Shadow of the Tomb Raider: XeSS vs. DLSS Comparison

[maxus24]

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has recently been updated with support for Intel Xe Super Sampling (XeSS), making it the first game to fully support XeSS. In this mini-review, we take a look and compare the image quality and performance offered by XeSS and DLSS.

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[Space Lynx]

@maxus24 and anyone can use XeSS right? amd, nvidia, and arc? no paywall like DLSS

 

[wolf]

Results look really promising, XeSS has a few issues to fix but I'm hopeful Intel stay committed. Will be interesting to see how much XMX instructions help, like will an A770 run XeSS on par with FSR 2.x?

 

[W1zzard]

@maxus24 and anyone can use XeSS right? amd, nvidia, and arc? no paywall like DLSS

Correct

Will be interesting to see how much XMX instructions help

Will let you know in our upcoming Arc reviews

 

[Space Lynx]

Correct


Will let you know in our upcoming Arc reviews

If you can try a couple older games, I don't care which, but something like Dragon Age Origins or Civilization III or Stronghold HD on your Arc A770 review, as a consumer I would find that helpful, I don't need extensive tests, just that it works without issue in older games, even a simple yes or no would suffice me, no fps graphs/charts needed. On AMD and Nvidia I never had to ask this question as I always knew it would work flawless.

 

[Verpal]

IMO This look quite promising, especially when this is just the first version, and it is already arguable better than FSR 2.x in some aspect.

That being said, considering the driver situation of Intel Arc GPU, not sure people would consider XMX acceleration a valid selling point yet.

 

[AusWolf]

So AMD has FSR which runs on everything. Intel has XeSS that runs on everything. Nvidia really has to step up their game and be less precious about their dear baby Tensor cores.

 

[ZetZet]

Nvidia really has to step up their game and be less precious about their dear baby Tensor cores.

I think their step up was the frame generation. Remains to be seen on how well it actually looks/feels.

 

[NoneRain]

So AMD has FSR which runs on everything. Intel has XeSS that runs on everything. Nvidia really has to step up their game and be less precious about their dear baby Tensor cores.

When you dominate the market, you don't

 

[AusWolf]

I think their step up was the frame generation. Remains to be seen on how well it actually looks/feels.

I mean, if they played fair and didn't make specific hardware for their own in-house stuff, and made their advancements openly available, maybe they would be seen in a more positive light than they have lately.

 

[ZetZet]

I mean, if they played fair and didn't make specific hardware for their own in-house stuff, and made their advancements openly available, maybe they would be seen in a more positive light than they have lately.

But DLSS is noticeably better. So for the consumer their GPU's are still better... RDNA3 can change that by seriously undercutting Nvidia on pricing, that's if Nvidia can't match it.

 

[Wolfkin]

The funny thing is that XeSS and DLSS looks much better than TAA. Zoom in on the sitting man on the left and see for your self, TAA looks awful.

 

[usiname]

The funny thing is that XeSS and DLSS looks much better than TAA. Zoom in on the sitting man on the left and see for your self, TAA looks awful.

Has this junk TAA ever looked good?

 

[zlobby]

Xe looks awful to me!

 

[Wolfkin]

Has this junk TAA ever looked good?

Not that I've noticed, always been blurry to one degree or another and I absolutely hate games that force it always on. I find it funny that we now have these upscaling techniques that look better and give more fps.

Xe looks awful to me!

Actually not that bad for a first try, could be great after another generation or two. Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR looked pretty bad the first generation as well.

 

[wolf]

I mean, if they played fair and didn't make specific hardware for their own in-house stuff, and made their advancements openly available, maybe they would be seen in a more positive light than they have lately.

But DLSS is noticeably better. So for the consumer their GPU's are still better

At this point why would they? they lead the market in image reconstruction technologies, why make it free when you're top dog and pushing it ever further.

This will ultimately push FSR and XeSS to improve and vica versa, and with access already to those it's still a net benefit to non RTX owners.

 

[zlobby]

Not that I've noticed, always been blurry to one degree or another and I absolutely hate games that force it always on. I find it funny that we now have these upscaling techniques that look better and give more fps.


Actually not that bad for a first try, could be great after another generation or two. Nvidia DLSS and AMD FSR looked pretty bad the first generation as well.

Let's hope so! I'm by no means against having a choice. Although, if history is to teach us anything, it's that some vendor use anti-competitive tactics to force the others out of the market, only for their closed solution to be dominant (and to be available only to their cards).

 

[AusWolf]

There's probably a lot of difference in pictures, but do you guys actually notice anything while playing a game?

 

[Wolfkin]

Let's hope so! I'm by no means against having a choice. Although, if history is to teach us anything, it's that some vendor use anti-competitive tactics to force the others out of the market, only for their closed solution to be dominant (and to be available only to their cards).

You're absolutely right about that, we've seen it so many times.

 

[nguyen]

Let's hope so! I'm by no means against having a choice. Although, if history is to teach us anything, it's that some vendor use anti-competitive tactics to force the others out of the market, only for their closed solution to be dominant (and to be available only to their cards).

Nvidia can't force AMD out of the market, US antitrust law will then split Nvidia in half, duopoly is pretty close to monopoly really.
Well with Intel joining the fray things might change...

 

[GunShot]

So far, the XeSS's SotTR comparison reviews across the globe are very unbalanced.

 

[Xeanoa]

DLSS was manually updated to version 2.4.12 by swapping the DLL file.

While I appreciate that this is as easy to mod as it is, I still feel like it makes for a flawed comparison. The overwhelming majority of players are not going to mod their game, but play it as it ships. I feel like the main content of the article should reflect that.

What I would like to see instead is a comparison of the upscalers as they ship, and compare out of the box experience that players will see. Plus an addendum page that compares the shipping version with the modded version to see how much of a difference it makes.

 

[64K]

Nvidia can't force AMD out of the market, US antitrust law will then split Nvidia in half, duopoly is pretty close to monopoly really.
Well with Intel joining the fray things might change...

That was true at one time when it was just Nvidia and AMD in the GPU market but now there is also Intel in the GPU market. Having said that I don't think Nvidia would try to force AMD out of the market. All Nvidia wants to do is hold AMD down to a low Market Share. That could change in the future though. AMD is making some really good GPUs these days.

 

[GunShot]

While I appreciate that this is as easy to mod as it is, I still feel like it makes for a flawed comparison. The overwhelming majority of players are not going to mod their game, but play it as it ships. I feel like the main content of the article should reflect that.

What I would like to see instead is a comparison of the upscalers as they ship, and compare out of the box experience that players will see. Plus an addendum page that compares the shipping version with the modded version to see how much of a difference it makes.

Yeah, this seems like the best method that should've been applied because the majority of gamers have never even heard of DLSS Swap and least of all TPU, etc.

 

[bob3002]

Will there be a follow-up article comparing XeSS on non-Intel vs Intel hardware? Supposedly (according to Intel's deep dive presentation on XeSS), Arc hardware-accelerated XeSS uses a more advanced upscaling model. I'm wondering if the result is noticeably better.