NVIDIA’s three GeForce News posts this week all went up on October 13, and the useful part is a pair of DLSS changes: a cheaper DLSS 5 model, and a lighter frame generation mode that RTX 40 Series cards can use as well. The same posts put DLSS 5 on RTX Spark laptops, which went on sale on October 16.
DLSS 5’s October model halves the GPU overhead of the September one
NVIDIA says the October update to DLSS 5’s 3D-Guided Neural Rendering model shrinks it by 24% to roughly 118 million parameters and cuts 4K VRAM use by 20%, in its post on the next DLSS 5 games. That leaves half the GPU overhead of the September version at comparable visual fidelity. Against the model as announced in March it calls the result 10X faster overall. The first game to get it is NBA 2K27, in the Season 2 update on October 16, where frame rates rise by up to 1.4X on GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, RTX Spark laptops and GeForce NOW. Future DLSS 5 games will ship with it by default.
The numbers measure different things, and the post does not join them up. Half the overhead is a cut in what DLSS 5 costs per frame, not a doubling of frame rate, and 1.4X is an up-to figure with no GPU, resolution or settings attached. If 1.4X were the whole effect of halving that cost on a single frame, DLSS 5 would have been taking about 57% of the September frame time. That is our arithmetic and a best case, since the post gives no frame times. The 10X figure is measured against March, so it says little about the gap to the model players saw last month. Every platform named for the new model is an RTX 50 Series card, an RTX Spark laptop or GeForce NOW, and the posts list no RTX 40 Series cards for DLSS 5.
The rest is dated, not shipped. Hogwarts Legacy adds DLSS 5 on November 5, with Avalanche Software using the SDK’s controls to hold the game’s art style, and Where Winds Meet follows in late November. RTX Remix gets DLSS 5 on October 23, along with the new frame generation mode below, and modders receive the same controls as developers to include or exclude content, mask elements and set a preset per object.
A lighter frame generation mode swaps out the optical flow model
Frame generation runs two models: one that reads motion vectors and depth to track objects between rendered frames, and a second that calculates optical flow for elements such as the interface and ray-traced effects. The new Performance Mode, labelled Preset C in the NVIDIA app’s Frame Generation override, replaces the second model with a faster, lighter algorithm, NVIDIA says in its weekly DLSS roundup. It works with Frame Generation, Multi Frame Generation and Dynamic Multi Frame Generation on GeForce RTX 40 and 50 Series GPUs and RTX Spark laptops. On a GeForce RTX 5060 it is up to 35% faster, with what the post calls minor trade-offs in image quality.
The post does not say what the 35% is measured against, the frame generation pass or the overall frame rate, and it gives no game or settings. The interface and ray-traced effects are the elements the replaced model handles, so they are the places to look first for artifacts. That is an inference from NVIDIA’s description, not a finding. The mode is a beta: it needs the opt-in for beta and experimental features under Settings, About in the NVIDIA app, after which the preset appears under Graphics, Driver Settings, DLSS Override – Model Presets, Custom. NVIDIA adds that a reboot is needed if Preset C is not visible.
RTX Spark laptops start at $2,399, and several big games have no date
RTX Spark laptops from ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI went on sale on October 16 from $2,399, NVIDIA says in its launch-day blog post, with up to 128GB of unified memory. The GeForce News launch post describes the chip as a Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 6,144 CUDA cores linked over NVLink-C2C to a Grace CPU with up to 20 cores, running Windows 11, with DLSS 5 available on day one.
Anti-cheat is where the day-one list and the roadmap separate. NVIDIA lists ARC Raiders, Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Fortnite, Marvel Rivals, Rocket League, RUST, THE FINALS and War Thunder among the online games playable under anti-cheat on October 16. The later dates are uneven: EA’s Javelin Anticheat arrives in early 2027, Call of Duty comes to RTX Spark in 2027, PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS in the first half of 2027, and Arena Breakout: Infinite in 2027, while Delta Force gets limited testing in a future season. League of Legends and VALORANT have no date at all, only a Riot Games quote saying it looks forward to bringing support. Vanguard is on NVIDIA’s list of anti-cheat systems it is still working to support, not one that has shipped.
GeForce NOW gets DLSS 4.5 controls with frame generation capped at 4X
The DLSS 4.5 controls are now live for GeForce NOW members on Windows, macOS, Chrome OS and Steam OS, the GFN Thursday post says, covering Super Resolution, Dynamic Multi Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction in supported games, including 007 First Light, which now has path tracing, and CONTROL Resonant. Ultimate members streaming on RTX 5080 cloud rigs get Dynamic Multi Frame Generation up to 4X, below the 6X NVIDIA lists for local RTX 50 Series cards.
Crossout Remastered’s DLSS 4.5 update is dated October 22
Crossout Remastered moves to DirectX 12 on that date and adds DLSS 4.5 with Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, Multi Frame Generation, Frame Generation, DLAA and Reflex, replacing a 2022 Super Resolution integration. At the time of NVIDIA’s post, Permafrost and Pax Autocratica were out in early access with DLSS 4.5, Gear.Club Unlimited 3 offered Super Resolution and optional path tracing with Ray Reconstruction, and Among the Trolls was dated for October 14 with Super Resolution and ray-traced Lumen lighting. ARC Raiders’ Frozen Trail update was also out, and its DLSS 4.5 upgrade comes through the NVIDIA app override.