DLSS 5 SLI? Modder runs DLSS 5 on 2nd GPU for a massive FPS boost
DLSS 5 can run on secondary GPUs, giving Nvidia an opportunity to bring back SLI
A modder called “maohgad-web” created a ReShade add-on that lets gamers run Nvidia’s DLSS 5 technology on a secondary graphics card. This lets gamers get a massive performance boost by offloading DLSS 5 from their primary graphics card. With this ReShade add-on, Neural-coprocessor, multi-GPU gaming is relevant again. While Nvidia has killed SLI, DLSS 5 could start a new multi-GPU gaming era.
Unlike other forms of DLSS, like Super Resolution, Frame Generation, and Ray Reconstruction, DLSS 5 Neural Rendering is a post-process AI technology. This means that it doesn’t need to run on the same graphics card the game is rendering on.
Below, we can see some 1080p benchmarks using two RTX 5060 Ti 16GB GPUs running Blood of the Dawnwalker. Note how much DLSS 5 (via ReShade) impacts performance on a single GPU. Offloading DLSS 5 onto the second GPU can return framerates to pre-DLSS 5 levels, or close to it. The biggest impact appears at higher framerates, in the DLSS (Super Resolution) Ultra Performance test. In that test, gaming framerates increased by 127% by running DLSS 5 on a secondary GPU.
(DLSS 5 Reshade Mod – 1 GPU VS 2 GPUs)
While Nvidia has increased DLSS 5’s performance by 5x since first showcasing the technology, it remains a performance hog. Nvidia plans to further optimise DLSS 5 over the coming months. Even with those optimisations, it is hard to see Nvidia making DLSS 5 fast enough that its performance impact becomes a non-issue for gamers.
Will DLSS 5 bring back multi-GPU gaming?
While Nvidia could offload DLSS 5 loads to secondary graphics cards (they did this for their DLSS 5 reveal), we believe Nvidia are unlikely to make this an official feature. Instead, Nvidia is likely to optimise DLSS 5 further to decrease its performance impact and focus on increasing the AI performance of its future graphics cards.
If Nvidia can boost the AI capabilities of its next-generation GPUs and reduce DLSS 5’s baseline performance impact, gamers would have little reason to require a second GPU for DLSS 5. It would also act as a major selling point for Nvidia’s next-generation graphics cards. Yes, using a second GPU for DLSS 5 could benefit Nvidia, but I don’t think Nvidia is likely to explore this option.
You can join the discussion on using DLSS 5 with a secondary graphics card on the OC3D Forums.
