Hogwarts Legacy: FSR 2.1 vs. XeSS vs. DLSS 3 Comparison

maxus24 · Feb 13, 2023

Hogwarts Legacy is out now, with support for NVIDIA's DLSS Super Resolution (DLSS 2.5), NVIDIA's DLSS Frame Generation (also known as DLSS 3), NVIDIA's Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA), Intel's Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 (FSR 2.1). In this mini-review we take a look, comparing the image quality and performance gains offered by these technologies.

Show full review

TheinsanegamerN · Feb 13, 2023

"Speaking of performance, Hogwarts Legacy is a very CPU intensive game, especially with ray tracing enabled, as the CPU usage is mostly single-threaded on PC due to a very poor implementation of Unreal Engine 4 DirectX 12, and high-powered GPUs such as the GeForce RTX 4080 can end up CPU bottlenecked in some sequences of the game, even at 4K. We've seen these issues before in other recent Unreal Engine 4 games, like The Callisto Protocol or Gotham Knights. In such a CPU limited scenario, a very welcome help comes from the DLSS Frame Generation technology, which has the ability to bypass CPU limitations and increase the framerate. With DLSS Super Resolution in Quality mode and DLSS Frame Generation enabled, you can expect more than doubled performance at 4K and 1440p, and during our testing, overall gameplay felt very smooth and responsive, we haven't spotted any issues with the input latency."

This is why I hate the likes of DLSS, it's being used as an excuse to not optimize games. We all saw this coming.

Pumper · Feb 13, 2023

I like how there's not performance difference between the quality modes, lol.

dgianstefani · Feb 13, 2023

TheinsanegamerN said:
"Speaking of performance, Hogwarts Legacy is a very CPU intensive game, especially with ray tracing enabled, as the CPU usage is mostly single-threaded on PC due to a very poor implementation of Unreal Engine 4 DirectX 12, and high-powered GPUs such as the GeForce RTX 4080 can end up CPU bottlenecked in some sequences of the game, even at 4K. We've seen these issues before in other recent Unreal Engine 4 games, like The Callisto Protocol or Gotham Knights. In such a CPU limited scenario, a very welcome help comes from the DLSS Frame Generation technology, which has the ability to bypass CPU limitations and increase the framerate. With DLSS Super Resolution in Quality mode and DLSS Frame Generation enabled, you can expect more than doubled performance at 4K and 1440p, and during our testing, overall gameplay felt very smooth and responsive, we haven't spotted any issues with the input latency."

This is why I hate the likes of DLSS, it's being used as an excuse to not optimize games. We all saw this coming.

It can be used as an excuse.

Just like having faster hardware can be used as an excuse to not optimize games.

Having a useful tool doesn't always favour laziness, it's just how some people are.

Mistral · Feb 13, 2023

Sweet, but also having some basic performance charts for easy comparison would be great..

Xeanoa · Feb 13, 2023

Would like to see XeSS tested on an Arc GPU as well. There is little reason to use it over FSR on an Nvidia GPU, they're very close

evernessince · Feb 13, 2023

TheinsanegamerN said:
"Speaking of performance, Hogwarts Legacy is a very CPU intensive game, especially with ray tracing enabled, as the CPU usage is mostly single-threaded on PC due to a very poor implementation of Unreal Engine 4 DirectX 12, and high-powered GPUs such as the GeForce RTX 4080 can end up CPU bottlenecked in some sequences of the game, even at 4K. We've seen these issues before in other recent Unreal Engine 4 games, like The Callisto Protocol or Gotham Knights. In such a CPU limited scenario, a very welcome help comes from the DLSS Frame Generation technology, which has the ability to bypass CPU limitations and increase the framerate. With DLSS Super Resolution in Quality mode and DLSS Frame Generation enabled, you can expect more than doubled performance at 4K and 1440p, and during our testing, overall gameplay felt very smooth and responsive, we haven't spotted any issues with the input latency."

This is why I hate the likes of DLSS, it's being used as an excuse to not optimize games. We all saw this coming.

I don't hate DLSS but it should not be used as a crutch as you point out, particularly DLSS 3.0 which comes with latency drawbacks.

As for the quality comparison, I'm seeing DLSS getting a bit more foliage detail in some cases and FSR a bit more detail in the rock wall to the right.

AnarchoPrimitiv · Feb 13, 2023

Does anyone else think that things like DLSS and especially frame generation will make it more difficult for consumers to accurately compare videocards? For example, in pure raster, we can assume that a frame from gpu A is equal to gpu B, an apples to apples comparison (though there has been some claims that there is better image quality with AMD vs Nvidia several years ago), but with DLSS, XeSS, and especially with frame generation, is a generated frame equal to a rastered frame? Are these software tricks going to muddy the waters for consumers and make it much more difficult to confidently know which is the better product?

pavle · Feb 13, 2023

XeSS to me looks more blurry than FSR and DLSS (all Quality). FSR and DLSS look one sharper on the rocks, the other on the grass...

mrnagant · Feb 13, 2023

What does the sharpening filter do exactly and why not max it out? I haven't gotten to use DLSS yet, but in at least 75% of the comparisons I see of these technologies, it always appears that DLSS is more blurry than FSR to me, and like DLSS is running with a lower resolution texture pack or something. Is DLSS working well in this game? It looks identical, maybe even marginally worse than TAA!? Everything is 56/57FPS across all resolutions and all quality settings, are any of these even properly working?

Denver · Feb 13, 2023

Is the implementation buggy and there is no gain by changing the quality? lol

damric · Feb 13, 2023

My wife got this game on Saturday. She said it did a good job detecting her hardware and automatically adjusting settings to Ultra RT OFF (She's got Ryzen 5800X3D and RX 6900XT).

When I saw her playing, my impression is that it's a very good looking game. I assumed it was rendering native 4K but I wanted to see what settings were dialed in because it seemed to be running too smooth for what I read on W1z review. Sure enough it was actually 1440p with FSR enabled. Well it fooled me, I thought it looked like native 4K.

slyfox2151 · Feb 13, 2023

Not sure why the FPS is all the same in the review?

If i change between Quality DLSS and Performance DLSS my frame rate changes from 57-60 to 42-46.

Super Firm Tofu · Feb 13, 2023

mrnagant said:
What does the sharpening filter do exactly and why not max it out? I haven't gotten to use DLSS yet, but in at least 75% of the comparisons I see of these technologies, it always appears that DLSS is more blurry than FSR to me, and like DLSS is running with a lower resolution texture pack or something. Is DLSS working well in this game? It looks identical, maybe even marginally worse than TAA!? Everything is 56/57FPS across all resolutions and all quality settings, are any of these even properly working?

Denver said:
Is the implementation buggy and there is no gain by changing the quality? lol

slyfox2151 said:
Not sure why the FPS is all the same in the review?

If i change between Quality DLSS and Performance DLSS my frame rate changes from 57-60 to 42-46.

It would be my guess that the 10700F used in this test is the limiting factor, maxing out at under 60fps no matter the settings.

THU31 · Feb 13, 2023

57 FPS CPU limit in every resolution.

To be fair, by the time 4090 performance gets to mainstream, CPUs will be much faster as well, so I guess it's fine.

Bomby569 · Feb 13, 2023

THU31 said:
57 FPS CPU limit in every resolution.

To be fair, by the time 4090 performance gets to mainstream, CPUs will be much faster as well, so I guess it's fine.

not a problem on Intel

Hogwarts Legacy isn't using your Ryzen CPU properly

Avalanche Software has just pre-released its 2023 hit game, Hogwarts Legacy. But it seems there are some issues arising already before the game has been

www.wepc.com

thegnome · Feb 13, 2023

Bomby569 said:
not a problem on Intel

Hogwarts Legacy isn't using your Ryzen CPU properly

Avalanche Software has just pre-released its 2023 hit game, Hogwarts Legacy. But it seems there are some issues arising already before the game has been

www.wepc.com

Yeah.. As more as I read into Hogwarts Legacy, the worse it is in terms of quality, optimalization and general polishing...

Bomby569 · Feb 13, 2023

thegnome said:
Yeah.. As more as I read into Hogwarts Legacy, the worse it is in terms of quality, optimalization and general polishing...

so a normal AAA launch

Godrilla · Feb 14, 2023

Bomby569 said:
so a normal AAA launch

Standard brute force approach sprinkled with a upscaling techniques to make up for shortfalls. Wondering how Unreal engine would fair with nanite and Lumen.

If you want a challenging scene go to Hogwarts at night and do the butterfly challenge with rt on fortunately that lasts about 3 seconds but you definitely feel the dip in performance even on a 4090 suprim liquid with 7700x at all core oc at 5.65 ghz.
The game looks best at 4k ultra settings with Nvidia dlaa anti aliasing, upscaling off and frame generation on for the best balance between latency and visual quality except that one incident mentioned after 20% progress completion FYI. IMO.

AusWolf · Feb 14, 2023

Looking at the 1080p screenshots, the upscaling quality is surprisingly fine. Not as great as native, but fine.

With that said, hair looks weird with FSR, and the whole image seems washed out with XeSS. I don't see specific issues with DLSS at first glance. Interesting that performance is the same all around.

I'm even more tempted to try the game now.

Minus Infinity · Feb 14, 2023

pavle said:
XeSS to me looks more blurry than FSR and DLSS (all Quality). FSR and DLSS look one sharper on the rocks, the other on the grass...

I agree, XeSS is definitely softer, and the details also look lower res. More noticeable at 1440 and 1080.

Zubasa · Feb 14, 2023

Bomby569 said:
not a problem on Intel

Hogwarts Legacy isn't using your Ryzen CPU properly

Avalanche Software has just pre-released its 2023 hit game, Hogwarts Legacy. But it seems there are some issues arising already before the game has been

www.wepc.com

Another minimal effort clickbait article. Copy Pasta from Twitter and never bother to retify the false info.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1623793684436381698

Punkenjoy · Feb 14, 2023

One of the common theme among all those AAA titles that have issue are they all seems to use Unreal Engine 4 pushed to the maximum. I think that is the main issue.

We are at a point were we need next generation engine to really bring up the performance and visual quality.

Solaris17 · Feb 14, 2023

Punkenjoy said:
One of the common theme among all those AAA titles that have issue are they all seems to use Unreal Engine 4 pushed to the maximum. I think that is the main issue.

We are at a point were we need next generation engine to really bring up the performance and visual quality.

UE 5 is already a thing

Unreal Engine 5

Unreal Engine 5 empowers all creators across all industries to deliver stunning real-time content and experiences.

www.unrealengine.com

Luminescent · Feb 14, 2023

How Avalanche Software and other studios meetings go :
Employee : Boss, we need people and money to optimize for the PC platform
Boss : how cheap can we achieve this ?
Employee : we can use some PC technologies but they lower resolution and increase latency
Boss : Fu..ck them, they will crack it anyways in a month or two, make it so.

System Name	Skunkworks
Processor	5800x3d
Motherboard	x570 unify
Cooling	Noctua NH-U12A
Memory	32GB 3600 mhz
Video Card(s)	asrock 6800xt challenger D
Storage	Sabarent rocket 4.0 2TB, MX 500 2TB
Display(s)	Asus 1440p144 27"
Case	Old arse cooler master 932
Power Supply	Corsair 1200w platinum
Mouse	squeak
Keyboard	Some old office thing
Software	openSUSE tumbleweed/Mint 21.2

Processor	Ryzen 9 3900x
Motherboard	MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling	be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
Memory	32GB GSkill Ripjaws V 3600CL16
Video Card(s)	3060Ti FE 0.9v
Storage	Samsung 970 EVO 1TB, 2x Samsung 840 EVO 1TB
Display(s)	ASUS ProArt PA278QV
Case	be quiet! Pure Base 500
Audio Device(s)	Edifier R1850DB
Power Supply	Super Flower Leadex III 650W
Mouse	A4Tech X-748K
Keyboard	Logitech K300
Software	Win 10 Pro 64bit

System Name	Silent
Processor	Ryzen 7800X3D @ 5.15ghz BCLK OC, TG AM5 High Performance Heatspreader
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix X670E-I, chipset fans removed
Cooling	Optimus Block, HWLABS Copper 240/40 + 240/30, D5/Res, 4x Noctua A12x25, 2x A4x10, Mayhems Ultra Pure
Memory	32 GB Dominator Platinum 6150 MT 26-36-36-48, 56.6ns AIDA, 2050 FCLK, 160 ns tRFC, active cooled
Video Card(s)	RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition, Conductonaut Extreme, 18 W/mK MinusPad Extreme, Corsair XG7 Waterblock
Storage	Intel Optane DC P1600X 118 GB, Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB
Display(s)	32" 240 Hz 1440p Samsung G7, 31.5" 165 Hz 1440p LG NanoIPS Ultragear, MX900 dual gas VESA mount
Case	Sliger SM570 CNC Aluminium 13-Litre, 3D printed feet, custom front panel pump/res combo
Audio Device(s)	Audeze Maxwell Ultraviolet, Razer Nommo Pro
Power Supply	SF750 Plat, full transparent custom cables, Sentinel Pro 1500 Online Double Conversion UPS w/Noctua
Mouse	Razer Viper Pro V2 8 KHz Mercury White w/Tiger Ice Skates & Pulsar Supergrip tape
Keyboard	Wooting 60HE+, TOFU-R CNC Alu/Brass, SS Prismcaps W, Jellykey, Lube/Mod, TLabs Leath/Suede Wristrest
Software	Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 19044.4046
Benchmark Scores	Legendary

System Name	Aryzen / Sairikiki / Tesseract
Processor	5800x / i7 920@3.73 / 5800x
Motherboard	Steel Legend B450M / GB EX58-UDP4 / Steel Legend B550M
Cooling	Mugen 5 / Pure Rock / Glacier One 240
Memory	Corsair Something 16 / Corsair Something 12 / G.Skill 32
Video Card(s)	AMD 6800XT / AMD 6750XT / Sapphire 7800XT
Storage	Way too many drives...
Display(s)	LG 332GP850-B / Sony w800b / Sony X90J
Case	EVOLV X / Carbide 540 / Carbide 280x
Audio Device(s)	SB ZxR + GSP 500 / board / Denon X1700h + ELAC Uni-Fi 2 + Senn 6XX
Power Supply	Seasonic PRIME GX-750 / Corsair HX750 / Seasonic Focus PX-650
Mouse	G700 / none / G602
Keyboard	G910
Software	w11 64
Benchmark Scores	I don't play benchmarks...

Processor	Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard	ASRock X670E Taichi
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 Chromax
Memory	32GB DDR5 6000 CL30
Video Card(s)	MSI RTX 4090 Trio
Storage	Too much
Display(s)	Acer Predator XB3 27" 240 Hz
Case	Thermaltake Core X9
Audio Device(s)	Topping DX5, DCA Aeon II
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime Titanium 850w
Mouse	G305
Keyboard	Wooting HE60
VR HMD	Valve Index
Software	Win 10

Hogwarts Legacy: FSR 2.1 vs. XeSS vs. DLSS 3 Comparison

maxus24

TheinsanegamerN

Pumper

dgianstefani

TPU Proofreader

Mistral

Xeanoa

evernessince

AnarchoPrimitiv

pavle

mrnagant

Denver

damric

slyfox2151

Super Firm Tofu

THU31

Bomby569

Hogwarts Legacy isn't using your Ryzen CPU properly

thegnome

Hogwarts Legacy isn't using your Ryzen CPU properly

Bomby569

Godrilla

AusWolf

Minus Infinity

Zubasa

Hogwarts Legacy isn't using your Ryzen CPU properly

Punkenjoy

Solaris17

Super Dainty Moderator

Unreal Engine 5

Luminescent

System Name	Lightbringer
Processor	Ryzen 7 2700X
Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming
Cooling	Enermax Liqmax Iii 360mm AIO
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB (8GBx4) 3200Mhz CL 14
Video Card(s)	Sapphire RX 5700XT Nitro+
Storage	Hp EX950 2TB NVMe M.2, HP EX950 1TB NVMe M.2, Samsung 860 EVO 2TB
Display(s)	LG 34BK95U-W 34" 5120 x 2160
Case	Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic (White)
Power Supply	BeQuiet Straight Power 11 850w Gold Rated PSU
Mouse	Glorious Model O (Matte White)
Keyboard	Royal Kludge RK71
Software	Windows 10

System Name	Main
Processor	Ryzen 5950x
Motherboard	B550 PG Velocita
Cooling	Water
Memory	Ballistix
Video Card(s)	RX 6900XT
Storage	T-FORCE CARDEA A440 PRO
Display(s)	MAG401QR
Case	QUBE 500
Audio Device(s)	Logitech Z623
Power Supply	LEADEX V 1KW
Mouse	Cooler Master MM710
Keyboard	Huntsman Elite
Software	11 Pro
Benchmark Scores	https://hwbot.org/user/damric/

System Name	MRCOMP!
Processor	5800X3D
Motherboard	MSI Gaming Plus
Cooling	Corsair 280 AIO
Memory	64GB 3600mhz
Video Card(s)	GTX3060
Storage	1TB SSD
Display(s)	Samsung Neo
Case	No Case... just sitting on cardboard :D
Power Supply	Antec 650w

System Name	Windows
Processor	7950X3D
Motherboard	MSI X670E Tomahawk
Cooling	Arctic LF III 420
Memory	64GB 6000 CL30
Video Card(s)	RTX 4090
Display(s)	MSI MAG401QR
Case	Asus ProArt PA602
Audio Device(s)	Two Turntables and a Microphone
Power Supply	Vertex GX-1000
Software	Win 11

System Name	THU
Processor	Intel Core i5-13600KF
Motherboard	ASUS PRIME Z790-P D4
Cooling	SilentiumPC Fortis 3 v2 + Arctic Cooling MX-2
Memory	Crucial Ballistix 2x16 GB DDR4-3600 CL16 (dual rank)
Video Card(s)	MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ventus 3X OC 12 GB GDDR6X (2610/21000 @ 0.91 V)
Storage	Lexar NM790 2 TB + Corsair MP510 960 GB + PNY XLR8 CS3030 500 GB + Toshiba E300 3 TB
Display(s)	LG OLED C8 55" + ASUS VP229Q
Case	Fractal Design Define R6
Audio Device(s)	Yamaha RX-V381 + Monitor Audio Bronze 6 + Bronze FX \| FiiO E10K-TC + Sony MDR-7506
Power Supply	Corsair RM650
Mouse	Logitech M705 Marathon
Keyboard	Corsair K55 RGB PRO
Software	Windows 10 Home
Benchmark Scores	Benchmarks in 2024?

Processor	Ryzen 5 5700x
Motherboard	B550 Elite
Cooling	Thermalright Perless Assassin 120 SE
Memory	32GB Fury Beast DDR4 3200Mhz
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte 3060 ti gaming oc pro
Storage	Samsung 970 Evo 1TB, WD SN850x 1TB, plus some random HDDs
Display(s)	LG 27gp850 1440p 165Hz 27''
Case	Lian Li Lancool II performance
Power Supply	MSI 750w
Mouse	G502

System Name	Incomplete thing 1.0
Processor	Ryzen 2600
Motherboard	B450 Aorus Elite
Cooling	Gelid Phantom Black
Memory	HyperX Fury RGB 3200 CL16 16GB
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte 2060 Gaming OC PRO
Storage	Dual 1TB 970evo
Display(s)	AOC G2U 1440p 144hz, HP e232
Case	CM mb511 RGB
Audio Device(s)	Reloop ADM-4
Power Supply	Sharkoon WPM-600
Mouse	G502 Hero
Keyboard	Sharkoon SGK3 Blue
Software	W10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	2-5% over stock scores

System Name	Nebulon B
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	MSi PRO B650M-A WiFi
Cooling	be quiet! Dark Rock 4
Memory	2x 24 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-4800
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT 12 GB
Storage	2 TB Corsair MP600 GS, 2 TB Corsair MP600 R2, 8 TB Seagate Barracuda 3.5"
Display(s)	Dell S3422DWG, 7" Waveshare touchscreen
Case	Kolink Citadel Mesh black
Audio Device(s)	Logitech Z333 2.1 speakers, AKG Y50 headphones
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime GX-750
Mouse	Logitech MX Master 2S
Keyboard	Logitech G413 SE
Software	Windows 10 Pro

Processor	Core i7-12700k
Motherboard	Z690 Aero G D4
Cooling	Custom loop water, 3x 420 Rad
Video Card(s)	RX 7900 XTX Phantom Gaming
Storage	Plextor M10P 2TB
Display(s)	InnoCN 27M2V
Case	Thermaltake Level 20 XT
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster AE-5 Plus
Power Supply	FSP Aurum PT 1200W
Software	Windows 11 Pro 64-bit

System Name	RogueOne
Processor	Xeon W9-3495x
Motherboard	ASUS w790E Sage SE
Cooling	SilverStone XE360-4677
Memory	128gb Gskill Zeta R5 DDR5 RDIMMs
Video Card(s)	MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage	1x 2TB WD SN850X \| 2x 8TB GAMMIX S70
Display(s)	Odyssey OLED G9 (G95SC)
Case	Thermaltake Core P3 Pro Snow
Audio Device(s)	Moondrop S8's on schitt Modi+ & Valhalla 2
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime TX-1600
Mouse	Lamzu Atlantis mini (White)
Keyboard	Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Akko Crystal Blues
VR HMD	Quest 3
Software	Windows 11 Pro Workstation
Benchmark Scores	I dont have time for that.

System Name	Home
Processor	5950x
Motherboard	Asrock Taichi x370
Cooling	Thermalright True Spirit 140
Memory	Patriot 32gb DDR4 3200mhz
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 10gb
Storage	Too many to count
Display(s)	U2518D+u2417h
Case	Chieftec
Audio Device(s)	onboard
Power Supply	seasonic prime 1000W
Mouse	Razer Viper
Keyboard	Logitech
Software	Windows 10