AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution in Ultra Quality shows visible quality loss

Published 2021-06-03 08:35 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Earlier this week, AMD finally presented an answer towards NVIDIA's DLSS, AMD unveiled its FidelityFX Super Resolution, to be revealed on June 22. AMD however has been very silent on this topic, and still is.

All the curiosity made a Reddit user grabbed the stills that AMD showcased, where the FSR performance advantages were shown at 4K resolution capturing of a few frames of the technology comparing 'Ultra Quality' (the one with the least loss of graphic quality. ) in the form of a BMP file so that it does not lose quality. First the different modes of FSR technology as shown by AMD:

4K Native Resolution - 49 FPS
FSR Ultra Mode - 78 FPS
FSR Quality Mode - 99 FPS
FSR Balanced Mode - 120 FPS
FSR Performance Mode - 150 FPS

Framerates boost significantly. The user enlarge the image x4 in order to see the visual differences between the native quality and the FSR in Ultra, and then saved the images in a JPEG format with the quality at 100%, since the BMPs were 30 MB and the PNG 9MB and was having trouble uploading them to Reddit. You can see them in full resolution from the following link.

The problem, the least aggressive option of FidelityFX Super Resolution, the 'Ultra Quality' mode, possibly shows a noticeable reduction in the visual quality of the game. We can't call the comparison fair just yet as the tech is not finished, and hey .. we need actual hands-on testing on our side ourselves. One thing you should not forget though is that, this is AMD's first step with the technology, while NVIDIA is already on version 2.1 of DLSS and they also suffered similar problems with version 1.0 of this technology.

Still, DLSS is a deep learning technique that uses artificial intelligence to improve rendered frames, while FidelityFX Super Resolution looks to be merely an algorithmic spatial scaler. As such FSR does not use any machine learning or inference and while it is an interesting tool, I think we can already safely state that it is in no way comparable to an AI-powered image scaling system. Time will tell.

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