Monday, September 16th 2024
AMD Confirms FidelityFX Super Resolution 4.0 will be AI-powered, Focused on Efficiency
According to Tom's Hardware, AMD has confirmed that its upcoming FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4.0) graphics upscaling solution will harness the power of AI for frame generation and frame interpolation. This update marks a significant shift from the company's previous analytical-based approaches, as revealed by Jack Huynh, AMD's senior vice president and general manager of the Computing and Graphics Business Group. Initially, FSR4's primary focus is addressing the persistent challenge of battery life in handheld gaming devices. Huynh emphasized the need for extended playtime, stating, "I need to play a Wukong for three hours, not 60 minutes." To achieve this, AMD has been working on AI-based upscaling techniques for nearly a year. As a reminder, FSR 1.0 used spatial upscaling, version 2.0 used temporal upscaling, and FSR 3.0 also used temporal upscaling with optional frame generation.
While the initial context for FSR4 centers on handheld devices, AMD's work with developing open-source, architecture-agnostic algorithms suggests broader applications. FSR4 might be compatible with a wide range of GPU solutions, including non-handheld devices, benefiting desktop and laptop users as well. This move to AI-based technology aligns AMD with competitors like Intel, who have implemented similar approaches in their XeSS technology, and NVIDIA with its DLSS solution. Although the release date for FSR4 remains unannounced, its year-long development suggests it may be nearing completion. However, as with previous upscaling solutions, widespread adoption in games may take time following its release.
Sources:
Tom's Hardware, via VideoCardz
While the initial context for FSR4 centers on handheld devices, AMD's work with developing open-source, architecture-agnostic algorithms suggests broader applications. FSR4 might be compatible with a wide range of GPU solutions, including non-handheld devices, benefiting desktop and laptop users as well. This move to AI-based technology aligns AMD with competitors like Intel, who have implemented similar approaches in their XeSS technology, and NVIDIA with its DLSS solution. Although the release date for FSR4 remains unannounced, its year-long development suggests it may be nearing completion. However, as with previous upscaling solutions, widespread adoption in games may take time following its release.
48 Comments on AMD Confirms FidelityFX Super Resolution 4.0 will be AI-powered, Focused on Efficiency
I called attention to this in the comments and elaborated on my own findings, how I find his 'challenge' methodology flawed and conclusions drawn interesting but far from definitive given the compression obfuscates much if not all the (admittedly reduced) differences each technique has when viewed in real time rendering on ones own monitor, and detailed how and why DF's methodology for comparisons leads to significantly less flawed comparisons and better conclusions, which happen to be in line with my own and other reputable tech press.
Well my replies got deleted and initial comment hidden from public view, and other comments I saw pointing out the same are gone or hidden too. Methinks this channel doesn't like constructive criticism... :roll: well, just another channel to ignore now I guess, if they're not willing to even respectfully listen to constructive criticism and allow it to be visible, they'd rather block their ears and continue beliving in the ...uh... point? they're attempting to make.
give me GPUs that are good enough to run with native resolutions and stop making shitty games that are barely functional.
I'd rather run native and just lower details. Did some tests on Wukong benchmark and on that seems much better way.
Upscaling is mainly about the manufacturers selling lower spec cards and increasing margins. Just as RT is largely a few better shadows for a 30% or more performance hit.
Seemingly no one is calling these "features" out for what they really are.
I mean, why are you rushing to play ”shitty games” in the first place?
no “bluray drive” because “cars” don’t have cassette players or CD players anymore. (how long have PC’s NOT have bluray/cd players?)
finally “the“ (ps5pro) console is the “same” as a PC, as in digital only…
the console does have a bolt on, snap on solution, for those in the “past”
RPCS3 can do some kind of super resolution mode then downscaled and is amazing, but doesnt work in every game, FSR 1 is also available, I tried it, and it was an improvement over native but its obvious flaw was nasty shimmering. However this is v1 of FSR, so I didnt know if FSR 2 had the same issue, I remember DLSS 1 shimmered in FF15.
Playing older games will be natively maxed by newer hardware.
Maybe AMD is finally going to catch up with DLSS ! But I'm sure that both are going to push even further with more generated frame (Frame Generation) like 2x, 3x or 4x more generated frames...
Games have settings, and usually high settings look almost the same and run much better. No upscaling needed.
I have also seen examples where upscaling greatly improves Temporal AA issues. There is also upscaling at native resolution for better image clarity.
The best thing is, at least mostly, that you can choose if your want to run your game natively or with upscaling :)
I also like that some game devs just go nuts with the graphical settings. That way you can test how well future cards run.DLSS 1, which actually used AI as training did not do well.
Current DLSS and FSR does not use AI at any point. DLSS might use the tensor cores, but despite having tensor cores the Titan V does not support DLSS.
NPU stuff in the CPU won't help FSR 4, since you would have to run the image through the CPU. And transferring that amount of data will have a huge performance impact.
In my opinion, "AI" is just marketing stuff. FSR 4 may use the special calculation units, which are also used for AI, in the current and upcoming AMD gpus.
Space Marine 2 has a very good FSR 2.1 implementation. And it will get FSR 3.1. FSR in that game also works on a GTX 980 and R9 Nano :)
Obviously if FSR4 is using AI cores then of course it will need a GPU with said AI cores. I'm confused at what your trying to say? You don't have to use upscaling anyway, and probably wont be if your using an older card at lower resolutions. You know the most popular GPU is still the 3060 @1080p right? No one is using upscaling with that configuration.
I had a quick look at the 3060's 1080p numbers in the 3050 6GB review (they're individually listed there) and there are 2 games where it's in the 30s, 3 games where it's in the 40s, a couple in the high 50s and the rest above 60 (I always ignore Cities II as it's broken). The 30s games need DLSS/upscaling as you probably can't drop graphics settings enough to compensate to the point where DLSS itself makes a smaller reduction in image quality. The 40s games you might get away with dropping settings only but you'll probably still get drops below 60fps in parts of those games, no big deal. The 50s should be easy to get to 60fps with well chosen settings.
The 7600 and 4060 each do better than this but it's only 0-10 more fps for these sub-60fps games, so they'll need to drop settings less often but will still need to do so. And that's right now. It's a reasonable assumption that someone buys a GPU to use for 3 years or longer so there will be increasing numbers of games needing help from upscaling to maintain good fps on these cards.
However, I think that's an overly pessimistic way to look at things as a dedicated gamer will save longer and buy higher in the range. And I and others in the family used my 1060 6G until it died earlier this year, and the 4060 and 7600 are better 1080p cards for release-current games than the 1060 was for it's release-current games, based on fps. It lasted 7 years for us because we don't play all the newest games for reasons:
too expensive, $20-30 next year is fine
gameplay not interesting for us
friends play other games
overabundance of "older" games with great gameplay with still good to great visuals
Same goes for the current 6-level cards. They will need upscaling help with some new releases, likely increasing each year. But they will also continue to perform very well for hundreds of great games released over the past 10 years. And to veer back on topic, I see no problem with AMD releasing a new series of GPUs that require dedicated hardware to achieve the best upscaling options, especially for these low end cards which IMO benefit the most. It looks like they tried with FSR 2 and 3 with OK to very good results and if more dedicated computation is needed to keep up with DLSS, well they'd better do that, hadn't they?