Lossless Scaling, an all-in-one paid gaming utility for scaling and frame generation, is set to introduce an outstanding 4x FPS mode to its Lossless Scaling Frame Generation (LSFG) technology. Officially announced in the Lossless Scaling Discord and showcased by the YouTube user Vyathaen, the upcoming 4x FPS mode is expected to arrive in the upscaler's frame generation option within this week. While YouTube videos may not fully capture the experience and benefit of this improvement, beta testers have reported that the latency remains consistent with the current 2x FPS option, ensuring that most games will remain perfectly playable given a sufficiently high base framerate. For those seeking a more comprehensive demonstration, the Lossless Scaling official Discord server features a Cyberpunk 2077 video that better illustrates the capabilities of the 4x FPS mode.

The journey of Lossless Scaling has been marked by continuous innovation since its initial release. Version 2.1, launched in June, introduced a 3x FPS mode, effectively tripling framerates. Additionally, it brought performance optimizations that enhanced the speed of the 2x FPS mode compared to previous iterations. The update also included refinements for scenarios where the final frame rate surpasses the monitor's refresh rate. The software is universally compatible with all GPUs and PC games, including emulated titles, requiring only windowed mode and Windows 10 1903 or newer. While the LSFG frame generation technology and LS1 upscaler are proprietary, for upscaling, users can choose one of the many underlying options depending on their GPU like AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, NVIDIA Image Scaling, Integer Scaling, Nearest Neighbor, xBR, Anime4K, Sharp Bilinear, Bicubic CAS. Below, you can check out the YouTube video with 4x frame generation example.

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.

Intel's Lisa Pearce today announced on Twitter, that the company has listened to user feedback from Reddit and will add nearest neighbor integer scaling to their future graphics chips. Integer scaling is the holy grail for gamers using console emulators, because it will give them the ability to simply double/triple or quadruple existing pixels, without any loss in sharpness that is inherent to traditional upscaling algorithms like bilinear or bicubic. This approach also avoids ringing artifacts that come with other, more advanced, scaling methods.

In her Twitter video, Lisa explained that this feature will only be available on upcoming Gen 11 graphics and beyond - previous GPUs lack the hardware required for implementing integer scaling. In terms of timeline, she mentioned that this will be part of the driver "around end of August", which also puts some constraints of the launch date of Gen 11, which seems to be rather sooner than later, based on that statement.