Image quality looks good, but this is far from the finished article.
Last Friday, AMD finally released FSR 3 frame generation, its answer to Nvidia’s DLSS 3.
Two titles had supported added:ForspokenandImmortals of Aveum.
Let’s quickly review what frame generation is about.
The output, however, is visibly much smoother.
While FSR 3 is very similar indeed to DLSS 3 in principle, there are some differences.
Firstly, FSR 3 is cross-vendor.
It’ll generate interpolated frames from any kind of base imagery you give it.
AMD’s FSR3 is not so flexible, only working with FSR2 upscaling.
In our tests, FSR 3 does not work with VRR, while v-sync off is completely broken.
Looking at frame-pacing though, there’s a problem.
The further off you are from your display refresh rate, the more inconsistent frame delivery becomes.
AMD says that this is a function of early code being used in Immortals of Aveum and Forspoken.
Comparing FSR 3 frame-gen to its DLSS 3 equivalent is challenging for two reasons.
Those markers are active even when Reflex isn’t used.
AntiLag+ has a tremendous affect on Immortals of Aveum, shaving off around 28ms (!)
when frame generation is disabled.
AntiLag+ without frame-gen though?
That’s a big improvement.
Summing up FSR 3, there’s the sense that we’ve got two significant wins here.
We don’t know, as we can’t feed both frame generators with the same images.
Image quality is certainly comparable to DLSS 3.
The other major win is that you are getting the frame-rate uplift you’d expect.
Frame generation is great in taking a lower performing game and propelling frame-rates into high refresh rate territory.
However, you need VRR to smooth off the experience and that simply doesn’t work yet.
Frame-pacing under heavy load is clearly problematic.
DLSS 3 itself launched with problems, of course, many of which were overcome given time.
Hopefully, we’ll see AMD address the key concerns surrounding FSR 3 frame generation.
There’s promise here, but it’s some way off being the finished article.
