AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution Could Come to Samsung and Qualcomm SoCs

[AleksandarK]

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) is an open-source resolution upscaling technology that takes lower-resolution input and uses super-resolution temporal upscaling technology, frame generation using AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF) technology, and built-in latency reduction technology to provide greater-resolution output images from lower-resolution settings. While the technology is open-source, it battles in market share with NVIDIA and the company's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). However, in the mobile space, there hasn't been much talk about implementing upscaling technology up until now. According to a popular leaker @Tech_Reve on X/Twitter, we have information that AMD is collaborating with Samsung and Qualcomm to standardize on upscaling technology implementations in mobile SoCs.

Not only does the leak imply that the AMD FSR technology will be used in Samsung's upcoming Exynos SoC, but some AMD ray tracing will be present as well. The leaker has mentioned Qualcomm, which means that future iterations of Snapdragon are up to adopt the FSR algorithmic approach to resolution upscaling. We will see how and when, but with mobile games growing in size and demand, FSR could come in handy to provide mobile gamers with a better experience. Primarily, this targets Android devices, which Qualcomm supplies, where Apple's iPhone recently announced MetalFX Upscaling technology with an A17 Pro chip.



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[ZoneDymo]

Great, now could some journalist pls contact AMD and ask if there are any plans to fix then shimmering/flickering artifacts of fsr any time soon?

 

[ratirt]

No shock it comes to a mobile market with the ARM based APUs. I think that was just a matter of time and AMD's aim among other things.

 

[Ferrum Master]

There are android games that have FSR option for years. What's new?

 

[londiste]

What do they mean "could" - I seem to remember lots of hoopla about FSR being free and open source?

 

[ratirt]

There are android games that have FSR option for years. What's new?

Maybe that depends which FSR version?

 

[Ferrum Master]

Maybe that depends which FSR version?

Maybe, the article is weird as such either way... Black Desert got FSR in 2021 already, not sure there is something special needed.

 

[Taras K]

There are android games that have FSR option for years. What's new?

AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF) technology is new at this point I think.

 

[R0H1T]

Great ad for a console that'll probably cost a 10th(20th?) of the actual SSD here

Wrong thread

 

[AusWolf]

I voted no because I don't care about my mobile. It's sole purpose is to stay in touch with friends and family (and an occasional glance at TPU), which it does well at its native screen resolution. Not to mention, a higher (virtual) resolution needs more GPU horsepower which drains the battery more, which in my point of view, is a loss. So, no, thanks.

 

[Denver]

Great, now could some journalist pls contact AMD and ask if there are any plans to fix then shimmering/flickering artifacts of fsr any time soon?

Yeah, I think that having 3 multi-billion dollar companies working together has a good chance of improving this.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

I voted no because I don't care about my mobile. It's sole purpose is to stay in touch with friends and family (and an occasional glance at TPU), which it does well at its native screen resolution. Not to mention, a higher (virtual) resolution needs more GPU horsepower which drains the battery more, which in my point of view, is a loss. So, no, thanks.

I absolutely agree, I think 99% of people who own flagship phones never use half the compute power they possess, only buy them to serve as status symbols, and would be better served with a $200 phone and a $1000 laptop, BUT I voted "yes", because unfortunately both x86 and the dGPU market are basically monopolized by two companies: Intel and Nvidia (yes, AMD has made progress against Intel, but Intel still dominates the two most lucrative x86 segments, enterprise and mobility). Anything that allows AMD to gain more marketshare/revenue/IP/etc and to be better able to take marketshare from Intel and Nvidia I see as benefit to consumers and these markets as a whole. BTW, I don't support AMD because it's AMD, I'll support ANY underdog company trying to take on a monopoly in a market with too little competition in the interest of what's best for myself as a consumer, so if AMD ever became the dominant power, I'd be cheering for their competititor to bring them down as well, because I'm not cheering for a specific company's success, I'm cheering for the most even distribution of marketshare among competitors to bring about the best situation for consumers.

 

[Daven]

Hopefully this will lead to a super sampling standard and force both better functionality and wide adoption over proprietary algorithms like DLSS. Looks like a repeat of what happened with Freesync versus Gsync and we know how that turned out.

 

[ratirt]

Maybe, the article is weird as such either way... Black Desert got FSR in 2021 already, not sure there is something special needed.

Yes but the frame generation technology did not show up in 2021 but just now. Maybe that is what the OP is referring to.

 

[AusWolf]

I absolutely agree, I think 99% of people who own flagship phones never use half the compute power they possess, only buy them to serve as status symbols, and would be better served with a $200 phone and a $1000 laptop...

If I'm honest, I have no idea why flagship phones exist. Gaming on a touchscreen is the most horrible experience in the history of computing, and there's nothing else that needs processing power. An entry-level SoC that sips power combined with a large battery is infinitely more useful.

 

[Chrispy_]

Where's the "don't care" option.

Maybe my eyesight's going but on a 6.6" screen at 1440p, the difference between "free" linear interpolation upscaling and even the very best DLSS quality implementation is very hard to see. Phone screens are in the 400-800ppi range and the idea of an upscaler making sure that every pixel is used fully is kind of pointless when even fresh young eyeballs have no chance of spotting individual pixels. The only thing that matters on mobile screens is temporal AA, to reduce pixel flicker/shimmer

Far more important in the mobile space is power efficiency, where upscaling is the best option to reduce the GPU load, but as far as I can tell, FSR and DLSS are more GPU-intensive than basic linear upscaling, making it a bigger battery drain and (IMO) less desirable for mobiles.

TL;DR - mobiles don't need fancy upscalers, especially not if it has any impact on power usage whatsoever.

 

[Guwapo77]

I voted yes!! While I don't play games on mobile, I can't see why this would be a problem even in the slightest. They have been using an earlier version on Steam Deck from my understanding and I have yet to hear folks complaining about ghosting. In short, I believe a lot of "short cuts" can be made in the mobile sector as a vast majority won't even notice a difference.

 

[TechLurker]

Voted yes, but that's because I'd like to see tablets with the tech, rather than just phones.

 

[G777]

If I'm honest, I have no idea why flagship phones exist. Gaming on a touchscreen is the most horrible experience in the history of computing, and there's nothing else that needs processing power. An entry-level SoC that sips power combined with a large battery is infinitely more useful.

Phones use that horsepower everytime you open an app, take photo, record a video, and when editing those photos and videos. These are tasks that the most people use their phones for everyday.

Flagship phones come with premium hardware in all areas, not just the SoC, and they need a powerful SoC to drive the demanding hardware on the phones and deliver that premium experience. Plus, for many people, their phones are the devices they use the most everyday, so it's not hard to justify spending more to get the best experience possible.

 

[Punkenjoy]

i voted yes because there could be Samsung and Qualcomm SoC aiming at Desktop/High end PC soons and it would be great if they can run the same technologies as other GPU vendor.

 

[AusWolf]

Phones use that horsepower everytime you open an app, take photo, record a video, and when editing those photos and videos. These are tasks that the most people use their phones for everyday.

Flagship phones come with premium hardware in all areas, not just the SoC, and they need a powerful SoC to drive the demanding hardware on the phones and deliver that premium experience. Plus, for many people, their phones are the devices they use the most everyday, so it's not hard to justify spending more to get the best experience possible.

My budget Samsung with its low-power MediaTek SoC can do all that just fine and has way better battery time than most premium ones.

 

[Mahboi]

Where's the "don't care" option.

Maybe my eyesight's going but on a 6.6" screen at 1440p, the difference between "free" linear interpolation upscaling and even the very best DLSS quality implementation is very hard to see. Phone screens are in the 400-800ppi range and the idea of an upscaler making sure that every pixel is used fully is kind of pointless when even fresh young eyeballs have no chance of spotting individual pixels. The only thing that matters on mobile screens is temporal AA, to reduce pixel flicker/shimmer

Far more important in the mobile space is power efficiency, where upscaling is the best option to reduce the GPU load, but as far as I can tell, FSR and DLSS are more GPU-intensive than basic linear upscaling, making it a bigger battery drain and (IMO) less desirable for mobiles.

TL;DR - mobiles don't need fancy upscalers, especially not if it has any impact on power usage whatsoever.

I don't believe at all that this is about getting upscaling on a phone. It's about the marketing of putting upscaling on a phone.

Crossplay games (think Genshin) will greatly benefit from having to use only one upscaler. It's appealing to the devs.
AMD's game is to push DLSS out by making FSR as reachable as possible. This is just another way with which they'll be taking mindshare among devs.

I also suspect that this isn't about developing FSR 2.3, but about standardising some AI silicon to ensure that FSR can get the appropriate amount of ML.
Could just be a software alliance, but I somehow doubt that it. FSR is already open source and on Github, even if it's only a delivery repo. They could have asked to participate more directly without any kind of news about it.
Also both of them are hardware vendors, not software. Samsung arguably has a large lineup of customer facing products, but Qualcomm AFAIK is only a hardware supplier. Samsung participating in AI upscaling for 3D games makes little sense, Qualcomm not at all to me.
So I'm thinking that this is about specialised AI hardware, not software.

 

[Minus Infinity]

If I'm honest, I have no idea why flagship phones exist. Gaming on a touchscreen is the most horrible experience in the history of computing, and there's nothing else that needs processing power. An entry-level SoC that sips power combined with a large battery is infinitely more useful.

+100

I will not play a game (outside of soduku) on a phone. Tablet is my minimum sized device. Couldn't care less about flagship SoC's and synthetic benchmark BS. Flagships represent piss poor value with piss poor battery life and these clowns think even higher clocks and bigger cores are what the industry needs. The idea of RT and FSR/DLSS whatever on these devices is laughable.

 

[AusWolf]

+100

I will not play a game (outside of soduku) on a phone. Tablet is my minimum sized device. Couldn't care less about flagship SoC's and synthetic benchmark BS. Flagships represent piss poor value with piss poor battery life and these clowns think even higher clocks and bigger cores are what the industry needs. The idea of RT and FSR/DLSS whatever on these devices is laughable.

I wouldn't even play on a tablet. No tactile control and my fingers covering half of the screen, brr...

 

[Denver]

+100

I will not play a game (outside of soduku) on a phone. Tablet is my minimum sized device. Couldn't care less about flagship SoC's and synthetic benchmark BS. Flagships represent piss poor value with piss poor battery life and these clowns think even higher clocks and bigger cores are what the industry needs. The idea of RT and FSR/DLSS whatever on these devices is laughable.

I also don't understand why mobile gaming is so popular if with the same money invested in a high-end smartphone you can buy a decent console or PC to play on. Well, I think companies are just following the money.

But from my perspective it's a terrible experience to play games on a small screen, even if there are physical buttons. Smartphones are only suitable for casual or strategy games.