Well, finally, AMD has made its upcoming next-gen upscaling technique i.e. AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 2.0 announcement at the GDC 2022. According to AMD, FSR 2.0 is the next evolution of its widely adopted, open-source, cross-platform upscaling technology.
FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 is a temporal upscaling solution coming in Q2 2022, which delivers incredible image quality and boosts framerates in supported games by using previous frame data to provide similar or better than native image quality at all resolutions.
Here’s what you can expect with FSR 2.0:
- High-Quality Upscaling without Machine Learning: While ML is one vehicle to solve problems, it is not a prerequisite to achieving good quality image upscaling. AMD engineers have developed and optimized a set of advanced, hand-coded algorithms to recognize and combine data from previous scenes, feeding into a high-fidelity, upscaled image in an easily optimized way that can cater to a range of different scenarios. Above all, not requiring dedicated ML hardware means that more platforms can benefit, and more gamers will be able to experience FSR 2.0.
- FSR 2.0 Quality Modes: FSR 2.0 will offer three primary quality modes available in all games supporting the technology, and one optional mode for developers to use. These include: “Quality,” “Balanced” and “Performance” modes, shown in today’s blog and updated screenshots. The fourth optional “Ultra Performance” mode is also available for developers who want to deliver the highest performance gain while still maintaining an image quality representative of native rendering.
- Hardware Support: Like FSR 1.0, FSR 2.0 maintains AMD’s open approach, supporting a broad spectrum of AMD and competitor hardware, however, as a temporal solution, FSR 2.0 is more demanding, which means more powerful, modern hardware may be required for higher upscaling resolutions. More information about this can be found in the blog.
- How FSR 2.0 is Integrated into Games: Just like FSR 1.0, FSR 2.0 will be open source via the MIT license and will be available for developers as an intuitive easy to use API that supports DirectX 12 and Vulkan. There will also be a plug-in for Unreal Engine.
- More Game Support and FSR 2.0 on Xbox: In addition to DEATHLOOP (announced last week), Forspoken will also include support for FSR 2.0 when the game launches in October 2022. FSR 2.0 will also be fully supported on Xbox and will be available in the Xbox GDK for registered developers to use in their games.
Also, the Red team gave a demo of its new upscaling technique in the recent game DEATHLOOP and yes it looks much better, even more, impressive than its first-gen FSR.
AMD still says that it doesn’t use Machine Learning (ML) in its upscaling algorithm and therefore doesn’t require any kind of dedicated ML hardware in supported products. How? Well, you can read their blog for more details, however, because of this more platforms can benefit, and more gamers will be able to experience FSR 2.0.
Talking about FSR 2.0 Quality Modes, in FSR 1.0 we have seen 4 modes, while in FSR 2.0 there will be 3 modes including “Quality” mode that brings the highest quality setting and aligns with the modes available in other popular temporal upscaling technologies. While you still have both “Balanced” and “Performance” modes to maximize frame rates.
| FSR 2.0 Quality Mode | Description | Scale factor | Input resolution | Output resolution |
| Quality | “Quality” mode provides similar or better than native image quality with a projected significant performance gain. | 1.5x per dimension(2.25x area scale) (67% screen resolution) | 1280 x 720 1706 x 960 2293 x 960 2560 x 1440 | 1920 x 1080 2560 x 1440 3440 x 1440 3840 x 2160 |
| Balanced | “Balanced” mode offers an ideal compromise between image quality and projected performance gains. | 1.7x per dimension(2.89x area scale) (59% screen resolution) | 1129 x 635 1506 x 847 2024 x 847 2259 x 1270 | 1920 x 1080 2560 x 1440 3440 x 1440 3840 x 2160 |
| Performance | “Performance” mode provides image quality similar to native image quality with a projected major performance gain. | 2.0x per dimension(4x area scale) (50% screen resolution) | 960 x 540 1280 x 720 1720 x 720 1920 x 1080 | 1920 x 1080 2560 x 1440 3440 x 1440 3840 x 2160 |
Also, the “Ultra Performance” mode is also available for developers who want to include a mode that is designed to offer the ultimate in performance gains while still maintaining an image quality representative of native rendering.
AMD did share some more FSR 2.0 4K comparison screenshots of DEATHLOOP and in them, the upscaling looks very promising indeed.
FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 Optimal Starting Level Hardware*
| Target Upscaling Resolution | AMD Graphics Cards | NVIDIA® Graphics Cards |
| 4K | Radeon™ RX 6700 XT Radeon™ RX 5700 (And above) | GeForce RTX™ 3070 GeForce RTX™ 2070 (And above) |
| 1440P | Radeon™ RX 6600 Radeon™ RX 5600 Radeon™ RX Vega Series (And above) | GeForce RTX™ 3060 GeForce RTX™ 2060 GeForce® GTX 1080 (And above) |
| 1080P | Radeon™ RX 6500 XT Radeon™ RX 590 (And above) | GeForce® GTX 16 Series GeForce® GTX 1070 (And above) |
*Recommendations may change.
AMD continues to work with developers to bring FSR 2.0 to as many games as possible, with initial games expected to be available in Q2 2022. It will share more details about FSR 2.0 in the current quarter only and we will be bringing you more info about this upcoming tech, so, stay tuned!
