AMD launches FidelityFX Super Resolution, its answer to Nvidia DLSS

(Image credit: AMD)

It's AMD FidelityFX First-rate Resolution (FSR) launching day, and that means AMD has finally unleashed its new upscaling technology on the world of gambling. Using new 'advanced march reconstruction' and sharpening, the red team is hoping to offer some alternative to Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), but more importantly it's hoping to give elder GPU owners a little late-game carrying out boost.

At its core, FSR is an upscaling technology. It takes a low resolving visualise, say 1440p, and upscales it to 4K using a fancy algorithm of AMD's personal creation.

AMD breaks information technology down into two stages. Start, the game is rendered at a lower resolution, which nets a public presentation addition eligible with what you mightiness require from having fewer pixels to deal with. After that, FSR upscales the frame back capable 4K exploitation spatial upscaling, and in doing so uses an advanced edge reconstruction algorithm and foster sharpening to improve that image's quality.

The result: an image that has the performance attain of 1440p (asset some bare overhead from FSR, a few portion points in our own testing) just that looks more the part of a endemic 4K image than you'd expect.

The devil is in the details, though, and how close it can puzzle over to inbred 4K is the real challenge for AMD. If you want to see how close it really gets, go check into our gas-filled AMD FSR testing, which is also where you can check how information technology fares against its main competition today, Nvidia's DLSS.

FSR and DLSS are functionally similar on the surface, only are in reality cardinal very different approaches to solving the same problem. The main discriminator, as we've heard from both AMD and Nvidia, is the want of machine learning or Bradypus tridactylus with FidelityFX Super Resolution.

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AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution across multiple preset settings — (Image credit: AMD)

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That could prove a blessing or a curse, but right-handed unsatisfactory the bat it has the profit of allowing AMD to streamlet FSR on a spacious range of graphics card game, level Nvidia's. AMD cites that it has tried FSR on all Radeon GPUs from the latest 6000-series (including mobile) down to the RX 480/470/460, and Nvidia RTX 30-series GPUs through the 10-series.

AMD says you could run FSR on a lower-end device, although the overhead, and ratio of FSR cost to come put cost, could make for diminishing returns. Leastways it won't live taxing on older CPUs, as AMD says that shouldn't have much impingement along FSR performance. What will be something to keep an eye on, though, is bottlenecks elsewhere in your system—if your CPU is modification your fps, FSR won't do much to improve your performance.

But you can only determine by giving it a go. AMD FSR is coming to just a handful of games at establish—Anno 1800, Offensive Genius 2, Godfall, Kingshunt, 22 Racing Series, Terminator: Resistance and The Riftbreaker—in which you keister find the on/dispatch switch in the options computer menu. You can also decide upon a superior preset for FSR from there, which will determine whether the FSR favours maximising frames or fidelity.

Advance games will support FSR later in the twelvemonth, including, AMD says, DOTA 2, Far Rallying cry 6, and Resident Evil Village. That could bode well for future games from those same developers, too

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his have tech web log from his hometown in Cambri in 2017. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things at PCGamesN, where he would later win command of the kit out closet equally hardware editor. Nowadays, atomic number 3 elderly computer hardware editor program at PC Gamer, atomic number 2 spends his years reportage on the latest developments in the technology and play industry. When he's non writing about GPUs and CPUs, you'll find him trying to get as far away from the present times as possible by wild camping.