Nvidia DLSS 4 Revolutionizes Gaming – Can AMD FSR 4 Keep Up with the Competition
Nvidia’s DLSS 4 Sets the Bar for AMD’s FSR 4: Can Team Red Keep Up?
Nvidia’s latest DLSS 4 transformer model has left me impressed, offering great image quality and stability even at super-resolution ‘performance’ modes. Now, I’m eagerly waiting to see how AMD’s FSR 4 will fare in comparison.
Based on my previous coverage of DLSS 4’s enhancements across various games, Team Red has a significant challenge ahead in competing with Nvidia in this space. Currently, FSR 4 is only confirmed to be available on RDNA 4 GPUs, which might put it at a disadvantage compared to DLSS 4, which will be compatible with GPUs as old as the RTX 2000 series.
The Power of Transformers
The jump from CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) to the new transformer model in DLSS 4 is a significant one. Games will benefit greatly from this, especially in cases of poor optimization. While this shouldn’t give game developers an excuse to slack off in optimization, it’s hard to deny the importance of this technology going forward.
Early Impressions of FSR 4
Demo footage of AMD’s FSR 4 is already out, and a prime example of this is the Hardware Unboxed FSR 3.1 and FSR 4 comparison video on YouTube. In the same way that Nvidia’s DLSS 4 impressed me with its improved visual clarity in performance mode, FSR 4 appears to follow in those same footsteps. While it’s difficult to judge the performance of FSR 4 without a frame rate counter, it’s certainly a good sign.
What Does This Mean for Competition?
If AMD’s FSR 4 comes close to Nvidia’s DLSS 4, the only aspect holding Team Red back from competing would be the possible exclusivity to RDNA 4. While this could be due to hardware limitations preventing it from working on older GPUs, I’ve previously experienced similar frustrations with Nvidia regarding DLSS 3’s Frame Generation being exclusive to RTX 4000 series GPUs.
In this case, it would be an even bigger omission – we’re not just talking about FSR 4’s frame gen potentially being exclusive to RDNA 4, but the entire package that includes its super-resolution technology too.
The Future of GPU Competition
As much as I want AMD to provide the necessary competition against Team Green in the GPU market, it’s already stated that the focus will be on mid-range GPUs (which we’re yet to determine with the RX 9000 series), and DLSS 4 will be available on all RTX GPUs. If we’re being honest, it won’t help AMD’s position in this race…
