NVIDIA positioned DLSS 5 as an RTX 50 series exclusive at launch. Modders had other plans though, as they technically moved before NVIDIA even finished making the announcement official.
Brazilian hardware enthusiast Renan Maniero extracted nvngx_dlssnr.dll, the roughly 158 MB neural rendering runtime, from NBA 2K27’s early-access build. The file spread quickly, ending up ported into dozens of other games within days.
A modder known as Uncle Burrito then went further, patching the DLL’s CUDA binaries to run on Ada Lovelace architecture instead of the Blackwell hardware they were tied to. The result was DLSS 5 Neural Rendering running on an RTX 4090 in Control, a result later confirmed on an RTX 4080 by other testers.
The performance cost is significant. In one tracked comparison, an RTX 4090 running Control with the mod hit around 82 FPS, compared to roughly 130 FPS without it.
Other testers pushed the mod onto RTX 30 series cards, with weaker results. An RTX 3080 Ti managed 20 to 30 FPS in GTA V at 1440p. An RTX 3090 ran Hogwarts Legacy at roughly 30 FPS. Cyberpunk 2077 only reached playable frame rates after dropping to 720p with Ultra Performance upscaling enabled, technically functional but not a practical way to play.
Why the restriction exists
The leaked DLL’s CUDA binaries were locked specifically to Blackwell, the exact restriction modders had to patch around. That points to a software-enforced limit rather than a hardware ceiling, since Ada Lovelace cards handle the workload once the lock is removed.
NVIDIA hasn’t commented on the mods or explained the restriction. The company has drawn similar lines before: DLSS 3 Frame Generation launched RTX 40 series exclusive despite RTX 30 series cards being technically capable of running a version of it, a decision that drew criticism and eventually led to some of those limits being loosened.
What this means for RTX 40 owners
This remains a leaked, pre-release DLL paired with a hand-patched binary, verified in a small number of titles. NVIDIA won’t support it or fix it if it breaks, and confirmed results so far are limited to high-end cards like the RTX 4090 and RTX 4080, not the full RTX 40 lineup.
Still, each time a locked feature turns out to work on older hardware once patched, it adds pressure on NVIDIA to eventually support it officially, following the pattern set by past DLSS restrictions.
DLSS 5 is expected to roll out to more games in the coming months. Whether RTX 40 series owners get official support remains unanswered.
