All-in-one 'DLSS Unlocked' mod brings DLSS 5 and multi-frame gen to RTX 20, 30, and 40 series — hybrid tool taps AMD FSR 3.1 to boost frame rates up to 6X
No more artificial limitations.
There are now several mods enabling DLSS 5 on older Nvidia GPUs, along with even AMD's RDNA 4 cards. Similarly, Nvidia's multi-frame gen has also been ported to prior generations. It can get a bit confusing to keep track of all these developments, and that's where "DLSS Unlocked" comes in. It's a new mod from ShyVox that combines OptiScaler_DLSSNR with DLSS Enabler to bring DLSS 5 and DLSS MFG to all RTX GPUs: Turning, Ampere, and Ada.
NVIDIA says your GPU is too old to run DLSS 5?Today, I prove that's not exactly the truth.DLSS Unlocked is my mod based on DLSS Enabler and OptiScaler_DLSSNR that allows every RTX GPU (20, 30 and 40 series) to combine DLSS 5 with MFG technology.https://t.co/WYbLVUJnBvSeptember 4, 2026
DLSS Unlocked serves as a sort of all-in-one package for owners of RTX 20-, RTX 30-, and RTX 40-series looking to enjoy the latest Nvidia goodies on both Windows and Linux. It takes two separate mods developed by other community members and organizes them into one seamless, unified release. You download the executable from GitHub or Nexus Mods and just select the root directory of the game you want to try it on.
As for the requirements, the game must use the DirectX 12 API and already support both DLSS upscaling and frame generation natively. You need to provide your own patched DLSS 5 DLL as well, for legal reasons. The two mods comprising DLSS Unlocked also have their own peculiarities. OptiScaler_DLSSNR is simple; it just uses OptiScaler to add neural rendering on top, but DLSS Enabler works in a more complicated manner.
On RTX 20- and RTX 30-series GPUs, you'll be using AMD's FSR 3.1 to interpolate all of the frames instead of using Nvidia's pipeline. On RTX 40-series, the second frame is generated through DLSS-G (regular frame-gen), but the rest of the frames are handled by FSR 3.1 to get you up to 6X MFG. That handoff is itself possible thanks to another mod called DLSSG to FSR3. See how this web of tweaks can get a bit confusing?
You also need to keep in mind that this is a different approach compared to DLSS 5 Swapper, which enables DLSS 5 inside any game through ReShade (using RenoDX). For DLSS Unlocked, the game must already support DLSS 2/3 upscaling for it to be patched into DLSS 5 and unlock MFG. That's how OptiScaler_DLSSNR works, which DLSS Unlocked relies on.
None of these mods should be used with multiplayer games because the anti-cheat software can detect them as threats and potentially ban you. Ultimately, when you have DLSS Unlocked installed, a DLSS-compatible game should now have DLSS 5 neural rendering while having its frames interpolated up to 4x. You definitely need that, considering DLSS 5 comes with a massive compute cost that can purportedly even melt RTX 5090s.
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Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
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bigdragon I need to download some of these mods before Nvidia goes on a takedown spree. DLSS 5 has some serious problems, but I'm curious about it because of the way it can jump the gap between polygons and megapixels. As a 3D artist, there are limits to how many triangles a model can have and how complex materials can be. DLSS 5 looks like it can go beyond those limits. Looks like human faces and animations are its Achilles heel, but they'll probably fix that by the end of 2029.Reply -
checkbuzz Reply
Unsupported modder implementation of DLSS 5 via third party tools has some serious problems.bigdragon said:I need to download some of these mods before Nvidia goes on a takedown spree. DLSS 5 has some serious problems, but I'm curious about it because of the way it can jump the gap between polygons and megapixels. As a 3D artist, there are limits to how many triangles a model can have and how complex materials can be. DLSS 5 looks like it can go beyond those limits. Looks like human faces and animations are its Achilles heel, but they'll probably fix that by the end of 2029.
There I fixed it for you.
NBA 2K27, which is the only game that officially supports DLSS 5 available today, has no "serious problems" with DLSS 5 that I'm aware of. -
checkbuzz Reply
Is that really it though? Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should.S58_is_the_goat said:Jensen: no you can't do that!
DLSS 5 implemented via third party modding tools, absolutely smashes GPU performance. Even my 5080 struggles to reach playable frame rates with DLSS 5 in modern AAA titles, using frame gen. I can only imagine how much negative impact this would have on the performance of lesser GPUs i.e. most GPUs.
Nvidia aren't stupid, unlike so many of their whining, complaining customers. -
Uuman Reply
Considering the majority still plays at 1080p, most won’t suffer. Let’s be serious for a moment though, ray tracing still tanks performance and we’re going into the 4th iteration of RTX gpu’s. So it will likely have to have a scalable setting, rather than just simply enabling it as this mod currently does.checkbuzz said:Is that really it though? Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should.
DLSS 5 implemented via third party modding tools, absolutely smashes GPU performance. Even my 5080 struggles to reach playable frame rates with DLSS 5 in modern AAA titles, using frame gen. I can only imagine how much negative impact this would have on the performance of lesser GPUs i.e. most GPUs.
Nvidia aren't stupid, unlike so many of their whining, complaining customers.
And that’s more than enough for some. Some people have spent years modding Skyrim to look near photo-realistic, even though they are lucky to get 3-4fps. Others have done similar with RDR2 and used the images to win photo contests. I look forward to what people will be able to do with this in CP77 or GTA6, just for examples.