Introduction

Followed by our previous testing of Intel's Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) for Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Death Stranding Director's Cut is the next AAA-game to receive official XeSS support through a game update. The latest update also added official support for AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 (FSR 2.0). XeSS, DLSS and FSR 2.0 work on the principle of getting the game to render everything except the HUD and post-FX at a lower resolution than the display is capable of, and then upscaling it using sophisticated algorithms that make the output look as if it was rendered at native resolution. In order to run this game at maximum graphics settings and reasonable framerates at native resolution, quite a powerful GPU is required, which is why upscaling solutions are so important. But depending on the game, there are subtle differences in the implementation of Intel's Xe Super Sampling (XeSS), NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 (FSR 2.0), so we are keen to have a look at these in this game.



Below, you will find comparison screenshots at 4K, 1440p, 1080p, and in different DLSS, FSR 2.0 and XeSS quality modes. For those who want to see how XeSS, DLSS and FSR 2.0 perform in motion, watch our side-by-side comparison video. The video can help uncover issues like shimmering or temporal instability, which are not visible in the screenshots.

All tests were made using a GeForce RTX 3060 GPU at Very High graphics settings; motion blur and depth of field were disabled for better image viewing. DLSS was manually updated to version 2.4.12 by swapping the DLL file.

Screenshots

Side-by-Side Comparison Video