DLSS 5 and the RTX 40 Series: The Official Expansion Statement and Current Support Boundaries#
Hello everyone, I’m Zixing. This page answers the most-asked question: can the RTX 40 series card in my hands use DLSS 5 now?
Conclusion first, then the evidence. The conclusion: not currently. DLSS 5’s launch support covers all GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs (desktop and laptop) plus GeForce NOW; the RTX 40 series has received only NVIDIA’s official statement that it “will expand to RTX 40 series later” — not delivered support. The difference between these two is the core of this article, and it is where the site’s old article went in the wrong direction: the old piece wrote the expansion statement as an accomplished fact. This page corrects that per the official line.
1. Current Support Scope: Item-by-Item Against the Official Line#
Every row of the table below comes from NVIDIA’s official press release wording and can be checked directly.
| Platform | DLSS 5 support status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 50 series desktop GPUs | Launch support | Included in the official release headline itself |
| GeForce RTX 50 series laptop GPUs | Launch support | Same batch as desktop GPUs, no sequencing |
| GeForce NOW | Launch support | The cloud form factor opened in the same batch |
| GeForce RTX 40 series | Officially stated to expand later | Future expansion officially confirmed; delivery timing not announced |
| RTX 30 series / RTX 20 series | No support plan announced | Defer to further official announcements |
Three tiers must be kept distinct: supported now (RTX 50 series and GeForce NOW), stated but not delivered (RTX 40 series), and not announced (older generations and other platforms). Calling “stated” “supported”, or calling “not announced” “never supported”, does not match the official line.
2. How to Read “Will Expand to RTX 40 Series Later”#
As consolidated by media coverage, the official statement reads “officials have confirmed future expansion to the RTX 40 series”. Several boundaries need drawing when reading that sentence:
| Common misreading | Accurate phrasing under the official line |
|---|---|
| “The 40 series can enable DLSS 5 right now” | Not yet delivered; it is a future expansion plan |
| “40 series support was pushed on such-and-such day in September” | No delivery timing for the expansion has been announced |
| “Every 40 series model will be supported” | The specific model coverage of the expansion has not been announced |
| “40 series DLSS 5 frame rates are confirmed” | No performance data for the 40 series has been published |
Simply put: officials gave a direction, not a schedule and not a performance promise. Until NVIDIA announces the concrete delivery node of the expansion, this site will not publish any frame rate, image quality, or compatibility figures for the RTX 40 series.
3. Background of the Expansion Statement: The Shrinking Compute Threshold#
The RTX 40 series’ inclusion in the expansion direction must be read against DLSS 5’s own evolution. Per NVIDIA’s official Chinese press release:
| Phase | Official claim |
|---|---|
| At the March 2026 reveal | Required two GeForce RTX 5090s to run |
| Six months later (at launch) | Runs on a single GPU, with officials citing a 5x performance gain |
| Fall 2026 (planned) | Officials say a model update will further improve performance on the existing foundation |
This curve shows officials continuously compressing DLSS 5’s compute requirements: from two flagship cards to a single card, then the fall model update. The RTX 40 expansion statement sits on this curve, but officials have not linked the “5x performance gain” or “single-card operation” directly to “40 series support”, nor stated what the expansion will require of individual 40 series models. That part is officially unpublished information, and this site will not speculate.
4. Where RTX 50 Series and GeForce NOW Users Stand#
If you are within the launch support scope, DLSS 5 is already usable:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| Driver | Get the GeForce Game Ready driver via the NVIDIA App or GeForce.cn (available from 12:00 Beijing time on 2026-09-04) |
| Enable | Turn on “DLSS Neural Rendering” in the game’s video settings |
| Toggle | Press the F9 key in games and replays to switch on or off at any time |
The launch game is NBA 2K27 (developer: Visual Concepts, publisher: 2K). In NBA 2K27 at 1920×1080, Ultra preset, ray tracing on, officials say nearly all RTX 50 series players can use the Ultra preset and DLSS 5 at the same time. For official figures and condition tags in other scenarios, see DLSS 5 Performance Data: Official Claims and the State of Independent Testing.
5. Advice for RTX 40 Series Players#
Below are action recommendations based on the official line, involving no unpublished data:
| Situation | Advice |
|---|---|
| Holding an RTX 40 series card, in no hurry | Wait for officials to announce the concrete delivery node of the expansion, per the NVIDIA App, GeForce.cn, and official press releases |
| Holding an RTX 40 series card, urgently wanting image quality technology | Existing technologies such as DLSS 4.5 work fine today; don’t shelve upgrade decisions over an expansion that hasn’t been delivered |
| Seeing unofficial claims that “the 40 series can already use DLSS 5” | Check whether the claim comes from NVIDIA’s official channels; with no delivery timing announced, any “already available” claim conflicts with the official line |
| Holding an RTX 30 series / RTX 20 series card | No support plan announced; this site makes no feasibility speculation |
One more note on the third row: this site does not provide, and does not recommend, forcibly enabling yet-unsupported features by bypassing official restrictions; such methods carry no guarantees of stability or safety, and they are unrelated to the official support path.
6. The List of Information Not Covered#
To prevent misreading, below are items neither announced officially nor covered by this site. If officials announce them later, this site will update this article per the official line:
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Delivery timing of the RTX 40 series expansion | Not announced officially |
| Specific models covered by the expansion (including VRAM configuration differences) | Not announced officially |
| RTX 40 series performance running DLSS 5 | Not announced officially; this site has no independent measured data either |
| Support outlook for the RTX 30 series / RTX 20 series | Not announced officially |
| Whether the RTX 40 series expansion is the same matter as the fall model update | Not announced officially |
7. FAQ: Only Answers with a Basis#
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| When can my RTX 40 series card use DLSS 5? | Officials have only stated “will expand later”, with no timing announced; defer to NVIDIA’s official channels |
| Is there any way to experience DLSS 5 on a 40 series card now? | Not within the official support scope; this site does not provide methods to bypass official restrictions |
| Will every 40 series model be covered? | Model coverage has not been announced, so this cannot be answered |
| Does the RTX 30 series still have a chance? | No plan announced; this site makes no speculation |
| Will the fall model update bring the 40 series support early? | Officials say the fall model update improves performance on the existing foundation; its relation to the 40 series expansion is unstated |
| Where can I first see the expansion delivered? | NVIDIA’s official press releases, the NVIDIA App, and GeForce.cn are the channels for official information and drivers |
8. Update Log#
| Date | Update |
|---|---|
| 2026-09-13 | First published: miswrote the official expansion statement as accomplished support (wrong direction, retracted) |
| 2026-10-05 | Full rewrite: corrected to the accurate line that “officials state future expansion to RTX 40 series, not yet delivered”; removed the fabricated timeline and hardware parameter table; added the support scope verification table and the list of information not covered |
— Zixing, NTGame Hardware Reviews