A Reddit user known as wax469 reported that his month-old MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G VENTUS 3X stopped working after he injected an unofficial DLSS 5 mod into Grand Theft Auto V. The incident, shared on the r/RTX5080 subreddit on September 21, 2026, has drawn attention because DLSS 5 is not officially supported in GTA V.
The user said the graphics card had worked normally for about a month before the failure. It was installed in a system with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor and had never been overclocked.
The Crash Sequence
According to the user’s account, GTA V had been running with the LSPDFR police mod and other visual modifications for weeks without problems. He then followed community guides to inject DLSS 5.
The game ran at roughly 80 frames per second at ultra settings for about five minutes. Then the display suddenly froze and began flashing violently.
The entire computer became unresponsive, forcing a hard shutdown. Afterward, the system would not boot properly with the RTX 5080 installed.
Removing the card and using the Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s integrated graphics allowed the PC to start normally. Reinstalling the RTX 5080 brought the problem back, and the card was no longer detected by the motherboard.
Warranty Replacement
The user applied for a warranty replacement and received a new RTX 5080 of the same model. He said the system has worked normally since then.
He also stated that he does not plan to experiment with DLSS 5 again until official optimization is available.
Wccftech noted that running unofficial software could have voided the warranty, but the replacement was still provided. The report said the user was lucky to receive a replacement unit.
Similar Incidents
This is at least the second reported case of a high-end RTX 50-series card failing during DLSS 5 testing. Earlier in September 2026, a HardOCP forum member named Erek reported that his MSI RTX 5090 Gaming Trio OC melted its 16-pin power connector while running DLSS 5 in NBA 2K27.
That user said the GPU drew over 610 watts consistently during DLSS 5 testing, compared to around 450 watts during normal gaming. The plastic on the connector melted and bonded with the cable.
Reviewers have also reported that DLSS 5 can cause sharp spikes in GPU power consumption, reaching 600 to 800 watts under continuous AI computing load.
What DLSS 5 Does
DLSS 5 uses generative AI to redraw and create new visual details in real time. Unlike standard upscaling or frame generation, this neural rendering approach places a heavy load on the GPU’s tensor cores.
NVIDIA has confirmed that DLSS 5 will launch exclusively for GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards in fall 2026. GTA V is not among the games with official DLSS 5 support.
VideoCardz noted that the visual artifacts in the user’s video resemble problems typically seen with unstable or failing graphics memory. The outlet also suggested the card may have had a manufacturing defect that the additional workload exposed.
MSI and NVIDIA have not issued public statements about the specific incident. The RTX 5080 replacement card has continued to work normally without DLSS 5 enabled.