Why Is AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution Taking So Long To Develop?

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The answer is somewhat vague.

AMD has kept its new DLSS competitor, FidelityFX Super Resolution, under wraps for some time now. That makes us wonder what's going on with the technology and when it will actually see the light of day. Fortunately, LinusTechTips received some insider knowledge from AMD as to why the supersampling tech is taking so long to develop.

Apparently, AMD wants FidelityFX Super Resolution to have some polish to it before release. AMD also wants it to be fully operational on all its graphics cards and RDNA-based consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X, at launch. The alternative would be slowly rolling out the technology, one platform at a time (assuming each platform proves capable).

It's vague as to when we might expect it. AMD could release the tech alongside the newly announced RX 6700 XT, or AMD might be waiting for its entire RDNA2 lineup to be released before launching. We just don't know. Plus, AMD needs to make it work with its recently teased RX 6000M mobile GPUs.

AMD also wants to make Super Resolution GPU agnostic, just like other FidelityFX libraries. That potentially means supporting many generations of GPUs, including Nvidia and possibly even Intel options. If AMD limited support for Super Resolution to RDNA2 based products, without getting it to work on first gen RX 5000 series, it would certainly draw flak. Getting it to work well on Vega integrated graphics and older GCN products like the RX 400 and 500 series GPUs meanwhile would make for a more compelling options for game developers.

Not only does it need to work on a variety of architectures, but it needs to look good and perform well. Simple resolution upscaling is easy, but it also causes a loss of visual quality. Doing all of this requires a lot of time, naturally. We do know AMD is actively working on FidelityFX Super Resolution. Hopefully, the DLSS alternative will work well and come out sooner rather than later.
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