Gamers Are "Completely Wrong" In Criticisms Of DLSS 5, Nvidia CEO Says

Recently at GTC 2026, Nvidia announced DLSS 5, a new AI-powered tool for developers. Aspects of DLSS 5–including the eerie-looking facial features–have been the subject of public ire. Now, billionaire Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has responded, telling gamers they are “completely wrong.”

Tom’s Hardware asked Huang at a Q&A at GTC for his thoughts on the criticism of DLSS 5 so far, and Huang said, “Well, first of all, they’re completely wrong.”

“The reason for that is because, as I have explained very carefully, DLSS 5 fuses controllability of the geometry and textures and everything about the game with generative AI,” Huang said.

The executive also reiterated that DLSS 5 is an optional feature for developers and players alike. He said developers can use DLSS 5 to “fine-tune the generative AI” in a project to match their preferred art style. He also mentioned that the tools do not “change the artistic control.”

“It’s not post-processing at the frame level, it’s generative control at the geometry level,” he said. “All of that is in the control–direct control–of the game developer. This is very different than generative AI; it’s content-control generative AI. That’s why we call it neural rendering.”

Among the developers who appeared in the announcement video for DLSS 5 was Bethesda Game Studios, the esteemed developer of RPG hits like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout. One of the Nvidia videos showed DLSS 5 applied to Bethesda’s Starfield, and Digital Foundry said the application of the tech was not as good as it could be. In response, Bethesda said what it showed of DLSS 5 for Starfield was only a “very early look,” going on to say that Bethesda’s art teams will be “further adjusting the lighting and final effect to look the way we think works best for each game.”

Bethesda also said, “This will all be under our artists’ control, and totally optional for players.”

DLSS 5 for general lighting and environment detail seems to benefit from the upscaling technology, based on early videos, but upscaled video game faces quickly became a meme with DLSS 5.

In particular, Resident Evil Requiem’s Grace Ashcroft with the DLSS 5 filter on inspired many jokes and memes about her appearance. In addition to Bethesda and Capcom, the list of partners for the DLSS 5 reveal included Hotta Studio, NetEase, NCSoft, S-GAME, Tencent, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Games.

Todd Howard, the big boss at Bethesda, said DLSS 5 allows the “artistic style and detail shine through without being held back by the traditional limits of real-time rendering.” He said DLSS 5 will be used for Starfield and “future Bethesda titles.”

Capcom’s Jun Takeuchi, meanwhile, said, “DLSS 5 represents another important step in pushing visual fidelity forward, helping players become even more immersed in the world of Resident Evil.”

Charlie Guillemot, the co-CEO of Vantage Studios at Ubisoft, said DLSS 5 is a “real step” towards the developer’s ambition of “making the [in-game] world feel real.”

“The way it renders lighting, materials, and characters changes what we can promise to players,” he said.

Some of the games confirmed to use DLSS 5 so far include Aion 2, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Black State, Cinder City, Delta Force, Hogwarts Legacy, Justice, Naraka: Bladepoint, NTE: Neverness to Everness, Phantom Blade Zero, Resident Evil Requiem, Sea of Remnants, Starfield, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, and Where Winds Meet. DLSS 5 will launch this fall.

With a market cap of $4.4 trillion, Nvidia is the world’s most valuable company, ahead of titans like Alphabet (Google), Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and TSMC.

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