We have a whole video about NVIDIA DLSS and the cool features it offers,
but according to the most recent Steam hardware survey,
only 52% of you have a graphics card that supports DLSS.
But what if I told you there's an open source alternative that any modern GPU can use?
What? It's called AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR, and version 3.1 just came out.
So, lest you think we're ingredients shills, let's talk about how FSR works,
how it compares to the aforementioned DLSS, and how to enable it in your favorite games.
Like DLSS, the overall idea of FSR is to increase performance, that is, frame rate,
by rendering the game at a relatively low resolution, then using upskilling techniques
to fill in the blanks and produce the final image you see on your display.
NVIDIA's DLSS accomplishes this by training a proprietary AI model using a supercomputer,
but how does FSR do it? FSR has actually gone through three revisions, the first of which, FSR1, came out in 2021,
and is primarily concerned with correctly reconstructing the edges of objects on the screen.
The algorithm does this by comparing gradients in the original image to see how to reconstruct
edges in the upscaled image. After this is done, the image is sharpened and sent to your screen.
FSR1 typically gives better results than more common upscaling techniques that displays would
perform on their own, but it does require you to have anti-aliasing enabled in your game settings,
which means your GPU has to do some additional legwork.
But FSR2, released in 2022, can work on more parts of the image than just the edges.
Unlike FSR1, FSR2 is a temporal upscaler, which is a fancy way of saying it analyzes
previous frames to determine what the next frame should look like.
This is closer to how DLSS works and provides a significantly nicer image than FSR1,
including more detailed textures. After FSR2 applies its upscaling algorithm, which works without anti-aliasing being on in your game
first, it then does its own anti-aliasing pass that takes the place of the built-in TAA of
whatever game you're playing. The downside of FSR2, though, is that because it relies so much on previous frames,
it can produce ghosting in fast-paced games, since the previous frames might be very different
from the current frame FSR2 is trying to upscale.
Not all frames are the same, I learned that the hard way. But even though FSR hasn't even been out for all that long, there's already an FSR3.
FSR3 is based on FSR2, but it also includes frame generation.
So it's a little bit like how motion interpolation on a TV works,
where frames are completely created and inserted between actual frames from the source content
in order to increase the apparent frame rate, aka the thing I turn off on every single TV I ever use,
except in this case you want it because games. Reviews on the image quality of FSR3's frame generation have generally been good,
but it should be noted that enabling frame generation can result in higher latency between
a controller input and what happens on your screen. But whether you'll notice comes down to what kinds of games you play,
how sensitive you are to lag in general, and whether you're using FSR3 in computationally
heavy scenes where the frame rate starts to dip, which can make latency worse.
It should also be noted that issues have been reported when trying to use FSR3 image generation
with variable refresh rate. AMD recommends that you try and keep your game's frame rate within your monitor's
refresh range to prevent tearing, so your mileage may vary.
On a more positive note, FSR3 does add its own native anti-aliasing mode,
which can be used without upscaling if you want an alternative to traditional AA
without the other FSR features. The frame generation feature can also be used with a different upscaler, such as DLSS,
in FSR revision 3.1 and later. Good news if you have a RTX 2000 or 3000 series GPU,
as DLSS's competing frame generation technology is only officially supported with
4000 series cards. You're welcome, NVIDIA. No matter what flavor of FSR you're using, turning it on is just a matter of toggling
it in the game settings menu. But keep in mind that there does need to be developer support for it,
so it won't work with every single game. But AMD does offer a solution called Radeon Super Resolution,
which is similar to FSR1, but will work in any exclusive full-screen game
without that game's developers doing any extra work.
But you need an AMD RX 5000 series GPU or newer to run it,
as it's part of the AMD graphics driver, and only AMD GPUs use that.
Have you tried FSR in any of your games? What did you think about it?
We're dutch. Let us know in the comments. And if you want to know more about NVIDIA's competing solution, DLSS,
go watch this video next. We're just so curious.
What's going on out there?