What is AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution? And how does it work?
At the start of June 2021, during AMD's Computex keynote the company revealed a number of new things including RDNA 2 powered mobile GPUs and FidelityFX Super Resolution.
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is AMD's answer to Nvidia's deep learning super sampling (DLSS). But what does it do and how does it work?
What is AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution?
In theory, AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is a technology that's designed to give gamers the best of both worlds. When activated, you'll no longer need to choose between high frame rates and high-resolution graphics.
FidelityFX Super Resolution (aka FSR) is essentially designed to upscale your graphics while you play. Allowing you to output graphics with a higher frame rate but also at 4K as well. So while the game engine is rendering at 1080p, for example, the final output is 1440p or 4K.
AMD's tech uses an "advanced edge reconstruction algorithm" to upscale each frame that's being sent.
In a similar way to Nvidia's DLSS, AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution has four different modes. Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced, and Performance. At one end of the spectrum, you have Ultra Quality which focuses on the best graphics while Performance gives you the highest FPS.
The idea is Ultra Quality mode would give you higher frame rates than you'd get trying to run games natively at a high resolution.
FidelityFX Super Resolution apparently makes two passes to improve the visual quality of the end graphics. The first is an edge-reconstruction upscaling algorithm that overhauls the graphics and a second which sharpens the final image up and adds more clarity.
Interestingly, the initial resolution changes depending on the mode you've selected. As an example, where the final output is 4K, the Ultra Quality mode would initially render at 2954 x 1662 before upscaling. While Quality Mode will use 2560 x 1440 and Balanced Mode will use 2259 x 1270 while Performance Mode uses 1080p.
Which GPUs does FidelityFX Super Resolution work with?
FidelityFX Super Resolution is designed to work with many more graphics cards than Nvidia's DLSS offering. As it stands, FSR is supported by AMD's RX 6000, RX 5000, RX 500 and 400 graphics cards. Interestingly it'll also work on a variety of Nvidia's GPUs too - from 10-series cards onwards.
As it stands FSR is compatible with more than 100 AMD processors with Radeon graphics and Radeon GPUs.
FSR is now generally available to use. If you have the right equipment and a game that supports it, then all you need is the latest AMD Radeon driver to get started.
Because of the open nature of FSR, there's a chance that it will appear on consoles too in future.
Which games support FSR
Like Nvidia's DLSS, FidelityFX Super Resolution relies on game developers to add the option to use it into their games. AMD says there are 80 game developers working on achieving this and there are over 70 games that currently support it now or will do soon. These games include:
- Anno 1800
- Arma Reforger
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Asterigos
- Arcadegeddon
- Baldur’s Gate III
- Deathloop
- DOTA 2
- Dolmen
- Edge of Eternity
- Evil Genius 2
- Godfall
- Grounded
- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
- Hitman 3
- Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition
- FarCry 6
- Farming Simulator 22
- Forspoken
- Ghostrunner
- Kingshunt
- Lego Builder's Journey
- Myst
- Necromunda: Hired Gun
- Raji: An Ancient Epic Enhanced Edition
- Resident Evil: Village
- Sniper Elite 5
- Swordsman Remake
- Terminator Resistance
- The Riftbreaker
- World War Z Aftermath
- Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodhunt#
- V-Rising
- 22 Racing Series
There will be more games in future and you can see the list now as well as requesting your favourite games get support.
AMD Super Resolution in action
AMD posted a short featurette on YouTube demonstrating the optimisation work it's done for Far Cry 6. In that video, the company showed off examples of its own Ray Tracing capabilities and tweaks to help gamers make the most of the game.
One of those enhancements included FidelityFX Super Resolution support where the game is shown running 90FPS instead of 60FPS on the same graphics settings. While it's not shown what settings were used exactly, nor the hardware the game was running on, it's still quite a performance boost.
What about AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0?
Since it first launched, AMD has been working on improving AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). Recently the company revealed version 2.0. This upgrade uses a temporal upscaling algorithm which takes previous frame data to generate much better upscaling results. It also replaces in-game temporal anti-aliasing (TAA) with optimised, higher-quality anti-aliasing tech.
AMD says that FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 doesn't require machine learning like DLSS or Intel's Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) and so will work with a wider range of graphics cards including non-AMD cards.
FSR 2.0 is said to offer "significantly higher image quality" than the original FSR at all quality pre-sets and resolutions too. And in performance mode, you can get as much as three times as much FPS.
That said, FSR 2.0 requires more powerful hardware for the best results. AMD recommends the RX 5700 XT and RX 6700 XT if you're looking for good visuals in 4K. It's optimised for AMD RDNA2 hardware but should still perform well on other GPUs at lower resolutions too.
FSR 2.0 is also interestingly being included in the Xbox Series X and S development kit so it should be easier for developers to work it into future Xbox games as well.
What games support AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0?
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 requires developers to support it and add the tech to games. It'll take time for games to support it, but some games already do. Deathloop was the first game to support FSR and more will be added in future.
The current games that support AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 include:
- Deathloop
- Farming Simulator 22
- God of War
Which other games will have FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0?
There are other games coming with FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 support or being updated to support it. These games currently include:
- Abyss World
- Hitman 3
- Rescue Party: Live!
- Super People
- The Callisto Protocol
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