AMD FSR Explained: Everything You Need to Know

AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) is a super-sampling feature found in a wide range of games. It has one simple goal: boost gaming performance on the best graphics cards. To help you understand how it works and why you should turn it on in your games, we've put together everything you need to know about AMD FSR.

What Is AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution?

FSR is AMD's answer to Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). Like DLSS, FSR is a super-sampling feature that makes a game appear to render at a higher resolution than it actually does. This means the engine can render the game at 1080p, and then FSR steps in to fill in the missing pixels so it looks like a 1440p output. There are now two versions of FSR, and FSR 2.0 is far better than the original. For now, most games only support FSR 1.0, but the second version should become the default going forward. There are a few differences between them, which we'll cover in the next section.

Compared to DLSS, there's a big difference between both versions of FSR. DLSS requires an Nvidia RTX 20 or 30 series GPU, while FSR works with both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. Official support goes back to the GTX 10 series and the Radeon RX 400 series, but FSR can still work on older hardware. The source code is also available for free to developers on AMD's GPUOpen platform and can be accessed through the Unreal Engine 4 and Unity engines. In short, any developer, regardless of budget or connections, can run FSR in their games.

FSR is only available in games where developers have chosen to include it. AMD offers a Radeon Super Resolution feature specifically for Radeon GPUs. This is essentially FSR 1.0 delivered through your AMD driver, and it lets you apply the upscaling to any game as long as you have a supported GPU.

What Are the FidelityFX Super Resolution Quality Modes?

FSR comes with different quality modes to balance how good you want your game to look against how much performance you want. Each quality mode provides a scaling factor that upscales the internal resolution to what appears on your screen. The quality modes for FSR 1.0 are:

• Ultra Quality — 1.3x scaling
• Quality — 1.5x scaling
• Balanced — 1.7x scaling
• Performance — 2x scaling

Scaling applies to both dimensions, so you multiply the vertical and horizontal resolution to find the final output. For example, if you run Performance mode on a 4K monitor with a resolution of 3840 x 2160, it will render the game at 1920 x 1080.

FSR 2.0 has slightly different quality modes. Instead of an Ultra Quality mode, it starts with Quality and matches the same scaling factors as FSR 1.0. However, game developers have access to an optional Ultra Performance mode with FSR 2.0. This mode provides 3x scaling, but AMD says it won't be available in every FSR 2.0 game.

Which GPUs Support FidelityFX Super Resolution?

FSR stands out over DLSS thanks to its cross-vendor support. You can use either an AMD or Nvidia graphics card, though only the last few generations are officially supported. FSR should still work on older GPUs, but you may run into issues or lower performance. The graphics cards that support FSR 1.0 are:

• AMD Radeon 6000 series
• AMD Radeon 6000M series
• AMD Radeon 5000 series
• AMD Radeon 5000M series
• AMD Radeon VII graphics
• AMD Radeon RX Vega series
• AMD Radeon 600 series
• AMD Radeon RX 500 series
• AMD Radeon RX 480/470/460 graphics
• AMD Ryzen desktop processors with Radeon graphics
• AMD Ryzen mobile processors with Radeon graphics
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 series
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 20 series
• Nvidia GeForce 16 series
• Nvidia GeForce 10 series

FSR 2.0 technically supports the same graphics cards. AMD says the requirements are a bit stricter for an optimal experience. You can still use it with an Nvidia or AMD GPU, but AMD recommends a somewhat more powerful graphics card for higher resolutions.

How Does FidelityFX Super Resolution Work?

FSR 1.0 and 2.0 work very differently, but they're built around the same core. Both super-sampling features use the Lanczos algorithm for upscaling. It starts by feeding a lower-resolution image into the scaler, which is then upscaled with extra detail based on the algorithm. FSR then performs a sharpening pass afterward to restore a bit more detail. That's how it works at a high level, but the critical difference between FSR 1.0 and FSR 2.0 comes down to anti-aliasing. With FSR 1.0, the game performs anti-aliasing before upscaling is applied, which leads to much worse image quality when the game has a weak anti-aliasing implementation.

FSR 2.0 changes this. It doesn't require anti-aliasing beforehand; instead, it performs Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) after the upscaling is complete. This is similar to how DLSS works, and it's also why the Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) feature in Ghostwire: Tokyo looks so good.

Compared to DLSS, the big change in FSR is that it isn't AI-accelerated. DLSS requires dedicated Tensor cores on RTX graphics cards to run an AI model that assists with upscaling. FSR is part of the game's rendering pipeline, which allows it to work with graphics cards from different vendors.

Which Games Support FidelityFX Super Resolution?

As of this writing, there's only one game that supports FSR 2.0: Deathloop. AMD says several other games, including Forspoken, Eve Online, and Grounded, will get support soon. FSR 1.0's library is much larger, and both AMD and modders keep adding it to new titles. Here's the full list of games that support FSR 1.0:

• Deathloop
• Far Cry 6
• God of War
• Godfall
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Resident Evil Village
• Terminator Resistance
• The Rift Breaker
• World War Z
• Amid Evil
• Anno 1800
• Arcadegeddon
• Assetto Corsa Competizione
• Back 4 Blood
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Black Desert
• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Century: Age of Ashes
• Chernobylite
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Death Stranding
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Dota 2
• Dying Light 2
• Edge of Eternity
• Edge of the Abyss: Awaken
• Elite Dangerous: Odyssey
• Enlisted
• Evil Genius 2
• F1 2021
• Farming Simulator 22
• Gamedec
• Ghostrunner
• Ghostwire: Tokyo
• Grounded
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
• Hot Wheels Unleashed
• Icarus
• Keo
• Kingshunt
• Lego Builder’s Journey
• Marvel’s Avengers
• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
• Myst
• Myth of Empires
• Necromunda: Hired Gun
• No Man’s Sky
• Phantasy Star Online 2
• Quake 2 RTX
• Ready or Not
• Second Extinction
• Shadow Warrior 3
• The Medium
• Undying
• Warhammer Vermintide 2
• Workshop simulator
• World of Warcraft: Shadowlands
• World of Warships

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