AMD launches FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling technology

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution launches today with 7 games

AMD’s most anticipated software is finally here. The manufacturer now has a response to NVIDIA DLSS which took the gaming industry to a whole new level by offering significantly better performance thanks to AI algorithms. Will AMD’s FSR technology be just as good?

At launch, FSR will support seven games with an addition 12 titles ‘coming soon’. In case you can’t read the logos, please refer to the following post with all FSR games listed.

AMD FSR is an upscaling technology that lowers the game resolution and uses ‘cutting-edge’ algorithms to bring near-native image quality by artificially increasing the resolution back to what it is supposed to be. The algorithm analyzes the source to detect edges and reconstructs the image at high definition, AMD states.

The FidelityFX SR algorithm engages in the middle of the graphics pipeline, after anti-aliasing and tone mapping. FSR has to be added before adding filters such as noise effects or chromatic aberrations are added. The FSR technology introduces upscaling and sharpening passes which will be scaled accordingly to the FRS preset used.

AMD claims that “FSR does require developer integration into a game to work”, which should greatly improve FSR adoption among 40 leading game studios that have already expressed interest in the technology. Furthermore it is confirmed that FSR goes open source in mid-July (it will be posted on the GPUOpen website).

AMD provided a handy chart with scale factors for each setting which remain the same for 4K as well as 1440p resolutions. The Ultra Quality preset renders the image at a 1.3x scale factor, Quality presets increase that to 1.5x, Balanced to 1.7x, and finally, the Performance mode changes the scale factor to 2.0x. This is a bit different than DLSS 2.0, which we included in the following chart (based on a game Control):

FidetlityFX Super Resolution presets:

• “Ultra Quality” mode produces an image with quality virtually indistinguishable from native rendering with good performance. It should be selected when the highest FSR quality is desired.
• “Quality” mode produces an FSR image with the quality representative of native rendering while delivering great performance.
• “Balanced” mode produces an FSR image approximating native rendering quality and delivers exceptional performance for gamers.
  “Performance” mode visibly impacts image quality and should only be selected in situations where the need for the ultimate in performance is critical.

AMD FSR Performance

AMD is using three games for its own comparison of the new technology: Rift Breaker, Godfall, and The Rift Braker. The results depend on the game, GPU, and FSR preset being used. The side-by-side FSR preset comparison provides FPS numbers for each game, but the main performance charts all use FSR Performance preset exclusively.

AMD NAVI 21 (RX 6900XT and RX 6800 XT) FSR Performance

AMD NAVI 22 (RX 6700XT and RX 6800M) FSR Performance

AMD Polaris (RX 580) and NVIDIA Pascal (GTX 1060) FSR Performance

AMD FSR supported hardware

Officially FSR is working on Radeon RX 6000 desktop and mobile series as well as its successor based on RDNA1 architecture, the RX 5000 series. AMD did not forget about its RX Vega series as well as Polaris-based RX 500 and RX 400 series. All Zen-based APUs are supported (Ryzen 2000 and newer). Additionally, AMD confirms that FSR works on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 and 20 series. The list continues with GeForce GTX 16 and 10 series.

There is no mention of Intel GPUs as well as RDNA2 based gaming consoles (Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 5).

Full FSR presentation: