NVIDIA takes on AMD FSR with their new open source Image Scaling

By Liam Dawe - 16 Nov 2021 at 3:00 pm UTC

While NVIDIA has had DLSS available for a while, it does depend on game support with a compatible NVIDIA GPU. So we saw AMD come along with FidelityFX Super Resolution that worked across both vendors and now NVIDIA has something of an answer with their own open source Image Scaler.

The announcement came as part of their release of DLSS 2.3 today, which has numerous rendering improvements to give an even clearer picture.

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On Windows, the NVIDIA control panel has an option for a driver-based spatial upscaler which sadly Linux lacks and this has been upgraded. Thankfully, we won't entirely miss out on it as the newer Image Scaling is now open source, so any developer can add it into their game with the NVIDIA Image Scaling SDK v1.0 now available on GitHub under the MIT license. Hopefully it can then end up fully cross-platform then too.

NVIDIA say it offers "best-in-class" image quality when compared with other tech. They also showed off a comparison with this explanation:

Here’s a comparison from Necromunda: Hired Gun, comparing three scaling techniques against the game’s native rendering at 4K. On the left, with the game’s built-in temporal anti-aliasing, the monitor’s text is somewhat legible. Using NVIDIA Image Scaling and other spatial upscalers, the resolution is decreased to 2955x1622 and the text becomes illegible, though performance does increase to far more playable levels.

In contrast, NVIDIA DLSS renders at 1920x1080, but through the magic of AI and GeForce RTX Tensor Cores, image quality is better than native 4K, the monitor’s text is clearer, and performance is more than doubled, giving players the definitive experience in Necromunda: Hired Gun.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.

Tags: Misc, NVIDIA, Open Source

13 Likes

About the author - Liam Dawe

I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by . You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
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31 comments

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Bogomips 16 Nov 2021

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Good news for cryptocurrency miners if they want to play games with their RTX

11 Likes, Who?

cybik 16 Nov 2021

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69 fps. Nice.

6 Likes, Who?

PublicNuisance 16 Nov 2021

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I'm going to be that old man here and say it. They chose one of the most permissible open source licences they could. Not much of a statement in my eyes or at least not the one many will think it is.

1 Likes, Who?

erik-reider 16 Nov 2021

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I've heard that Intels DLSS competetor will be open sourced and will work on AMD and Nvidia GPUs (with a lower perf boost). Can anyone confirm this? If that were true it would be the go to solution if it doesn't suck ofc...

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Liam Dawe 16 Nov 2021

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I've heard that Intels DLSS competetor will be open sourced and will work on AMD and Nvidia GPUs (with a lower perf boost). Can anyone confirm this? If that were true it would be the go to solution if it doesn't suck ofc...

Yes, that is correct.

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Ananace 16 Nov 2021

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Wait, for that comparison image, are Nvidia saying that a lower resolution image upscaled with DLSS gives a better resulting 4k quality than a native 4k render?

4 Likes, Who?

dubigrasu 16 Nov 2021

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But IIUC it still has to be implemented by the game developers, in which case it has a limited use in comparison with FSR.

1 Likes, Who?

Mohandevir 16 Nov 2021

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Couldn't they (Intel, AMD & Nvidia... Khronos? Valve?) figure it out together, for once, and come up with one open source standard?

What's nice with AMD FSR it's that it can be used on any game, with Proton. Maybe Intel's and Nvidia's solutions will be integrated to Proton in futur releases, adding lines of code to Proton, on the way, but why 3 standards for the same feature? It'a all open source, why not collaborate? Political considerations?

Probably too idealistic from my part... Sorry, my outsider rant.

Last edited by Mohandevir on 16 Nov 2021 at 4:21 pm UTC

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CatKiller 16 Nov 2021

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Wait, for that comparison image, are Nvidia saying that a lower resolution image upscaled with DLSS gives a better resulting 4k quality than a native 4k render?

That's what they've said before, and what people have found. For example.

1 Likes, Who?

Aeder 16 Nov 2021

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Couldn't they (Intel, AMD & Nvidia) figure it out together, for once, and come up with one open source standard?

What's nice with AMD FSR it's that it can be used on any game, with Proton. Maybe Intel's and Nvidia's solutions will be integrated to Proton in futur releases, adding lines of code to Proton, on the way, but why 3 standards for the same feature? It'a all open source, why not collaborate? Political considerations?

Probably too idealistic from my part... Sorry, my outsider rant.

That's because NVIDIA is hostile to open source. Their closed source software is how they keep a grip on several markets. They only released this because FSR was gaining developer mindshare. They only open source stuff when the alternative is their competition eating up their lunch.

Intel still hasn't gotten their discrete GPUs to the same point as AMD and NVIDIA but they do contribute to the open source stack on other areas.

I think AMD should continue this strategy of offering 95%-100% of what Nvidia offers but open sourced to force their hand.

15 Likes, Who?

Shmerl 16 Nov 2021

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So to understand this better, Nvidia's new upscaling works on AMD too?

Last edited by Shmerl on 16 Nov 2021 at 4:39 pm UTC

0 Likes

Mohandevir 16 Nov 2021

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Couldn't they (Intel, AMD & Nvidia) figure it out together, for once, and come up with one open source standard?

What's nice with AMD FSR it's that it can be used on any game, with Proton. Maybe Intel's and Nvidia's solutions will be integrated to Proton in futur releases, adding lines of code to Proton, on the way, but why 3 standards for the same feature? It'a all open source, why not collaborate? Political considerations?

Probably too idealistic from my part... Sorry, my outsider rant.

That's because NVIDIA is hostile to open source. Their closed source software is how they keep a grip on several markets. They only released this because FSR was gaining developer mindshare. They only open source stuff when the alternative is their competition eating up their lunch.

Intel still hasn't gotten their discrete GPUs to the same point as AMD and NVIDIA but they do contribute to the open source stack on other areas.

I think AMD should continue this strategy of offering 95%-100% of what Nvidia offers but open sourced to force their hand.

The FSR maintainers should have a look at ~~DLSS~~ (Nvidia Image Scaling... Oups!) and see what can be integrated that will boost FSR performances... Isn't it open source, afterall?

Last edited by Mohandevir on 17 Nov 2021 at 4:55 pm UTC

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BielFPs 16 Nov 2021

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Their closed source software is how they keep a grip on several markets. They only released this because FSR was gaining developer mindshare. They only open source stuff when the alternative is their competition eating up their lunch.

The right thing for the wrong reason, I still see this as a win for users

Now I hope Khronos to take the best parts of each technology and make a true cross-platform standard.

3 Likes, Who?

Purple Library Guy 16 Nov 2021

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Couldn't they (Intel, AMD & Nvidia... Khronos? Valve?) figure it out together, for once, and come up with one open source standard?

No.

2 Likes, Who?

Samsai 16 Nov 2021

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So, Nvidia's generous answer to AMD FSR is to needlessly fragment the image scaling technology landscape? Good job, I guess? Hopefully someone picks this code apart and brings FSR on par with it, I don't have high hopes for Nvidia to keep up maintenance on this.

Last edited by Samsai on 16 Nov 2021 at 7:12 pm UTC

4 Likes, Who?

Mohandevir 16 Nov 2021

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Couldn't they (Intel, AMD & Nvidia... Khronos? Valve?) figure it out together, for once, and come up with one open source standard?

No.

That's what we call a succinct answer.

3 Likes, Who?

Aeder 16 Nov 2021

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Couldn't they (Intel, AMD & Nvidia) figure it out together, for once, and come up with one open source standard?

What's nice with AMD FSR it's that it can be used on any game, with Proton. Maybe Intel's and Nvidia's solutions will be integrated to Proton in futur releases, adding lines of code to Proton, on the way, but why 3 standards for the same feature? It'a all open source, why not collaborate? Political considerations?

Probably too idealistic from my part... Sorry, my outsider rant.

That's because NVIDIA is hostile to open source. Their closed source software is how they keep a grip on several markets. They only released this because FSR was gaining developer mindshare. They only open source stuff when the alternative is their competition eating up their lunch.

Intel still hasn't gotten their discrete GPUs to the same point as AMD and NVIDIA but they do contribute to the open source stack on other areas.

I think AMD should continue this strategy of offering 95%-100% of what Nvidia offers but open sourced to force their hand.

The FSR maintainers should have a look at DLSS and see what can be integrated that will boost FSR performances... Isn't it open source, afterall?

From what I read from a guy looking into integrating this into retroarch like FSR apparently this code drop is less portable and more constricted that what FSR does. It assumes you are using dx shaders and working with dx11, something AMD's solution does not.

In other words, it's half assed and not even good.

1 Likes, Who?

Whitewolfe80 16 Nov 2021

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or you know you could of just supported the existing tech thereby making something that is universal for all gamers to use no matter the platform just a thought

0 Likes

Comandante Ñoñardo 16 Nov 2021

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Perfect! Ideal for to extend the useful life of older cards, because buying a new one is impossible..

When this feature will be available on Linux???

0 Likes

Shmerl 17 Nov 2021

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From what I read from a guy looking into integrating this into retroarch like FSR apparently this code drop is less portable and more constricted that what FSR does. It assumes you are using dx shaders and working with dx11, something AMD's solution does not.

In other words, it's half assed and not even good.

Are AMD at least using Vulkan for FSR?

0 Likes

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