AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) is a supersampling feature available in a large swath of games. It has a simple goal: improving gaming performance on thebest graphics cards. To help you understand how it works and why you should turn it on in your games, we rounded up everything you need to know about AMD FSR, including the newly announced FSR 3.
It works by rendering your game at a lower resolution, but the magic of FSR comes in the upscaling. It attempts to fill in missing details to make your game look like it’s running at native resolution, just with a massive boost in performance. Here’s all you need to know about it.
What is AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution?
FSR is AMD’s answer to Nvidia’sDeep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). Like DLSS, FSR is a supersampling feature that makes a game look like it’s rendering at a higher resolution than it really is. So, the engine may render the game at 1080p, and then FSR steps in to fill in the missing pixels to make it look like a 1440p output.
There are now two versions of FSR, andFSR 2.0 is much better than the original. There are several differences between them, which we’ll dig into in the next section. Although there are still some games with the original FSR, more and more titles are shipping with FSR 2.
Compared to DLSS, there’s one major difference between both versions of FSR. DLSS requires an Nvidia RTX GPU, while FSR works with graphics cards from AMD, Nvidia, and even Intel. Official support goes back to GTX 10-series and Radeon RX 400 series, though FSR can still work on older hardware.
In addition, the source code isavailable for free to developerson AMD’s GPUOpen platform, and it’s available through the Unreal Engine 4 and Unity game engines. Basically, any developer, regardless of their budget or connections, can get FSR working in their games.
FSR is only available in games where the developers have chosen to include it, though. AMD offers itsRadeon Super Resolutionfeature specifically for Radeon GPUs. This is basically FSR 1.0 available through your AMD driver, allowing you to apply upscaling to any game as long as you have a supported GPU.
FidelityFX Super Resolution quality modes
FSR comes with different quality modes to adjust how much performance you want versus how good you want your game to look. Each quality mode provides a scaling factor that will upscale the internal resolution to what’s outputted on your display. Here are the quality modes for FSR 1.0:
The scaling goes in both dimensions, so you’d multiply the vertical and horizontal resolution to figure out the final output. For example, if you ran the Performance mode on a 4K monitor with a resolution of 3840 x 2160, it would render the game at 1920 x 1080.
FSR 2.0 has slightly different quality modes. Instead of an Ultra Quality mode, it starts with Quality and matches the same scaling factors as FSR 1.0. Game developers have access to an optional Ultra Performance mode with FSR 2.0, however. This mode provides 3x scaling, but AMD says it won’t be available in every FSR 2.0 game.
What GPUs support FidelityFX Super Resolution?
FSR stands out over DLSS due to its cross-vendor support. You can use an AMD or Nvidia graphics card, but only the last few generations are officially supported. FSR should still work on older GPUs, but you may encounter issues or decreased performance. Here are the graphics cards that support FSR 1.0:
FSR 2.0 supports the same graphics cards technically. AMD says the requirements for an optimal experience are a little more strict, though. you’re able to still use it with an Nvidia or AMD GPU, but AMD recommends a slightly more powerful graphics cards for higher resolutions. You can see the recommended GPUs in the table below.
How does FidelityFX Super Resolution work?
FSR 1.0 and 2.0work much differently, but they’re built around the same core. Both supersampling features use theLanczos algorithmfor upscaling. It starts by feeding the upscaler a low-resolution image, which is then blown up with extra detail based on the algorithm. FSR performs a sharpening pass afterward to restore a little more detail.
That’s how it works at a high level, but the critical difference between FSR 1.0 and FSR 2.0 comesdown to anti-aliasing.With FSR 1.0, the game would perform anti-aliasing before the upscaling was applied, which lead to much worse image quality when the game had a poor anti-aliasing implementation.
FSR 2.0 changes that. It doesn’t require anti-aliasing, instead performing Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) after the upscaling is done. This is similar to how DLSS works, and it’s why theTemporal Super Resolution (TSR) feature inGhostwire Tokyolooks as good as it does.
Compared to DLSS, the big change with FSR is that it’s not accelerated by AI. DLSS requires dedicated Tensor cores on RTX graphics cards to run an AI model that assists in upscaling. FSR is part of the game’s render pipeline, allowing it to work with graphics cards from different vendors.
What about FSR 3?
FSR 3 is a new additionto the suite that adds Fluid Motion Frames. It’s similar toNvidia’s DLSS 3in that it compares two sequential frames to generate a new one between them. Called frame interpolation, AMD says the feature can double and sometimes even triple your frame rate in supported games.
The first games sporting FSR 3 will beImmortals of AveumandForspoken,which will receive a post-launch update. AMD says it has several more games in the works, though, includingCyberpunk 2077, Crimson Desert,andFrostpunk 2.
FSR 3 works on any GPU, just like the base version of FSR. In addition, AMD is offering its Fluid Motion Frames tech though its AMD Software, allowing you to apply the feature to nearly any game with an AMD GPU.
What games support FidelityFX Super Resolution?
AMD has vastly expanded support for FSR over the last several months. Here are all of the games that support FSR 2:
The library of FSR 1.0 is much larger, and AMD as well as modders are patching it into new titles constantly. Here’s the full list of games that support FSR 1.0:
If you want to see FSR in your favorite game, you can request it through theAMD FSR wishlist.
