AMD previously provided its own users with the most advanced FSR upscaling technology through drivers. This technology is considered to be similar to NVIDIA’s DLSS technology but the principle is different. When the load pressure of high-resolution games is under pressure, it will give users a higher-resolution delicate game screen. At present, the FSR technology has been updated to version 2.0. AMD announced that it has cooperated with Microsoft and will use FSR 2.0 technology on the Xbox game console. What is more intriguing is that AMD also mentioned that this FSR 2.0 technology not only supports AMD’s own graphics cards, but also NVIDIA’s A graphics card can also be used.
Many people know that NVIDIA has a technology called DLSS. This technology mainly performs artificial intelligence machine learning through NVIDIA’s Tensor core, and optimizes performance by learning the results of 3D materials in the game, thereby allowing players to use limited hardware resources to experience more special effects and higher resolution images.
The AMD FSR technology principle is different, at least not through machine learning to improve the picture quality. AMD FSR mainly relies on algorithms, which transform low-resolution texture maps into high-quality appearances through computing technology. In other words, this process will use the computing performance of the graphics card itself to some extent, which is different from the use of Tensor chips for DLSS to process AI data. Of course, the advantage of not requiring a dedicated chip is that its support is relatively wider and can be enabled on more platforms and hardware.
Although AMD announced a partnership with Microsoft, it did not mention whether the current Xbox Series X/S will be directly supported, or whether the next-generation Xbox game console will see the benefits of this technology. This may be where the original factory hopes to sell. The author believes that the Xbox Series X/S has only been launched for more than a year. The opportunity to launch new features on the current console should not be low.
In addition, AMD FSR 2.0 technology is only an improved version of the first generation after all, and still maintains the characteristics of not requiring dedicated hardware chips, so this time FSR 2.0 even has the opportunity to enable rival cards. Yes, it sounds bizarre that AMD’s technology can be used on NVIDIA graphics cards, but it’s true, but given the rationale, it’s not so hard to accept.
Roughly speaking, NVIDIA DLSS is still the one that requires special hardware to learn the game scene and other materials in advance to calculate high-quality images while reducing the load on the graphics card, so that the graphics card can free up its hands and feet to calculate other more resource-intensive content. , like ray tracing. The AMD FSR uses the graphics card’s own computing performance from the very beginning. To “count” the low-resolution game screen into a high-resolution. Even with FSR 2.0, this basic principle hasn’t changed much.
Therefore, in order to support FSR 2.0, AMD will require users to use a graphics card with a certain level, even the GPU of the opponent camp has the same requirements. According to the official statement, users need to have a graphics card above GTX 1070 to enable AMD FSR 2.0 technology when using an NVIDIA graphics card. In addition, this technology also requires the cooperation of developers to achieve, so there are not many supported games yet.
At present, the only game that supports AMD FSR 2.0 technology is “Death Loop”, and the other is “Forspoken” (or translated as the land of magic, which will be released by SQUARE ENIX this year). ), other games still need to wait for the original factory to announce the information.
▲AMD FSR 2.0 technology demonstration
The cooperation with Microsoft is believed to make AMD FSR 2.0 technology shine, although it still has the high compatibility of the previous generation, even the graphics card of the opponent camp can be turned on, and AMD said that if the game already supports DLSS technology, it can be done within a few days. FSR 2.0 can be implemented. However, without these excellent congenital conditions, such as the use of Unreal Engine 4/5, FSR 2.0 will take a long time to implement before players can enable this feature in the game. Perhaps, the long development time may be one of the biggest drawbacks of the technology.