSS 5 DLL mistakenly ended up in NBA 2K27, weighing 158 MB compared to 20-50 MB for DLSS 4. Modders immediately injected it into other games, revealing spectacular performance drops: up to 50% FPS lost on Cyberpunk 2077 in 4K.

A Neural Rendering library from DLSS 5 slipped into the early access build of NBA 2K27 on PC. Within two days, modders had it running in a dozen games.

On August 26, Renan Maniero spotted nvngx_dlssnr.dll in the game's files, identified as "NVIDIA DLSSNR" 310.8.0.0. It weighs in at 158 MB, whereas DLSS 4 Super Resolution DLLs run between 20 and 50 MB. NBA 2K27 shows no option to enable it: everything points to a development file bundled in by mistake.

Developers from RenoDX injected it into Control within a few hours, on character models only, with seven styles. The cost is said to be steep: on an RTX 5070 Ti at 4K, the modder recorded a drop from 71 to 35 frames per second. On an RTX 5070, Cyberpunk 2077 reportedly fell from 138 to 68 FPS in rasterization.

What holds up, and what doesn't

Measurable: the file's size, its date, its presence in the build. Shakier: these readings, for which the author specified neither the settings nor the internal resolution. The Blackwell exclusivity has already been broken, too, with a modder recompiling the CUDA binaries for Ada Lovelace.

What remains essential: DLSS 5 is no secret. Nvidia unveiled it on March 16 and is releasing it this fall on GeForce RTX 50 cards. What leaked is an unfinished runtime grafted onto engines that weren't built for it: it says nothing about the final version. Nvidia does not translate "DLSS" or "Neural Rendering."

Do these spectacular FPS drops worry you about the final version of DLSS 5?

Frequently asked questions

How did modders already get DLSS 5 running in other games?

By manually injecting the nvngx_dlssnr.dll extracted from NBA 2K27 into titles like Control or Cyberpunk 2077. RenoDX tested it within a few hours, on character models only.

Why do performances drop so much with DLSS 5?

The leaked runtime is unfinished and grafted onto engines that aren't expecting it. The measured drops (50 to 60% FPS) don't reflect what the final optimized version will be.

Is there an Nvidia Blackwell exclusivity with DLSS 5?

No, a modder has already recompiled the CUDA binaries to work on Ada Lovelace GPUs, breaking the announced RTX 50 exclusivity.

When will DLSS 5 actually arrive?

Nvidia officially revealed it on March 16 and plans a rollout this fall, exclusively on GeForce RTX 50 cards. What leaked is just a development version.

Key takeaways

DLSS 5's Neural Rendering library leaked via NBA 2K27's early access, a forgotten dev file
The nvngx_dlssnr.dll file weighs 158 MB, seven times heavier than the old DLSS 4 runtimes
Modder tests show drastic drops: 71 to 35 FPS on Control, 138 to 68 FPS on Cyberpunk in 4K
Nvidia hid nothing, DLSS 5 has been official since March and will arrive this fall on RTX 50
These measurements remain shaky, as the test conditions aren't specified and the runtime is unfinished

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