Introduction

Followed by our previous testing of Intel's Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is the next AAA-game to receive official XeSS support through a game update. 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.



In order to utilize XeSS in Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered you need to manually unlock it by adding XeSS DLL files into the game folder. Please note that this is not a mod, the developers already implemented native support for XeSS in one of the recent patches and you are essentially just adding a few missing files to activate it (download link):

• Download the latest XeSS.zip file.
• Extract the archive into the Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered folder.
• Launch the game, go into the graphics options and select a "XeSS" setting.
• Play the game with XeSS.

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 3080 GPU at Very High graphics settings with ray tracing enabled; motion blur, chromatic aberration and depth of field were disabled for better image viewing. DLSS in this game shipped with version 2.4.12.

Screenshots

Side-by-Side Comparison Video

Conclusion

With a recent update for Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered on PC, the developers have added the long awaited DLSS and FSR 2.0 sharpening filter slider in the settings menu. Native TAA image also got a separate sharpening slider in the settings menu. Unfortunately, the XeSS implementation does not support a separate sharpening filter slider and does not use any sharpening filter in its render path. Also, XeSS does not support the dynamic resolution scaling feature in this game. To keep it fair in our testing, we disabled all sharpening for all available upscaling and anti-aliasing solutions.

Speaking of image quality, there are a few important issues of note. Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is a fast paced action game, so when using any temporal upscaling solutions, the temporal stability of the image is key to enjoyable gameplay. When using DLSS, the image was stable in motion, the level of detail rendered in vegetation and tree leaves is improved in comparison to the in-game TAA solution, and small details in the distance, such as wires or thin steel objects, are rendered more correctly and completely. The XeSS implementation comes with noticeable compromises in image quality—in favor of performance in most sequences of the game. We spotted excessive shimmering and flickering on thin objects and especially steel objects; they are shimmering even when standing still. Overall, the XeSS implementation has similar issues to what we've seen on AMD's FSR 2.0, but with a few differences in temporal stability and anti-aliasing. One of the most noticeable differences in image quality between XeSS and FSR 2.0 is the quality of the built-in anti-aliasing. In the XeSS image, most of the edges of the game geometry are smoothed well, where in the FSR 2.0 image they have a more pixelated look. The second-most-noticeable difference is how XeSS deals with ghosting. In comparison to FSR 2.0, XeSS has even more ghosting issues on every moving object, especially on the main character when swinging through the world—you can clearly see red ghosting behind him. Also, FSR 2.0 has better performance uplifts in comparison to XeSS on any NVIDIA or AMD GPU.

XeSS comes with three upscaling kernels that are optimized for various architectures. The first is the kernel that gets used on Intel Arc GPUs with XMX engines. This is the most advanced model, too, that not only performs better in terms of FPS, but also offers the best upscaling quality, Intel calls this "Advanced XeSS upscaling model". Intel also provides an optimized kernel for Intel Integrated Graphics and another compatibility kernel used for all other architectures that support Shader Model 6.4, e.g. all recent AMD and NVIDIA cards. These use the "Standard XeSS upscaling model," which is a bit simpler, with lower performance and quality, compared to what you get on Arc GPUs (this is the model we're running on our RTX 3080). If DP4a instructions aren't available, like on Radeon RX 5700 XT, slower INT24 instructions are used instead.

Interestingly, when using XeSS, there are some major differences in performance gains, compared to DLSS or FSR 2.0, which essentially had equal performance gains in most games. As we are testing XeSS with an RTX 3080 GPU, which does not have the XMX instruction set, which is designed to accelerate XeSS workloads on Intel's Arc GPUs, the performance gains are less than what we can expect on Arc GPUs, so keep that in mind. That said, the actual performance increase difference between XeSS and DLSS or FSR 2.0 is about 10% at 4K Quality mode, in favor of DLSS or FSR 2.0. However, compared to native 4K resolution, XeSS manages to deliver up to 40% more performance while using the DP4a instruction set compatible with all GPU architectures, which is still a quite decent performance uplift.