Gaming GPUs have been the main point of discussion in the past, but with an ever-changing PC ecosystem, the technology and features offered by these GPUs have become the newest topic of conversation, and companies like NVIDIA and AMD They are trying their best to offer the best. to a large group of players who use their products.
NVIDIA DLSS vs AMD FSR: A growing list of games, developer support, but who’s really in the lead in the race to improve dominance
The recent advent of enhancement technologies has changed the PC gaming segment as a whole. NVIDIA’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR are now considered vital technology and not only gamers benefit from this, but also game developers trying to make sure their latest titles are compatible with the new technology. We recently saw NVIDIA and AMD talk about the adoption rate of the newest enhancement technologies, so we decided to take a look at what that really means and which one has a definite advantage over the other.
NVIDIA has had a head start in the enhancement technology segment with its DLSS technology, which first debuted in 2018. Although the real insight into the technology won’t be realized until the second generation of the technology, aptly named DLSS 2, there were signs of that technology would change the rules of the game. A game changer was when DLSS 2 hit the streets, prompting rival AMD to release its own enhancement technology known as FSR.
The main difference between the two technologies was that NVIDIA’s DLSS used a more AI-driven approach that leveraged its Tensor Core technology to increase and improve the frame over native resolution, while AMD used a more standardized GPU-driven approach with a on being more open source and more developer friendly. This was done to catch up with the adoption rate of DLSS, which had the aforementioned advantage. FSR also introduced a hardware independent path that made GTX and RTX GPUs use the technology as well.
Since then, NVIDIA’s DLSS 2 and AMD’s FSR 2 have become mainstream technologies that the game is very important to gamers. One might see them as simple frame boosting algorithms, but the general principle is more than that. Both NVIDIA and AMD recently released numbers showing the adoption of their enhancement technologies. NVIDIA claims to have over 270 DLSS (all formats 1/2/3) compatible applications, while AMD has promoted up to 250+ FSR compliant apps (All Formats 1/2).
Again, FSR is easy to integrate, but the specific version is the first generation of FSR (FSR 1), which is predominantly a legacy spatial extension. Similarly, NVIDIA’s NIS spatial enhancement can be injected into all games via its Control Panel. That brings us to the next point of comparison, which is also the main reason for this comparison article.
AMD’s published number of 110 FSR 2-compatible games includes available and upcoming titles, while the actual number of games supported by the technology is 68 (the full list is available here). Meanwhile, NVIDIA DLSS 2 is released in more than 260 games. That’s almost 4 times the DLSS 2 titles compared to AMD’s FSR 2. Unlike the first generation, the second generation of each technology is pretty similar when it comes to the work required to integrate into games.
There’s more though, we turned to Steam to see the list of the most played and also the best selling games and what kind of enhancement technologies they have on offer. To our surprise, the vast majority use NVIDIA’s DLSS 2 versus AMD’s FSR 2. Below is the comparison:
Most Played Games on Steam (03/13/23):
DLSS is in 5 of the top 15:
- Children of the Forest (DLSS 2)
- Hogwarts Legacy (DLSS 2 / DLSS 3)
- War Thunder (DLSS 2)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (DLSS 2)
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (DLSS 2)
FSR in 2 of the top 15:
- Hogwarts Legacy (FSR 2)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (FSR 1)
Best Selling Games on Steam (03/13/23):
NVIDIA DLSS is in 4 of the top 10
- children of the forest
- Hogwarts Legacy
- war thunder
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II)
AMD FSR 2.0 is in 2
- Hogwarts Legacy
- resident evil 4
Apart from Steam, we can also take a look at some of the most popular titles that are used for GPU benchmarks. These benchmarks are not only used by the gaming community, but the following titles are also widely used by independent testers and a similar story can be seen in those titles where DLSS integration far exceeds FSR.
NVIDIA DLSS vs AMD FSR in popular gaming benchmarks:
| game title | DLSS integration | FSR integration |
|---|---|---|
| cyberpunk 2077 | DLSS 3 | FSR 2 |
| F1 2022 | DLSS 3 | FSR 2 |
| Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition | DLSS 2 | N/A |
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | N/A | N/A |
| force horizon 5 | DLSS 2 | FSR 2 |
| far away 6 | N/A | |
| red dead redemption 2 | DLSS 2 | FSR 2 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | DLSS 2 | N/A |
| watchdogs: legion | DLSS 2 | N/A |
| Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 | DLSS 3 | FSR 2 |
| Dying Light 2 Stay Human | DLSS 3 | FSR 2 |
| Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy | DLSS 2 | N/A |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | DLSS 2 | N/A |
| contract killer 3 | DLSS 3 | FSR 2 |
| Control | DLSS 2 | N/A |
| god of war pc | DLSS 2 | FSR 2 |
| Resident Evil: Town | N/A | N/A |
| Total War: Warhammer 3 | N/A | N/A |
| Eternal DOOM | DLSS 2 | N/A |
| Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered | DLSS 3 | FSR 2 |
| Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales | DLSS 3 | FSR 2 |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | DLSS 3 | FSR 2 |
| A Plague Tale: Requiem | DLSS 3 | N/A |
| borderlands 3 | N/A | N/A |
*If you want to make comparisons of image quality and/or performance, there are 11 games that have both DLSS and FSR 2 — DLSS is compatible with all FSR 2 games on the list
DLSS 2 and FSR 2 offer mostly similar performance boosts and visual fidelity modes. Every technology has its ups and downs, with most of the tech community favoring NVIDIA in terms of visual quality and highlighting AMD’s friendlier, more open source approach with FSR.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Both NVIDIA and AMD are preparing to heat up the competition even more this year, especially during GDC 2023, where both companies will showcase their latest integrations of DLSS and FSR technologies into upcoming titles and game engines. What we’ve seen so far shows that NVIDIA is pushing DLSS 3 hard, and as we’ve shown in our various benchmark tests before, it’s truly a game changer.
Each new generation of technology has its drawbacks. DLSS 3 was no different at first, but most of the problems stemmed from the latest (updated) version of the technology that removes graphical glitches associated with frame generation. There’s still a lot more to work on, but the 4x performance improvement over native resolution is simply stellar and something that can’t be ruled out.
It is being adopted 7 times faster than DLSS 2 and there is no way to stop it. AMD, on the other hand, is clear that its AI-less FSR 2 and upcoming FSR 3 approach will be a big boost to the open source nature of the PC platform.
Both companies promise a lot and gamers will definitely reap the benefits that these enhancement technologies bring in the near future. However, it remains a fact that NVIDIA’s DLSS is the benchmark for all enhancement technologies, starting first and then being refined with game optimizations and all-new features like Frame-Generation support. It’s amazing to see how far the technology has come and we can’t wait to see its future applications.
