DLSS 5 Mod Hits 75 FPS on a Radeon RX 9070 XT in Cyberpunk 2077, but It Is Not NVIDIA's Code

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DLSS 5 Mod Hits 75 FPS on a Radeon RX 9070 XT in Cyberpunk 2077, but It Is Not NVIDIA's Code

A modder publishing as danielblnc has released a tool that runs DLSS 5 neural rendering on AMD Radeon graphics cards. Its release notes claim 75 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p on a Radeon RX 9070 XT, and that number means close to the opposite of what it sounds like.

Waterfall scene used by AMD to show FSR upscaling
AMD's FSR upscaling, which the mod requires a game to have switched on before it adds its own pass. Image: AMD

It is also not NVIDIA's DLSS running on a Radeon. The author describes the project as a from-scratch reimplementation of the neural network runtime, written for AMD hardware.

What DLSS-NR on AMD actually does

The project is called DLSS-NR on AMD and lives on GitHub. Its README says it runs DLSS 5 Neural Rendering on Radeon RX 9000 and RX 7000 cards, in DirectX 12 games that use FSR.

Mods of this kind are usually translation layers, intercepting a game's DLSS calls and handing them to FSR or XeSS.

This one is not. Asked in his own FAQ whether it is a compatibility layer, danielblnc answers: "No. This is a ground-up, full reimplementation of the neural network runtime for AMD GPU architectures (HIP kernels, memory layouts, game integration), written from scratch."

It runs the opposite way round from a DLSS-to-FSR wrapper. The install steps tell the user to switch FSR on first, after which the mod layers its neural pass on top.

The user must also supply their own copy of nvngx_dlssnr.dll, build 310.8.0.0, taken from a game that already supports DLSS 5.

Pillared hall interior showing AMD FSR Ray Regeneration
FSR Ray Regeneration, AMD's own neural rendering work for Radeon GPUs, shown in Crimson Desert. Image: AMD

Where the 75 FPS figure comes from

The number is the author's own. The Alpha 0.4.3 release, published on September 28, 2026, is titled "The 75 FPS update" and states that "Performance now hits 75 FPS in Cyberpunk @ 1080p, 9070 XT Fast mode".

Fast mode arrived a day earlier in Alpha 0.4.2. The notes call it cheaper arithmetic "where the difference is barely visible", against a Reference mode that keeps NVIDIA's exact arithmetic.

Nothing else about the run is published. The notes name no graphics preset, no ray tracing setting, no FSR quality level, no CPU, no driver build and no test scene.

There is no baseline either, so the cost of the neural pass cannot be worked out from the project's own figures.

It is a moving target too. The README still puts performance at "roughly 33 FPS at 1080p on an RX 9070 XT", while three later releases claim further gains on top of 0.4.3.

Why 75 FPS is a cost, not a gain

Neural rendering is not an upscaler. NVIDIA describes DLSS 5 as a final rendering stage that uses AI to add lighting and material detail performance budgets normally force out.

It takes frame rate rather than handing it back. NVIDIA says the technique leverages the Tensor Cores of GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, citing up to 370 FPS at 4K on an RTX 5090 in NBA 2K27.

A Radeon has no Tensor Cores to lean on. The work runs through HIP compute kernels on the same shader hardware the game is already using, which is why 75 FPS at 1080p counts as progress, not a result.

The author's goal is to match an RTX 5070 Ti. The same pattern showed up when DLSS 5 neural rendering was coaxed onto Apple Silicon, and when a modder got it onto RTX 40 Series cards.

What the three vendors actually support

NVIDIA's launch title for DLSS 5 neural rendering is NBA 2K27, on RTX 50 Series GPUs and GeForce NOW Ultimate. Cyberpunk 2077 is not on that list.

CD Projekt Red documents DLSS, FSR and XeSS upscaling for Cyberpunk 2077, and added FSR 3 in Patch 2.13. It documents no DLSS 5 neural rendering support.

AMD's own machine-learning effort is FSR Upscaling, listed for Radeon RX 9000 and RX 7000 cards and shipped only as signed DLLs. Its answer to DLSS 5 is still unannounced, and has been rumoured as an RDNA 5 exclusive.

No AMD or NVIDIA statement on the project has been published.

The risks of dropping a DLL into a game folder

Injecting third-party DLLs into a game is not risk free. The README warns that anti-cheat will block the DLL, and says those titles should only be used with anti-cheat off.

Cyberpunk 2077 is single-player and ships no anti-cheat, which is why it is a soft target here. That is not a blanket safety guarantee for anything else.

CD Projekt Red supports modding through REDmod for non-commercial use, and states that it does not monitor or endorse mods.

What is still unconfirmed

Every build so far is alpha software, from Alpha 0.3.1 on September 15, 2026 to Alpha 0.6.0 on October 3, 2026. Releases ship as an installer with no published source, so the no-NVIDIA-code claim cannot be audited.

Whether pulling nvngx_dlssnr.dll out of a DLSS 5 game and reusing it this way is allowed under NVIDIA's licence terms is not addressed in any NVIDIA document. The author's legal name is not published either.

Alpha 0.6.0 added Radeon RX 6000 support, which needs AMD's HIP 7.2 runtime. The author says performance is improved every day, so any frame rate quoted here is likely to be stale within a week.

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