AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution Gets Tested

FidelityFX Super Resolution is what you’d probably call a power move by AMD.

This is what you’d probably call a power move by AMD. 

DLSS when it launched brought promise of a huge performance uplift with the help of AI that cleverly upscales lower-resolution images to bigger display resolutions. The only problem with that? It’s very exclusive to their GeForce RTX cards, and the titles that support it are still few despite its growth even to this date. Now, the beauty of AMD’s FideltyFX Super Resolution (FSR) is that you don’t have to be locked into a certain platform to reap its benefits, and we get to see it in action.

What is AMD Fidelity FX Super Resolution?

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is a state-of-the-art spatial upscaling algorithm that helps boost framerates. AMD says that it has been developed to significantly improve performance in all the challenging scenarios that modern gamers face – getting better performance when raytracing is turned on, achieving high framerates on high-refresh-rate monitors, and playing the latest games at maximum detail on laptop graphics or older graphics cards.

In essence, with today’s market climate on graphics cards, it’s hard to make an upgrade or even at the least find a good deal in the marketplace. Times are tough, and with FSR, the promise of performance uplift on older graphics cards might do the trick.

To add to that, FSR would allow better performance after the huge toll of enabling raytracing on framerate.

Key Benefits of AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution

FSR is capable of delivering up to 2.4x the performance on average at 4K when FSR is running on the “Performance” settings across FSR supported games. Users can select from four settings that lets them balance the quality and performance. To top it off, it’s a single scalable solution that works across a broad spectrum of products as it is optimized for AMD Radeon RX 5000 and Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards and is supported on over 100 AMD GPUs and APUs. It’s even compatible with NVIDIA graphics cards starting from the 10 Series cards.

How is it in practice? For this one, we’ve done several tests on several resolutions on two graphics cards to test out its optimization and support. That’s three resolutions on 1080P, 1440P and 4K, with all levels of FSR included on two graphics cards.

Check out the results below:

Godfall

Godfall is a "looter-slasher" fantasy action RPG developed by Counterplay Games and published by Gearbox Publishing.

A 4K screenshot of Godfall  downscaled to 2048 x 1152 without FSR for reference, and below is a close up of the shoulder pad armor on different FSR levels.

A 1080P screenshot of Godfall for reference without FSR, and below is close up of Orin.

Riftbreaker

Developed by Exor Studios, Riftbreaker is a base-building, survival game with Action-RPG elements.

A 4K screenshot of Riftbreaker downscaled to 2048 x 1152 without FSR for reference, and below is a zoomed in photo of the mecha-suit and the environment.

 

Terminator: Resistance

Sadly you don't play as John Connor or the T-800 here. Anyway, Terminator: Resistance is a first-person shooter set during the events of the "Future War." The game was developed by Teyon and is published by Reef Entertainment.

This is a 1440P screenshot of Terminator: Resistance for reference, and below is a close up of a handgun.

FSR on GeForce GTX

FSR promises to support even NVIDIA graphics cards starting from the GeForce GTX 10 series. And as we mentioned, we have a GeForce GTX 1080 handy right now and we're going to test it with just that. How does it hold in practice? 

Another 4K screenshot, this time using a GeForce GTX 1080 to test out FSR on an NVIDIA graphics card.

Initial Findings

So, here we are. Especially at 1440P and 4K, FSR works impressively well regardless of your allegiance to any team. And it definitely comes in handy if you're on an aging graphics card and you need more juice to get acceptable framerates at the resolution you want to play on.  If you're playing on 1080P, though, the image quality with Performance may not be up to par depending on the title you're playing. that's to be expected, and you have control over the level of FSR anyway so it's more about what you prioritize in that instance.

At its launch, there's seven titles that support FSR and we've tested it out on three of them. More will come including DOTA 2, Square Enix's Forspoken, Edge of Eternity, Resident Evil Village, and you can even tell AMD which games you want FSR to support and that may see the light of day.

As much as we want to pit it against DLSS directly, there's no way to do that. Well, not yet. But Edge of Eternity looks like it will soon support FSR so that's something to look forward to.

AMD makes a huge statement in defining what "for the gamers" means with FSR. The performance uplift, the number of titles it supports at launch, and its platform inclusivity certainly make it an exciting time for gamers, whichever camp they're on. Gaming is for everyone, after all.