Along the launch of a new generation of graphic cards the main manufacturers are working on software improvements as well as hardware. DLSS, FSR and XeSS are three software solutions to manage the power and capacity of the new graphic cards and each manufacturer has its own design for it.
Each new graphic card generation from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel implies a new DLSS, FSR and XeSS version respectively. In this article you will learn the main differences of each. Then, you can decide which new graphic card generation you will root for.
What do DLSS, FSR and XeSS do?
DLSS, FSR and XeSS are upscaling technologies for videogames that increase the Frames Per Second (FPS) of your gaming experience. The main objective is to get less time for photogram intercalation and then a smoother movement feeling. The three technologies work similarly.
- First the game renders the image to a lower resolution than that of your monitor to save GPU resources. If you have a 4K screen the image is rendered to 1080p.
- The new technology turns the low resolution image to the screen resolution.
- The process involves hardware and software at the same time. Each version of this escalation technology is exclusive for a generation of graphic cards.
How does DLSS work
DLSS stands for Deep Learning Super Sampling and it is NVIDIA upscaling technology. It makes use of Artificial Intelligence and deep learning to create high quality photograms from an inferior resolution basis. DLSS uses Tensor cores located on RTX NVIDIA graphic cards from series 2000 onwards.
On NVIDIA GTX series 1000 and lower, the lack of Tensor cores don’t allow for this upscaling techonology.
DLSS versions
At the moment, NVIDIA has launched 5 different DLSS versions. The following list highlights the main features of each.
- DLSS 1.0 introduced the Superresolution feature and DLAA but the final results were blurry images.
- DLSS 2.0 changed Superresolution through movement vectors in game and previous photogram for a clearer image, similar to native game resolution.
- DLSS 3.0 enhances image quality with the Optic photogram generation feature and NVIDIA reflex to reduce online games latency.
- DLSS 3.3 adds Ray Reconstruction support to enhance image quality in games with Ray Tracing support.
- DLSS 4.0 is the latest version. It incorporates Multiple photogram generation and creates three additional photograms for each rendered one.
Compatibility
FSR, XeSS and DLSS evolution implies compatibility changes with time. Regarding NVIDIA’s DLSS there is a different set of graphic cards that work with each version of the upscaling technology.
- RTX 20 and 30 onwards for DLSS 1.0.
- RTX 20, 30 and 40 onwards for DLSS 2.0.
- RTX 40 onwards DLSS 3.0
- RTX 20 and RTX 30 without photogram generation feature and RTX 40 onwards for full compatibility of DLSS 3.5.
- RTX 50 onwards for the DLSS 4.0 version.
FSR technology and how it works
FidelityFX Super Resolution is AMD upscaling technology. Also called FSR. It has changed from its first version, up to FSR 3 AMD uses an algorithm to rebuild missed pixels in a lower resolution image. From FSR 4 version onwards, AMD uses Artificial Intelligence for this process as well as NVIDIA does since DLSS 1.0. One of the advantages of FSR is that you can use it with every modern graphic card as it’s open source.
FSR versions available
There are four different versions of AMD FSR on the market. The FSR 1 uses a spatial upscaling algorithm to increase image resolution. With FSR 2 you can add temporal upscaling by using photogram information and reducing aliasing. The FSR 3 runs on Radeon RX590 and onwards without photograph generation feature. With a RX 5700 or higher you can make use of every FSR 3 feature in your most powerful hardware. Finally. FSR 4 it’s only compatible with RX 9000 series of AMD graphic cards.
XeSS upscaling technology details
Xe Super Samling is Intel’s upscaling technology. Intel arrived late to graphic cards market and they are usually far behind DLSS and FSR with XeSS performance. However, the quality jump of the second generation is excellent in terms of performance and graphic quality.
XeSS combines DLSS and FSR technologies and it works in two different ways. XeSS XMX uses Artificial Intelligence cores known as XMX Cores to enhance image performance and quality. It’s an exclusive technology for Intel’s Arc graphic cards. The second way is known as XeSS DP4a and it doesn’t use AI cores but standard GPU instruction. It’s compatible with NVIDIA and AMD cards but the quality image and performance is slightly inferior.
Up until now, Intel has launched two versions of XeSS. XeSS 1,x is the first model along the Intel Arc Alchemist graphic cards. It’s centered on upscaling images. XeSS 2 arrived along the second generation of graphic cards Intel Arc Battlemage. It introduces version 2.0 and the XeSS-FG feature to generate photograms and XeSS for reducing latency. There’s also XeSS 2.01 that includes all XeSS 2.0 functions and compatibility with no-Intel graphic cards.
In terms of compatibility, XeSS 1.x is available for all Intel Arc Alchemist series A and integrated graphics Xe. The XeSS2 is compatible with Intel Arc Alchemist series A and Intel Arc Battlemage series B. Finally, XeSS 2.1 is compatible with series A and B and Shader Model 6.4 AMD and NVIDIA graphic cards.
Which is the best option among DLSS, FSR and XeSS?
NVIDIA has always been the leader on the graphic cards market. DLSS is the latest technology for graphic performance because Intel and AMD focuses on mid-range models. NVIDIA introduces several models specially made for gaming, AI or even edition.
However, this doesn’t mean that AMD and Intel solutions aren’t useful. On the contrary, you can easily choose one of them if you are looking for good performance and lower prices. NVIDIA has the advantage of offering gaming and high-end centered graphic cards models.