With DLSS 5, Nvidia look to rewrite the truth before our eyes

Earlier this year Nvidia announced DLSS 5, a new version of their DLSS technology: a layer of graphical magic that uses their GPUs to do improbable things to the resolution and framerate of your favourite PC games (unless your favourite PC game is Slay the Spire). Nvidia are in a strange space at the moment - now one of the most valuable companies to ever have existed, they're also one of the drivers of the AI boom and all of the horror and chaos that comes with it. PC gamers, once their core market, are now finding it harder than ever to afford their products, as Nvidia spent most of the last decade overselling first to crypto miners, and then to AI startups. On paper, DLSS 5 is a chance for a simple PR win, a positive example of using AI to improve the performance of modern videogames. Instead, they offered an opportunity to make every game you own slightly uglier, and only if you can afford the dual-GPUs it requires to run.

DLSS 5 is fascinating not just as an extension of Nvidia’s AI-first business philosophy, and not just as a sign of the slowdown in hardware advancement, and not just because of what it says about our desire for 'more real than real' graphics. DLSS 5 also reflects the world we find ourselves in today, perhaps the most neatly-packed microcosm I’ve seen to date. But for those wondering, yes, you do need to have read DLSS 1-4 to understand the plot of DLSS 5, so let’s start with a quick recap.

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