AMD’s FSR Redstone Narrows the Gap with Nvidia DLSS
▼ Summary
– Nvidia, AMD, and Intel use upscaling technologies (DLSS, FSR, XeSS) to improve game visuals and performance by rendering at a lower resolution and upscaling.
– Nvidia’s DLSS generally offers superior image quality but is restricted to its newer RTX GPUs, while AMD’s FSR is more widely compatible across various hardware.
– AMD is introducing “FSR Redstone,” a new suite of features aimed at improving its image quality and closing the gap with Nvidia’s offerings.
– A key drawback of FSR Redstone is that, like FSR 4, it will only be available on AMD’s latest RDNA4 GPUs, such as the RX 9070 and 9060 series.
– A core component, FSR Radiance Caching, uses a neural network to predict lighting effects, improving performance and quality for indirect illumination.
The race for superior image upscaling in PC gaming continues to intensify, with each major player pushing the boundaries of performance and visual fidelity. Technologies like Nvidia’s DLSS, AMD’s FSR, and Intel’s XeSS have become essential, allowing gamers to enjoy higher resolutions and smoother frame rates without needing the absolute most powerful hardware. These systems work by intelligently reconstructing a lower-resolution image into a sharper, higher-resolution display. The competition has since expanded beyond simple upscaling, now encompassing advanced ray tracing enhancements and AI-driven frame generation, which inserts entirely new frames to dramatically boost perceived smoothness.
For some time, a clear hierarchy has existed. Nvidia’s DLSS solution has generally been praised for delivering the best image quality, but this advantage comes with a significant caveat: hardware exclusivity. Key features are locked to their RTX 20-series and newer GPUs, with the latest frame generation reserved for the most recent 40- and 50-series cards. In contrast, AMD’s FSR technology has traded some image quality for vastly broader compatibility, functioning on a wide array of hardware including older GPUs from any brand and even integrated graphics.
AMD is now aiming to disrupt this balance with its new FSR Redstone initiative. This is not a single feature, but a suite of tools focused on ray tracing and frame generation, all designed to elevate AMD’s visual output to be more competitive. A major goal is to make these advancements relatively straightforward for developers to integrate, especially those already working with FSR 3.1 or the upcoming FSR 4.
However, this push to narrow the gap with Nvidia appears to come with a strategic shift. To achieve these quality improvements, AMD is adopting a similar approach to hardware restrictions. FSR Redstone will be exclusive to AMD’s latest RDNA4 architecture graphics cards, such as the forthcoming Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9060 series. This marks a departure from FSR’s traditionally open, cross-platform philosophy for its most advanced features.
The FSR Redstone package bundles four distinct technologies, three of which are brand new. Developers and users will have the flexibility to enable these features in various combinations based on their needs. A standout component is FSR Radiance Caching. This is a real-time, neural network-based system specifically engineered to enhance performance and image quality for complex lighting effects like indirect lighting and global illumination. By using an AMD-trained lighting model, the system can predict how light bounces around a scene much earlier in the rendering process. This intelligent prediction saves the GPU from the intensive work of calculating every single light ray intersection, freeing up resources for other tasks.
(Source: Ars Technica)
