FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 (AKA FSR 2.0) is AMD’s second evolution that delivers game scaling technology to compete with Nvidia’s DLSS. In both cases, FSR such as DLSS is a video rendering technique that seeks to increase frame rates by rendering images at a lower resolution than shown. So is there an FSR 2.0 vs DLSS match?
FSR 2.0 VS DLSS: the real differences
The basic difference in Nvidia’s technology is the same FSR 2.0 is agnostic… It doesn’t depend on the hardware what 😉. Where Nvidia techno requires an RTX graphics card to facilitate deep learning of the finest scale images to look as sharp as expected in native resolution; AMD doesn’t care about the model of your card and more about its brand. This means you can get and improve the resolution of your game using Vega64 as well as a GTX 1060 or an RTX 3080!
And that’s the whole point for AMD. First like Freesync, the reds are trying to push free and open technology to hit where it hurts as opposed to Nvidia’s G-Sync and DLSS. But don’t forget that vegetables were the first to inject this technology into the development and it was an important selling point for RTX GPUs.
From a technological point of view, as we saw above, DLSS adopts a closed-source AI-based approach, which requires specific proprietary instructions to be able to process and accelerate Nvidia’s Tensor-based hardware (hence an RTX). AMD’s FSR 2.0 fully distributes AI, but instead uses a hand-studied algorithm that is open source and supports a wide range of hardware, from the latest RTXs. up to 5 year cards.
And the results of all this?
The first opportunity to evaluate FSR 2.0 came with death loop, a game that also supports FSR 1.0 and DLSS. It is often cited, including by Nvidia, as one of the best examples of DLSS technology that produces a “better than native” picture.
Our Techspot colleagues ran a series of tests on a Ryzen 9 5950X test system with 16 GB of low-latency DDR4-3200 memory. The video cards used all have the latest drivers.
- RX 570 4GB (one card from 2017)
- Vega 64
- GTX-1650
- GTX 1070Ti
- RX 5500 XT 8GB
- RX 5700 XT
- RTX 2060
- RTX 2080
- RTX 3060 Ti
- RX 6800 XT
- RTX-3080
In all situations, using FSR 2.0 has better performance. Obviously, the pure power of your GPU will condition the result. Cards like the RX 570 and GTX 1650 Super take longer to process FSR 2.0, resulting in more limited performance improvements. But even for these “old” cards, we can expect performance growth of 10 to 20%. For Nvidia RTX cards, FSR 2.0 performance is estimated as DLSS using corresponding quality settings. However, it is known that DLSS is generally better (up to 12%, which is the most significant difference found in an RTX 2080). So obviously owners of Nvidia RTX GPUs have every reason to continue using DLSS, for the slightest performance benefit and also because in some situations it also offers better image quality.
Apparently, the results that make it possible to draw this conclusion are taken from a game. Therefore the spectrum of tests should be increased. But the work done at Techspot makes it possible to end thatAMD now levels Nvidia in this technology. That the reds are offering a “free” help to cardholders who previously couldn’t afford DLSS… And that deserves to be accepted by all equally.