AMD Catalyst 14.12 Driver - The Omega Driver

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AMD Catalyst 14.12 Virtual Super Resolution (VSR)

Virtual Super Resolution (VSR)

The most prominent feature for desktop gamers with a dedicated graphics card will be VSR rendering. You guys also know this as super sampling and as DSR from Nvidia. Basically you render in a higher resolution and display on say Full HD 1920x1080 pixels. Typically this will increase scene quality for stuff that is in the background, like the more finer detail on grass and leaves on threes and such. You could say you could take the 4K experience towards a 1080P monitor. So with the introduction of Catalyst 14.12 you will now get the option to render the game at a higher resolution and show it in a lower one, bringing more quality to that lower resolution. In general VSR/DSR works like downsampling, but it has simple user on/off control. Textures will now be sampled at higher resolutions that equates to more pixels being sampled. Then a filter is applied. This high quality filter reduces or eliminates AA artifacts experienced with normal down-sampling, which relies (probably) on a simpler box filter. Virtual Super Resolutions beyond the native resolution of the display device will be available in a wide variety of games and applications, including the Windows desktop. Effectively, VSR provides a Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing (SSAA) feature for the games and applications that do not natively support that functionality. While the real benefit of VSR occurs while playing your games and applications, comparing ‘before and after’ screenshots is one way to understand and illustrate the benefits. Zooming in on specific areas of the images can bring those benefits into focus.

VSR Requirements

  • AMD GPU: AMD Radeon R9 295X2/R9 290X/R9 290/R9 285
  • Supported on Single and Multi-GPU configurations

AMD is planning to take this feature to other graphics cards as well, but for now the 14.12 release only these combinations.

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VSR works independent of the game engine. As long as the game title can support the higher resolution, it'll work. How to enable VSR, open AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC):

  • Use the Preferences to switch to Advanced Mode, if it’s not already running
  • Open the ‘My Digital Flat Panels’ page
  • Place a checkmark in the ‘Enable virtual super resolution’ checkbox and click Apply

Below is a screen capture of the AMD Catalyst Control Center showing the settings tab to enable VSR.

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Then simply launch a game and use the in-game menus to select a resolution that is HIGHER than the native resolution of your flat panel.

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