It might have taken a number of years, however AMD has lastly joined Nvidia within the AI decision upscaling membership with FSR 4, and I had an opportunity to play with the brand new tech on a brand new AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card at CES. The corporate had two machines arrange for a side-by-side comparability, one with FSR 3 and one with AMD FSR 4, and the distinction is immediately noticeable.
After all, the bar was already low right here. AMD would possibly have the ability to say its FSR tech works on any GPU, however Nvidia DLSS has at all times had the higher hand with regards to picture high quality. Now, nevertheless, it appears as if AMD has lastly nailed the method with FSR 4, no less than from our time with it at CES. There are some caveats, although, certainly one of which is that the tech presently solely works on the corporate’s new GPUs, such because the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT.
That is additionally an early comparability based mostly on pre-release {hardware} and software program, and AMD had intentionally locked the 2 check methods at 60Hz, so we’re unable to gauge the efficiency of the brand new GPUs. What we are able to see, although, is the improved picture high quality of FSR 4 in comparison with FSR 3, due to an FSR 4-enabled model of Ratchet and Clank that AMD had operating on the brand new rigs.
The distinction in high quality is substantial, and you’ll see it in all places within the scene when it’s transferring, with a lot much less in the way in which of shimmering and noise round edges, and a a lot sharper picture. Areas the place the advantages of FSR 4 are significantly noticeable are the place Ratchet’s fur meets the remainder of the scene. As you may see within the picture above, the perimeters round Ratchet’s tail look a lot sharper when it swishes, as do the perimeters across the ears. Even the shadows look considerably higher on FSR 4 (proper) than FSR 3 (left), with clear edges that aren’t surrounded by noise.
That is all good, in fact, but it surely’s taken AMD a very long time to get so far. Nvidia first launched AI-based DLSS again in 2018, and whereas it didn’t get off to a fantastic begin at first, Nvidia has had a handsome model of DLSS upscaling for quite a lot of years now, and it’s now improved it additional with DLSS 4 and multi body gen. AMD can even want to steer builders to implement this function in video games.
It’s additionally price noting that this AMD FSR 4 demo solely exhibits upscaling, and never body era, and we additionally don’t have any indication of the body charges. Ratchet & Clank was operating easily on this check system, but it surely’s not a very demanding recreation.
The place does AMD go from right here? The corporate is thought for opening up its requirements, in comparison with Nvidia’s closed ecosystems, so it could be attention-grabbing to see if AMD permits this new tech to work on Nvidia Tensor cores sooner or later. There’s additionally presently no phrase on whether or not a model of the tech might work on the matrix cores in AMD’s Radeon RX 7000-series GPUs.
Nonetheless, it’s good to see AMD lastly catching up right here. If the corporate may repair its ray tracing efficiency, and worth its new GPUs significantly competitively, then it could simply be in with an opportunity. Within the meantime, take a look at our information to the very best graphics card in the event you’re seeking to purchase a brand new gaming GPU proper now.
