AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution – Finally competition for Nvidia’s DLSS?

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AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is AMD’s answer to Nvidia’s DLSS technology. Both solutions render the image at a lower resolution and then upscale it to a higher resolution and sharpen it in a smart way. Both technologies try to guarantee the image quality in this process as much as possible, but each does this in its own way. Nvidia uses Tensor cores for its AI algorithm calculations. This means that only video cards with support for this hardware acceleration can use it. In practice, this means that GeForce RTX cards are required, DLSS is not supported on older GTX cards.

AMD is taking a completely different route with FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR. This technology, officially made public on GPUOpen as of today, uses conventional GPU cores to perform its calculations. This means that FSR can be used on a variety of video cards from past generations, both from AMD and Nvidia. According to the manufacturer, the FSR algorithm has been developed in such a way that it requires as little computing power as possible. This statement immediately makes it clear that the strength of FSR, its flexible applicability, is also its weakness. Competitor Nvidia can fully load the Tensor cores to get the best results from smart upscaling without sacrificing gaming performance.

How does FSR work?

Similar to DLSS and other upscaling techniques, such as checkerbord rendering, FSR works by rendering images at a lower resolution and then upscaling them to the desired resolution. Because this input resolution is lower, the frames to be rendered are ready faster and the frame rate is higher than when rendering at a higher (native) resolution. This can be useful for graphics-heavy games, especially to correct for the performance impact that ray tracing entails. Nvidia reasons in a similar way; the final image quality would be higher when ray tracing is enabled and DLSS is used than when traditional rasterization is used at native resolution.

The available quality settings for FSR are divided into four categories: Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced and Performance. Depending on the chosen preset, a fixed, lower input resolution is used and then upscaled. With Ultra Quality, the number of pixels per dimension is still about 77 percent of the final resolution, with Performance mode it’s only 50 percent.

Because FSR has the input resolution lower, this also reduces the image quality by making the image less sharp. FSR aims to bring back those details thanks to an advanced recovery algorithm, AMD said. Edge detection analyzes and sharpens parts of the original image, followed by an overall sharpening pass . The computational power required to upscale images with FSR is minimal compared to the computational power required to render images natively at a higher resolution. In almost all cases, you should therefore be left with a higher frame rate without having to make significant sacrifices in image quality, is the idea.

Hardware and games support

AMD emphasizes FSR’s openness by showing that the technology also works on Nvidia video cards, including older GeForce cards dating back to the GTX 1000 series. In the case of Nvidia’s video cards, AMD notes that Nvidia itself has to add support in the drivers in order to use FSR on GeForce cards, and that AMD has only tested this as a proof-of-concept on a few competitor cards.

FSR, like DLSS, requires the integration of the technology into games by game developers. That is not the case with Radeon Image Sharpening, an existing contrast-dependent upscaling technology. It was only able to upscale and sharpen every completely rendered image, which has the advantage that any game running in DirectX 11, 12 and Vulkan can be used by RIS, so no game-specific support needs to be built in. However, FSR is more advanced than RIS in that it runs in the graphics pipeline after any anti-aliasing, but before other effects, such as film grainand also for placing hud elements. In addition, FSR in the pipeline consists of several passes, allowing for more precise steering towards the desired end result without introducing too many visual artifacts.

AMD says it’s making it as easy as possible for developers to integrate the technology into their games through developer toolkits, support and collaboration. Together with the fact that FSR will be made accessible to every developer via GPUOpen, the manufacturer hopes for a fast and high adoption in existing and future games.

First experiences with FSR

Shortly before this article we were able to test FSR ourselves in a few games: Godfall, The Riftbreaker and Terminator Resistance. The test system used consists of a Radeon RX 5700 XT as a video card and an Intel Core i5 8500 as a processor. All tested games were provided with a special beta patch to support FSR, as well as the Radeon Software 21.6.1, which is available to everyone as of today.

In all three games we tested, we were able to enable FSR from the in-game menu without having to exit or restart the game. The user can choose the different presets, which allowed us to make a comparison with the screenshots below. We used two screen resolutions for this. The figures shown in the tables are the lowest average frame rates we saw during these comparisons, so should be used as an indication rather than a strict benchmark.

1440p

On a screen resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels, it is easy to see when FSR is turned on. With the Ultra Quality preset that is not so bad and during gameplay it is actually not noticeable. If you stop for a comparison, as we have done with our screenshots below, it will start to become clear from the Quality preset that you are losing resolution. This can be seen over almost the entire image as a somewhat blurry presentation. This is offset by a much higher frame rate.

It differs a bit per game where the disappearance of details is the first visible. In Godfall we see the film grain become much stronger with each preset of FSR that prefers a higher frame rate over image quality. In The Riftbreaker, it is mainly certain plants and trees that look less sharp, while everything with sharp edges comes out better. With Terminator, the image is even sharper on Ultra Quality than on native resolution, but on Balanced and Performance it is a lot more blurry.

The gain in frame rates with FSR varies per game and per preset. Terminator Resistance gains the most in our comparison, while The Riftbreaker makes relatively modest gains.

FSR Preset godfall The Riftbreaker Terminator Resistance
Off (native) 83fps 124fps 79fps
Ultra Quality 108fps (+30%) 150fps (+21%) 111fps (+41%)
Quality 125fps (+50%) 167fps (+35%) 135fps (+71%)
Balanced 139fps (+68%) 180fps (+45%) 159fps (+101%)
Performance 152fps (+83%) 192fps (+55%) 195fps (+147%)

2160p

At the higher resolution of 3840 by 2160 pixels, FSR comes into its own a lot better. It is noticeable that the input resolution is higher, so that FSR has more pixels to run its algorithm on. On the Ultra Quality preset, it is now really more difficult to distinguish this from the native resolution while playing. The Quality preset also works very well here. In the Balanced and Performance modes, less sharp images can be seen again, although this ‘blur’ is a lot less disturbing than we have seen at 1440p.

In our comparison, the gains for the FSR presets are still a lot bigger than at 1440p, which is of course because at this higher resolution the RX 5700 XT used forms an even more limiting factor for the frame rate. The Riftbreaker is already heading towards doubling the framerate on Performance Mode; with Godfall and Terminator Resistance this already works well on Balanced Mode. These relative gains are first of all impressive, but in our test FSR also shows its best side at this high resolution by setting down perfectly playable frame rates. With an average frame rate of 60, Godfall is a lot more playable than with 41 and the comparable jump at Terminator Resistance provides a smoother experience there too.

FSR preset godfall The Riftbreaker Terminator Resistance
Off (native) 41fps 76fps 39fps
Ultra Quality 60fps (+46%) 96fps (+26%) 56fps (+44%)
Quality 72fps (+76%) 111fps (+46%) 70fps (+80%)
Balanced 86fps (+110%) 125fps (+65%) 85fps (+118%)
Performance 101fps (+146%) 140fps (+84%) 108fps (+177%)

Conclusion

It was a long wait for AMD to present something that will be contrasted with Nvidia’s DLSS. Because the manufacturer of Radeon GPUs indicated quite some time ago that it was working on a new upscaling technology, it may have seemed to take even longer, but we have now been able to experience for ourselves how FidelityFX Super Resolution works in practice.

With FSR, AMD is taking on a major challenge. Competitor Nvidia has had its DLSS technology on the market for some time now, and has also refined and optimized it during that time. In addition, DLSS can use dedicated Tensor cores, so that the available computing power on other parts of the GPU is not compromised. In the weakness of FSR also lies its strength; the technique is flexible and very widely applicable because it can be performed on conventional gpu computing cores. That means FSR can work on a wide range of Radeon and GeForce cards, as well as being used on consoles as well. In theory, even GPUs in smartphonesocs can be used for this.

Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to make a direct comparison between DLSS and FSR. Currently there are no games that support both upscaling techniques. Based on our first experiences, we can say that AMD’s FSR is doing well, but not quite at the level of what we have seen from DLSS in other games. With the underlying effect of both solutions in mind, this is not so strange. In addition to the time DLSS has had to develop further, the available Tensor cores will always be in Nvidia’s favor. Despite this, it’s admirable how well FSR is already working right now. Especially at 4k, where the input resolution is already relatively high, FSR can lead to a significantly higher frame rate without compromising too much on image quality. At 1440p, FSR is a bit less impressive,

The first big step has therefore been taken for FSR. Now it’s up to AMD to get the technology implemented in as many games as possible. In the meantime, Nvidia is also not sitting still and we therefore expect that many game developers are currently getting the red and green marketing materials thrown around their ears. Whether Nvidia should immediately see FSR as a serious threat remains to be seen. Should FSR gain the upper hand in the future, Nvidia can always ensure that the calculations for this upscaling technique on GeForce cards are performed on the Tensor cores as much as possible, thus gaining another advantage. For now, competition has also flared up in this area of ​​the video card market, which is usually only good news for consumers.

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