Modder runs NVIDIA DLSS 5 on AMD Radeon RX 9000 and 7000 GPUs
Modders have successfully run NVIDIA DLSS 5 Neural Rendering on AMD Radeon RX 9000 and RX 7000 GPUs, bypassing the hardware restrictions that typically limit the technology to GeForce cards. The project, known as DLSS-NR on AMD, demonstrates that the neural rendering workload can be executed on RDNA 4 and RDNA 3 architectures, although current performance remains significantly below playable levels for standard gaming sessions.
The initiative was highlighted by Ancient Gameplays, who documented the functionality in a video showing Cyberpunk 2077 running with the mod on a Radeon RX 9070 XT. The project targets DirectX 12 games that support FSR and currently lists RDNA 4 as the officially supported AMD architecture. To operate, the setup requires Windows 11, a recent AMD Adrenalin driver, and a user-provided copy of NVIDIA's nvngx_dlssnr.dll version 310.8.0.0, which must be extracted from a game that natively supports DLSS 5.
Native Compute Implementation
Initial speculation suggested the mod relied on HIP RT, AMD's alternative to NVIDIA's CUDA or Tensor hardware. However, a closer analysis of the distributed binaries indicates the implementation uses native HIP compute kernels built specifically for RDNA 4. These kernels handle specific parts of the neural rendering workload, including convolution, Swin, and attention mechanisms. This approach suggests that DLSS 5 data is being prepared to run through AMD's HIP backend rather than simply translating CUDA instructions for Radeon hardware.
The implementation remains closed source, meaning the current understanding is based on binary analysis. The source code has been requested on GitHub after Windows Defender reportedly flagged the executable. Consequently, the use of the tool is not recommended at this stage. The community is advised to monitor the project's progress and await the developer's decision to open the source code.
Performance and Development Status
Performance is currently far below what is required for normal gameplay. The developer reports approximately 28 FPS at 1080p on the RX 9070 XT with the current implementation. Previous version 0.2.7 reached around 30 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077, representing a 12% improvement over version 0.2.6. Development is proceeding rapidly, with version 0.2.8 adding another 2% performance gain, while versions 0.2.9 and 0.2.10 focused on DLSS-NR DLL detection and multi-GPU system support.
The long-term target is performance comparable to a GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, although the project remains in an alpha state. The GitHub page officially lists Radeon RX 9000 hardware as supported, with the RX 9070 XT being the primary tested GPU. Radeon RX 7000 support is not yet officially listed, but users have reported successful tests on RDNA 3, including the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
While performance is poor and quality improvements are less pronounced than the NVIDIA version, the primary significance lies in the technical achievement. Modders can already adjust quality and resolution scaling, and neural rendering does not necessarily need to be used for real-time gameplay. One community suggestion is to utilize the technology for photo mode, where low frame rates are less of a concern.
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