AMD to introduce AI-based upscaling, potentially matching DLSS

[Daniel Sims]

Something to look forward to: AMD's FSR image upscaling technology has avoided using AI until now, which has been a double-edged sword in its competition against Nvidia's DLSS and Intel's XeSS. A recent interview with AMD's CTO indicates that the company plans to pivot sharply toward AI in 2024, with gaming upscaling as one area of focus.

AMD has confirmed that it's developing a method to play games with AI-based image upscaling. Although further details are scarce, this could potentially bring the company's solution closer to Nvidia's. In an interview on the No Priors podcast, CTO Mark Papermaster explained how AMD has deployed AI acceleration throughout its product stack and plans to introduce new applications to utilize it this year. "We are enabling gaming devices to upscale using AI and 2024 is a really huge deployment year," he said.

Nvidia DLSS, Intel XeSS, and AMD FSR allow gamers to increase the resolution at which they play while minimizing the performance impact. However, while DLSS and XeSS utilize hardware-assisted AI, FSR relies only on spatial and temporal information.

FSR's lack of AI has advantages and drawbacks. Although DLSS and XeSS tend to provide superior image quality with fewer artifacts, they require the proprietary hardware in Nvidia RTX and Intel Arc GPUs, respectively. Meanwhile, FSR supports all gaming devices, including consoles and graphics cards from any manufacturer.

Also read this TechSpot feature: Nvidia DLSS vs. AMD FSR Performance Compared

Papermaster's statement could indicate that FSR will soon be able to use the AI acceleration hardware in products like Ryzen CPUs, Radeon 7000 GPUs, and their successors, which might significantly improve image quality. However, AMD dislikes locking functionality down to specific hardware – a point Papermaster reiterated on the podcast – so it's unclear what devices an AI-powered FSR would be restricted to.

This and other developments could open a new stage in the competition between upscaling technologies. Their range of support has been inconsistent thus far, with many games only including one or the other, particularly at launch.

Microsoft also plans to unveil DirectSR at GDC 2024 later this month, an API that allows game developers to implement multiple super-resolution methods through a single codebase. The toolchain could lead to more titles supporting all upscaling methods, giving users more options based on their choice of GPU.

AMD is expected to launch RDNA 4 graphics cards and Zen 5 processors later this year, too, likely in the form of new Radeon RX 8000 GPUs, which are rumored to focus on mainstream and mid-range hardware tiers. Less is known about Zen 5, a.k.a. Ryzen 9000.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/102126-amd-introduce-ai-based-upscaling-potentially-matching-dlss.html

 

[yRaz]

I've been a big fan of FSR because it runs on everything and doesn't need AI. I suppose everything is going to have some sort of AI silicon in it soon, but one reason I'm so outspoken about AMDs standards is that they are free and don't have hardware requirements. Fragmentation could hurt adoption because AMD doesn't have the market share nVidia has. Well, they do on the console side, but that's part of what even lead to adoption of AMD standards in the first place.

Not a big fan of this bit I guess we are going to see where this goes one way or another.

 

[Nobina]

The difference between native and FSR is too noticable for me, even at 4K. I think if I lowered the resolution myself the result would be the same. Hopefully, they make it better.

 

[Disiw]

Great news, because DLSS/DLAA is awesome features for gamers and FSR is not on par.

Went from 6800XT to 4090 and I can say for sure that DLSS (and DLAA) is far more impressive tech. Much better upscaling, with less to no artifacts and shimmering and widespread support.

Difference is espeially high _in motion_ when you actually play the game, meaning side by side screenshots don't tell the whole picture.

FSR should change to dll too, it makes it easy to change out versions if implementation is bad or issues are present. This is easily doable with DLSS.

AMD should invest heavily in FSR and forget about RT for now. Upscaling and Frame Gen will matter more for now and both will help them do RT better later anyway.

I am a big fan of DLAA. Looks very impressive. Best AA for sure today. TAA looks like mud in comparison.

Microsoft DirectSR might help FSR adaptation. Which clearly lacks. Pretty much all new games have DLSS support at this point. Reflex and other RTX features are also present in tons of new games.

 

[Puiu]

The difference between native and FSR is too noticable for me, even at 4K. I think if I lowered the resolution myself the result would be the same. Hopefully, they make it better.

It depends on the game. I use it in Genshin (FSR2) and Eve Online (FSR1) and it's too hard to notice the difference.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

I'm trying like hell to stay away from anything that uses AI and connects to a source. I think I will fail.

 

[Nintenboy01]

The difference between native and FSR is too noticable for me, even at 4K. I think if I lowered the resolution myself the result would be the same. Hopefully, they make it better.

It is said that FSR2 Quality is only about as good as DLSS Performance in terms of image quality when used at 4K and 1440p. Maybe still a bit worse, actually.

 

[Nintenboy01]

It depends on the game. I use it in Genshin (FSR2) and Eve Online (FSR1) and it's too hard to notice the difference.

Yeah it can be very inconsistent. In some games like Uncharted 4/Lost Legacy it can look pretty much just as good as DLSS, in others the artifacts and sizzling are just too annoying, like in Resident Evil 4.

 

[Watzupken]

I've been a big fan of FSR because it runs on everything and doesn't need AI. I suppose everything is going to have some sort of AI silicon in it soon, but one reason I'm so outspoken about AMDs standards is that they are free and don't have hardware requirements. Fragmentation could hurt adoption because AMD doesn't have the market share nVidia has. Well, they do on the console side, but that's part of what even lead to adoption of AMD standards in the first place.

Not a big fan of this bit I guess we are going to see where this goes one way or another.

I don't think AI means you need to have dedicated AI cores in the GPU. I suppose it is possible to tap on AI capabilities from the CPU since most new/ planned CPUs will come with some sort of AI capability. And I feel this will benefit APUs the most. In any case, I don't think the "dumb" FSR will go away and older hardware will still be able to benefit from it.

 

[Watzupken]

Yeah it can be very inconsistent. In some games like Uncharted 4/Lost Legacy it can look pretty much just as good as DLSS, in others the artifacts and sizzling are just too annoying, like in Resident Evil 4.

The technology is as good as how much effort goes into optimizing it. I think people can Google it up and find cases where DLSS looks bad as well in as recent as 2023. While I don't deny that DLSS will generally look better than FSR, but I am fine as long as there are no severe issues. Ultimately, I just want to play the game with decent frame rates, and image/graphics is secondary.

 

[Disiw]

It is said that FSR2 Quality is only about as good as DLSS Performance in terms of image quality when used at 4K and 1440p. Maybe still a bit worse, actually.

The problem with FSR is mostly when you move. Which is why still shots are useless. DLSS has far less shimmering, jitter and artifacts than FSR.

Same is true for DLSS 3 Frame Gen vs AMD FMF / AFMF. On motion DLSS 3 FG is just way superior. Little to no artifacts vs massive amount of artifacts.

This is probably why AMD wants to go the AI route now. They can't improve FSR further. AFMF is a mess. FSR 3 FMF is kinda meh and has low to little support in games. None of these features are even close to matching Nvidia's.

AMD exec hints at AI-powered upscaling - VideoCardz.com

AMD FSR with AI in the works? AI-powered upscaling from AMD, teased by Mark Papermaster. AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, released in 2021, came 2 years behind NVIDIA DLSS. The first generation of FSR was based on spatial upscaling technique, which enabled many gamers to take advantage of simple...

videocardz.com

Talk is cheap tho, lets see if and when they deliver.