What Is AMD FSR? FidelityFX Super Resolution Explained

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A basic definition of AMD FSR

AMD Fidelity FX Super Resolution (FSR) is a type of rendering technique that looks to boost framerates in games and enable quality high-resolution gaming. It’s also a rival to Nvidia's DLSS, though the two differ quite a bit in how they function. FSR works by rendering frames at a lower resolution and then using an open-source spatial upscaling algorithm to make the game look as though it's running at a higher resolution. DLSS uses an AI algorithm to accomplish similar results, but it only works on Nvidia's RTX GPUs, some of the best graphics cards right now. FSR in contrast will work on just about any GPU — we've confirmed it runs even on Intel integrated graphics, for example. AMD doesn't directly promote FSR as a competitor for DLSS, mostly because it sees FSR as having application for a wider variety of games. While FSR can definitely help in performance-heavy games and titles with extensive effects, like ray tracing, it can also work as a general purpose algorithm to simply boost performance, even on games that already run fine. That could prove useful for high refresh rate 1440p displays, some of the best gaming monitors, but it can also help smooth out framerates on older GPUs and gaming laptops.

For example, a game might not run particularly well at native 4K rendering. FSR allows a user to render at anywhere from 1440p (FSR Ultra Quality) to 1080p resolution (FSR Performance), which will make hitting higher framerates easier, with two other options as well. The resulting image is then upscaled to the target resolution, resulting in higher performance than 4K and sharper detail than 1080p. UI elements and text are then applied to the final output. 

AMD claims that FSR offers an improvement over other types of spatial upscaling methods, like bilinear upscaling. Besides offering different levels of performance and being supported on differing games and apps, the biggest difference between the two is that AMD FSR is GPU-agnostic, so it can work with AMD, as well as Nvidia and Intel graphics cards. Contrastingly, DLSS only works with Nvidia GPUs.

Because the PlayStation 5 (PS5) uses an AMD RDNA 2-based GPU, it also supports FSR, with the first PS5 game to offer FSR support being Arcadegeddon. The Xbox Series X/S, which also use RDNA 2-based GPUs, will be getting FSR support as well. This is a key advantage for FSR over the long term, supporting not just PCs but consoles and potentially even smartphone hardware as well. 

AMD FSR has four different modes: Ultra Quality, Quality, Balanced and Performance. With the highest level, Performance mode, depicted in the above chart, AMD claims you’ll see an average performance gain of 2.4x at 4K resolution. But more upscaling results in more visual artifacts. And, like the highest level of performance with Nvidia’s DLSS, you can expect noticeable artifacts with FSR Performance mode.

The four modes run at different levels of upscaling. Ultra Quality uses a 1.3x scaling factor, while Quality uses 1.5x scaling, Balanced uses 1.7x scaling and Performance uses 2.0x scaling. That scaling factor applies in each dimension, so as an example, 3840 x 2160 with Quality mode would render at 2560 x 1440 — 44.4% as many pixels total compared to 4K.

AMD also has plans for dynamic scaling factors, though this hasn't been implemented yet. Dynamic scaling would allow games to render at anywhere from native resolution to 50% of native resolution, and everything in between, normally with a target framerate specified in the game.
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