Updated as part of AMD FidelityFX SDK v1.1:

• AMD FidelityFX backend updates, including buffer allocator overrides
• Updated documentation and release of reference documentation for SDK + Framework
• Native Microsoft® GDK® backend implementation library (requires developer access to GDK® program)

Features

Super Resolution

• Major framerate boosts combined with high-quality, high-resolution graphics!
• Four different quality modes proposed: Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced, and Performance.

Cross-platform

• FSR is not limited to the latest GPU architectures only! It runs on a large variety of GPUs. 
• Unreal Engine 4 patch available.
• Unity integration available from the beta branch of Unity 2021.2 HDRP.
• Optimized sample provided in Xbox GDKX.

Open Source

• Provided on GPUOpen under an MIT license.

Easy to integrate

• Full shader source code provided for a smooth and flexible integration.
• Wide API support for DirectX®12, Vulkan®, and DirectX®11!
• FSR can be ported onto multiple platforms without restriction. 

Highly optimized

• FSR is hand-optimized for great performance across a wide variety of GPUs[^1].

Comparison

The comparison images below are a 1200 x 700px crop taken from a 4K frame from ourFSR sample provided via ourCauldron framework.  The images are JPEGs saved with minimal compression to keep the file sizes lower to support faster load times.

Native resolution is on the left, and FSR Ultra Quality on the right.  

JPG (1200x720)

JPG (1200x720)

This next set of images are the same crop as above, but this time comparing bilinear upscaling (left) with FSR Performance (right).

JPG (1200x720)

JPG (1200x720)

Here is a different crop, with native, and then all four FSR quality settings shown.

To make it easier to see the differences, we’ve applied the native resolution image over the top (left) so you can see how FSR quality modes (right) compare by moving the slider.

JPG (1200x720)

JPG (1200x720)

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution quality modes

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution exposes different quality modes that varies the amount of scaling to apply to the source image, depending on the quality/performance ratio desired.

In addition to fixed scaling, FSR may be used in “arbitrary scaling” mode, whereby any area scale factor between 1x and 4x is supported. This mode is typically used for Dynamic Resolution Scaling, whereby source resolution is determined by a fixed performance budget to achieve a minimum frame rate.

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution performance

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is hand-optimized for best performance and runs well on a large variety of GPUs. The following table provides some indication of upper performance threshold numbers for the cost of running FSR, measured on different classes of GPUs.

System Specifications

• Motherboard: MSI X570-A Pro
• Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Version 20H2 (OS Build 19042.928)
• AMD Driver Version: 21.20-210624n
• NVIDIA Driver Version: 471.11
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X @ 3.70 GHz
• Chipset: Ryzen SOC
• System RAM: 16.0 GB G.Skill DDR4-3600 CL16-16-16-36

How it works

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution is a spatial upscaler: it works by taking the current anti-aliased frame and upscaling it to display resolution without relying on other data such as frame history or motion vectors.

At the heart of FSR is a cutting-edge algorithm that detects and recreates high-resolution edges from the source image. Those high-resolution edges are a critical element required for turning the current frame into a “super resolution” image. 

FSR provides consistent upscaling quality regardless of whether the frame is in movement, which can provide quality advantages compared to other types of upscalers.

FSR is composed of two main passes:

• An upscaling pass calledEASU (Edge-Adaptive Spatial Upsampling) that also performs edge reconstruction. In this pass the input frame is analyzed and the main part of the algorithm detects gradient reversals – essentially looking at how neighboring gradients differ – from a set of input pixels. The intensity of the gradient reversals defines the weights to apply to the reconstructed pixels at display resolution.
• A sharpening pass calledRCAS (Robust Contrast-Adaptive Sharpening) that extracts pixel detail in the upscaled image.

FSR also comes with helper functions for color space conversions, dithering, and tone mapping to assist with integrating it into common rendering pipelines used with today’s games.

Where to integrate AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution in a frame?

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution passes work best in perceptual color space, and should therefore be integrated after tone mapping. Passes that introduce noise or other high-frequency visual components to the scene should be rendered after upscaling to avoid those noisy components being amplified.