AMD has announced that AMD FSR 3 is launching today, September 29, 2023. FSR 3, which stands for FidelityFX Super Resolution 3, is AMD’s latest addition to its suite of frame-rate-boosting graphics technologies and brings frame generation to FSR for the first time. The first titles to feature AMD FSR 3 will be Immortals of Aveum and Forspoken.
Nvidia DLSS 3 was a breakthrough technology that, following Nvidia’s long-held advantage in frame rates due to DLSS 2, gave the company yet another means of pulling out significant frame rate leads over AMD. Since DLSS 3’s release this time last year, AMD has been scrambling to put together a competing technology, and finally, with AMD FSR 3 we’re getting to see the first fruits of its labor.
DLSS 3 can famously use an AI-enhanced algorithm to generate entirely new frames in between conventionally rendered frames, therein substantially improving frame rate. It’s not a flawless technology, with some visual artifacts occurring in some situations, and it’s not suited to twitchy, fast-paced games like the newly arrived Counter-Strike 2. However, it can transform some games, particularly if you’re pushing graphical fidelity with technologies such as ray tracing.
A few months ago, we found out that AMD FSR frame generation can generate as many as four interpolated frames between each ‘real’ frame. This could theoretically cause a five-fold jump in frame rate, compared to the effective doubling possible with Nvidia DLSS 3.
Whether AMD FSR 3 will have such a miraculous effect on frame rate in most instances remains to be seen. We’re in the process of testing FSR3 on Forspoken right now so will report back soon. However, even reaching parity with Nvidia DLSS 3 would be impressive considering team green’s tech is proprietary, taking advantage of the company’s Tensor and Optical Flow Accelerator cores, whereas FSR 3 is available to virtually all graphics cards.
AMD’s chief architect of gaming solutions and marketing, Frank Azor, announced the news in a tweet last night, stating that AMD is ‘working with [its] partners to bring you the first 2 FSR3 enabled games tomorrow.’ Although only two games, confirmed last month to be Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum, will enjoy AMD’s latest upscaling tech at first, Azor confirms that ‘[m]ore titles will begin ramping-up thereafter’.
Considering the magnitude of FSR 3’s release for AMD’s fortunes in its battle with Nvidia, it’s somewhat surprising it wasn’t able to secure higher profile games with which to launch the new technology. At the time of writing, Forspoken, which got a lukewarm reception at launch, has 67 concurrent people playing on Steam, according to SteamDB, while Immortals of Aveum has just 34.
Both are also available on the Epic Games Launcher, so the full player count is likely a little higher, but these figures still represent poor uptake in the gaming community. Still, we’re keen to jump into these games to find out for ourselves just what kind of impact AMD FSR 3 has on frame rate.
Even with AMD FSR 3, maintaining a >60 frame rate in the latest games could be a struggle without the right hardware. Check out our guide to the best graphics card if your rig’s in need of an upgrade.
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