A leaked pre-release version of NVIDIA’s DLSS 5 is being tested in games it was not officially built for, and the early results are uneven. Engadget reports that the unfinished software was extracted from an early-access PC version of NBA 2K27 and then grafted onto other games by users experimenting with the technology. The caveat is important: this is not NVIDIA’s final DLSS 5 release, and the examples are not developer-approved integrations. Engadget frames the circulating images and videos as early, unofficial tests of NVIDIA’s upscaling technology, rather than evidence of how the final product will behave when it ships. The technical shift is still notable. According to Engadget, DLSS 5’s neural rendering model moves beyond simply reconstructing a sharper version of a game-rendered image. NVIDIA describes the model as one that “infuses pixels with photoreal lighting and materials,” a more interventionist approach than conventional upscaling. In the unofficial examples Engadget highlights, that intervention can make game characters look less natural rather than more realistic. In Control, the character Jesse Faden reportedly appears noticeably older after the DLSS 5 treatment. In Skyrim, Engadget says lower-polygon characters can take on the look of realistic scans placed on top of much older character models. The issue is not just facial detail. Engadget notes that the underlying character models and animations remain unchanged, which can create a mismatch when faces are rendered with more photorealistic detail while bodies and movements still behave like the original game assets. That gap is what gives some examples their uncanny-valley effect. Performance is the other early warning sign. Engadget reports that, with Neural Rendering enabled, Control running on an RTX 5070 Ti at 4K dropped from 71 frames per second to 35 frames per second in this leaked build. That figure should be treated as an early, unofficial data point, not a final benchmark for DLSS 5. The official release is still ahead. Engadget says DLSS 5 is scheduled to launch this fall, when developer-approved versions should begin appearing. The key question is whether final integrations can use the neural rendering approach more selectively and naturally than the leaked build now circulating online. Who benefits: NVIDIA and game developers benefit if the final DLSS 5 tools can deliver visible improvements without the artifacts seen in the leaked build. Players who like experimental visual modes may also get more control if developers implement the feature carefully. Who's exposed: NVIDIA is exposed if the official launch resembles the unofficial examples Engadget describes. Developers could also face adoption pressure if the feature requires careful tuning to avoid visual mismatch or performance loss.