Introduction

Ghostwire Tokyo is made on Unreal Engine 4. On PC, it supports NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), Unreal Engine's Temporal Super Resolution (TSR), AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), and ray tracing (reflections and shadows). For those who don't follow the latest Unreal Engine news, Temporal Super Resolution was announced during the Unreal Engine 5 presentation as part of the new additions to the technologies in Unreal Engine 5. TSR is essentially an upgraded version of TAAU that has been present in Unreal Engine 4 for years, and TSR is much closer to DLSS and the upcoming XeSS, but without any machine learning elements and hardware limitations, so it can run on any GPU, just like FSR. But 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. Depending on the game, there are subtle differences in the implementation of NVIDIA's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), Unreal Engine's Temporal Super Resolution (TSR), and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), so we are keen to have a look at these in this game.



Below, you will find comparison screenshots at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p and in different DLSS, TSR, and FSR quality modes. For those who want to see how DLSS, TSR, and FSR 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 3080 GPU at the Highest graphics setting with ray tracing enabled; motion blur and depth of field were disabled for better image viewing. DLSS was manually updated to version 2.4.0 by swapping the DLL file.

Screenshots

Side by Side Comparison Video

Conclusion

In this game, only the FSR upscaling solution uses sharpening filters in the render path, and it comes without the ability to tweak the sharpening level of FSR. Unlike some other FSR implementations, this one is heavily oversharpened even at high resolutions. The developers decided to set the sharpening filters in the FSR render path to the highest available value, and the game even looks darker because of it, which is especially noticeable on trees or grass. On the other hand, TSR and DLSS don't use any sharpening filters in the render path.

Speaking about the DLSS image quality and performance, compared to native resolution, the performance uplift at 4K and 1440p is an impressive improvement to the game, and image quality is more detailed and stable than with the TAA, TSR, or FSR solutions. DLSS 2.4 provides further improvements to ghosting issues and image stability, especially at lower internal resolutions, and an overall less blurry image. It's good to see that with each new DLSS 2.x version, the technology is evolving in terms of image quality.

Speaking about TSR, the result is the most surprisingly impressive out of the three available upscaling solutions. The developers of Ghostwire Tokyo have managed to implement TSR into their Unreal Engine 4 game, and it runs really well overall. Surprisingly, the image quality with TSR enabled is even better than their own TAA solution at a lower internal resolution. Just like DLSS, TSR deals better with thin wires or small objects by adding more detail to such objects at even 1080p resolution, and just like DLSS, it runs really well at low internal resolutions. For example, take a look at 1080p/1440p performance: DLSS and TSR are producing similar image quality. TSR is very close to DLSS, but the difference between TSR and FSR is just night and day in favor of TSR. Yes, temporal elements in the TSR pipeline make the key difference in image quality, but what's also key between TSR and FSR is that both of these upscaling solutions are available for any GPU. In order to play this game at maximum graphics settings and reasonable framerates, you just have to enable DLSS or TSR to achieve more comfortable framerates, especially if you want to play at 4K resolution. And by looking at these results, we highly recommend using TSR in this game if you don't own an RTX GPU.