AMD’s answer to Nvidia’s DLSS tech is coming to Xbox

AMD has unveiled its FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 2.0 at GDC 2022 and announced that it’s bringing the tech to Xbox consoles in addition to PC graphics cards.

As reported by The Verge, AMD doesn’t have an exact deadline as to when FSR 2.0—which is AMD’s answer to Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS)—but AMD confirmed that it will be “fully supported on Xbox and will be available in the Xbox GDK for registered developers to use in their games.”

So what does that mean on a practical level? Well, if an Xbox game’s developer decides that it wants to implement FSR 2.0, it can upscale the resolution while maintaining a consistent frame rate and include ray-tracing. Currently, most games will give players the option between something like a “quality” mode and a “performance” mode. FSR 2.0 will potentially give console players more fidelity options than they’ve had.

AMD shared an example of FSR 2.0 working on Deathloop—an Xbox published game that’s currently only available on PlayStation 5 and PC. The result is a sharper image thanks to complex sharpening techniques from FSR 2.0’s hard-working algorithm.

AMD also stated that it shouldn’t take much for developers to include FSR 2.0 if the game already includes DLSS. Unreal Engines 4 and 5 will have a plugin for FSR 2.0, too.

What isn’t clear is whether the PlayStation 5 will be able to run FSR 2.0 as well. Both of the games that AMD announced having FSR 2.0 support—Deathloop and Forspoken—are PS5 console exclusives (for now), and Sony’s machine uses AMD architecture. It’s possible that some Ts need crossing and Is dotting before AMD can announce any sort of partnership with PlayStation.