AMD Also Working to Bring Integer Scaling to Its Driver Suite

[Raevenlord]

With NVIDIA and Intel already entrenched in the integer scaling field, which brings improved image quality to upscaled, pixel-art games, AMD was sure to follow. Vacuums in terms of feature set between different manufacturers of the same products aren't well looked at by consumers, and so AMD really has no choice but to advance into the integer scaling game as well. Recent Linux driver patches have been analyzed and found to contain multiple references to an integer scaling feature, which means that AMD is readying it for deployment and already on their way to work on its driver-level implementation.

Integer scaling works by looking at the base image and multiplying each pixel up to your monitor resolution, which brings in added sharpness without a single pixel's color being stretched over others. This way, a base 1080p presentation can easily be upscaled to a 4K resolution simply by syncing a given pixel's color information through 4 pixels - now you have a 4K screen that's rendering the same number of pixels as a 1080p one, with a block of four pixels acting as a single one. With integer scaling being the most requested feature on AMD's Adrenalin feedback page, so it seems pretty guaranteed we'll see the feature adopted eventually - perhaps even in AMD's own yearly big Adrenalin driver release, which could be dropping by this December, should history repeat itself.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Steevo]

I want my video control back.

 

[Cheeseball]

I want my video control back.

I never understood why they removed this in the later drivers.

But I do want want Integer Scaling baked in. I tried it on a laptop with a i5 1035G4 and the driver scales the display area 1:1 pretty well, especially on software that doesn't support it natively (like older 4:3 games, tested with Diablo 2).

 

[HisDivineOrder]

I love how nvidia ties this to the new cards instead of admitting that there are utilities on Steam that can do this without being a 20-series card. It shouldn't be THAT hard, but they really want people to buy them cards for the pile of gimmicks.

 

[Space Lynx]

I don't even see integer scaling in my nvidia driver options...

 

[biffzinker]

I don't even see integer scaling in my nvidia driver options...

A Turing GPU is required.

At any rate, the feature is being rolled out today for Turing owners – and just Turing owners. Specifically, the feature is available on GeForce RTX 20 series and GTX 16 series cards, but not NVIDIA’s prior Pascal (GTX 10) and Maxwell (GTX 900) series cards. According to NVIDIA’s announcement, the feature hinges on the “hardware-accelerated programmable scaling filter available in Turing”, however to be honest I don’t know how accurate this statement is, or how much of a blocker it might be for past cards. NVIDIA has a history of rolling out new features for their latest generation parts first, and then backporting the feature for older cards a few months down the line, so that may yet end up being the case here.

NVIDIA Releases GeForce 436.02 Driver: Integer Scaling Support for Turing, Freestyle Sharpening, & More

www.anandtech.com

My RTX 2060:

 

[Deleted member 50521]

I bed there is a good chance this will be Navi only (at first)

I love how nvidia ties this to the new cards instead of admitting that there are utilities on Steam that can do this without being a 20-series card. It shouldn't be THAT hard, but they really want people to buy them cards for the pile of gimmicks.

I would not call Integer scaling gimmick. Also the 3rd party tool for integer scaling does not work with all applications, hence the high demand from retro-gamers constantly looking for a driver level implementation.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Cant these 2 companies just work together on this crap instead of just copying eachother anyway?

 

[HisDivineOrder]

I bed there is a good chance this will be Navi only (at first)



I would not call Integer scaling gimmick. Also the 3rd party tool for integer scaling does not work with all applications, hence the high demand from retro-gamers constantly looking for a driver level implementation.

It's a gimmick if they expect me to upgrade from a 10 series card to a 20 series card for something that should have been in every nvidia card for the last ten years.

 

[Cheeseball]

Cant these 2 companies just work together on this crap instead of just copying eachother anyway?

At this point, all companies should be providing integer scaling on all supported products.

It's a gimmick if they expect me to upgrade from a 10 series card to a 20 series card for something that should have been in every nvidia card for the last ten years.

Integer scaling itself is not just a gimmick (because this is a feature a lot of users have been demanding for a while), but the fact these companies are locking them in to their newest product is. I have a bad feeling that AMD may lock it in to Navi like what NVIDIA did with Turing and Intel with Iris Plus/Pro.

 

[Space Lynx]

At this point, all companies should be providing integer scaling on all supported products.



Integer scaling itself is not just a gimmick (because this is a feature a lot of users have been demanding for a while), but the fact these companies are locking them in to their newest product is. I have a bad feeling that AMD may lock it in to Navi like what NVIDIA did with Turing and Intel with Iris Plus/Pro.

One thing that does bug me about AMD, is they said Ryzen would work on Windows 7, but now with Ryzen 3000 they changed tune. Just a bit annoying.

 

[dicktracy]

It's a gimmick scam if they expect me to upgrade from a 10 series card to a 20 series card for something that should have been in every nvidia card for the last ten years.

It's actually good for those with 8k monitors but wants to game at lower res.

 

[Imsochobo]

One thing that does bug me about AMD, is they said Ryzen would work on Windows 7, but now with Ryzen 3000 they changed tune. Just a bit annoying.

You can run Windows 2000 on zen2 so what's the problem?
Official support for a dead os?

 

[biffzinker]

so what's the problem?

Chipset/storage drivers for one.

 

[GoldenX]

Chipset/storage drivers for one.

PCIe SATA cards?

 

[Space Lynx]

You can run Windows 2000 on zen2 so what's the problem?
Official support for a dead os?

Actually I like to run Windows 8.1 cause it is super snappy with none of the bloat of 10, but it won't let me install AMD Chipset B450 drivers with a ryzen 3000 CPU installed... but thanks for taking everything out of context...

 

[Apocalypsee]

I would not call Integer scaling gimmick. Also the 3rd party tool for integer scaling does not work with all applications, hence the high demand from retro-gamers constantly looking for a driver level implementation.

If there is demand for RETRO GAMES why tied this feature on LATEST CARD? Those retro games should easily runs on any modern cards; Pascal, Kepler, Fermi even.

If AMD release this for all GCN cards I'm back to red team.

 

[GoldenX]

It's a nice feature, I hope it gets into all GCN cards.
More money in the driver on a technical level would be very apreciated. Zen2 is selling well, drop some of that money into driver development, please.

 

[notb]

I just love how suddenly AMD fans praise this, when just few days earlier Radeon Image Sharpening was so much better than that Nvidia's gimmick. Same story as always.
I can't wait for AMD's RTRT launch.

If there is demand for RETRO GAMES why tied this feature on LATEST CARD? Those retro games should easily runs on any modern cards; Pascal, Kepler, Fermi even.

Because these games simply don't offer 4K resolution, so scaling from 1080p is necessary.

That said, the likely reason why Nvidia added integer scaling was not because of retro games, but because of RTRT even many 2080Ti owners would decide to fall back to 1080p.
And 1080p with RTX and integer scaling looks really well on 4K monitors.
AMD is going to add RTRT in the next generation, so it makes a lot of sense to bundle integer scaling as well.

 

[Totally]

One thing that does bug me about AMD, is they said Ryzen would work on Windows 7, but now with Ryzen 3000 they changed tune. Just a bit annoying.

I think that has more with Microsoft ending extended security support for Win 7, in Jan 2020, than AMD arbitrarily not supporting the OS.

 

[Space Lynx]

I think that has more with Microsoft ending extended security support for Win 7, in Jan 2020, than AMD arbitrarily not supporting the OS.

Why Win 8.1 then too...

 

[Totally]

Why Win 8.1 then too...

That is the curveball, if I had to guess it's because it had such a poor adoption rate. They probably could get away with security through obscurity with 8.

 

[Recus]

I love how nvidia ties this to the new cards instead of admitting that there are utilities on Steam that can do this without being a 20-series card. It shouldn't be THAT hard, but they really want people to buy them cards for the pile of gimmicks.

Nvidia/Intel have driver-level implementation while AMD trying shortcuts with driver-level. How tables have turned since "must have hardware" Async"".

Also that Lossless Scaling costs $4.99. It shouldn't be THAT hard to write free app. But since you are using paid MSI Afterburner alternative I guess it can't be helped.

 

[Mistral]

View attachment 136208

What year is this?

 

[Tartaros]

A Turing GPU is required.

This shit infuriates me in astronomical levels. This was hardware implemented in old gpus, why the fuck do I need the lastest geforce RTXSUPERMEGASCAM to do something all arcade emulators have done for 20 years?

Fuck them.