Nvidia tones down DLSS 5’s AI effects for Hogwarts Legacy debut

Nvidia’s DLSS 5, which was initially branded as "generative AI for video games," drew immediate backlash from gamers after early demonstrations showed unnatural facial transformations—such as making a 15-year-old Hogwarts Legacy character appear older or altering character appearances in *Resident Evil Requiem* to a style critics described as "yassified." The criticism prompted Nvidia to scale back the AI effects for its official debut in *Hogwarts Legacy*, scheduled for November 5.

In updated comparison screenshots, Nvidia demonstrated that the facial transformations in DLSS 5 are now as subtle as those in *NBA 2K27*, with teenagers no longer appearing as middle-aged men and environmental changes reduced to more natural levels. Nvidia emphasized that developers retain "detailed artistic control" over DLSS 5’s implementation, but the adjustments reflect a response to community feedback.

The updated DLSS 5 model, released in October, reduces its footprint by 24% to roughly 118 million parameters and cuts 4K VRAM usage by 20%. Andrew Burnes, an Nvidia spokesperson, attributed these changes to the update. This lighter model will debut first in *NBA 2K27* on October 16 and will ship by default in future DLSS 5 games.

Nvidia also introduced a faster performance mode for Frame Generation on RTX 40- and 50-series GPUs, claiming it is up to 35% faster with only minor trade-offs in image quality. The update applies to Frame Gen, Multi Frame Gen, and Dynamic Multi Frame Gen.