Upscaling has slowly but surely grown and can now produce amazing results. Sometimes these are so good that it becomes hard to tell the difference between native and upscaled resolution.
What was tested? The German online magazine ComputerBase conducted a blind test on its own website, asking its users about the best image quality in games. One technology was far ahead, and the result was surprising.
For the test, ComputerBase tested six games in Ultra HD resolution. Each title was to be recorded once with NVIDIA’s DLSS 4.5, AMD’s FSR 4, and without upscaling at native resolution.
Afterward, users had a week to vote on the recorded gameplay scenes and choose the best image. However, users did not know which image was upscaled.
What are FSR and DLSS? NVIDIA’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR ensure that the image of a game is rendered at a lower resolution. Then, using a specially trained AI, the image is upscaled. This way, the image looks similar to the original but requires less computing power, which in turn benefits your FPS values.
DLSS even beats the native resolution
Which technology do players prefer? After over 6,000 users voted, the result is clear. NVIDIA’s DLSS wins by a large margin:
- Overall, about 48 percent preferred the image produced by NVIDIA technology.
- Only 15 percent, on the other hand, considered AMD’s FSR to be the most beautiful version, as AMD continues to release free updates for its technology.
- About 24 percent of respondents preferred the image in native resolution without upscaling.
- The remaining respondents rated all images equally beautiful.
What does this mean for players? Players were surprised by the result of the test. For some time, there has been a discussion on the internet regarding which image looks the best:
In the comments of the post by ComputerBase, for example, the user rollmoped mentions that he expected a clearer mixing of results and assumed that he would prefer native resolution. In fact, he voted for FSR more often during the test.
DLSS and FSR are unpopular among some users because, according to them, developers often use systems like upscalers and frame generation to avoid having to optimize games (via Reddit). This makes players dependent on these technologies or forces them to buy newer hardware.
The voting also clearly shows that critics of upscaling and so-called “fake frames” are wrong: Many people consider native resolution to be the most beautiful and best resolution. However, the blind test showed exactly the opposite: Many individuals ultimately voted for DLSS as the most beautiful image.
From this, one can conclude that DLSS/FSR is hardly inferior to native resolution in terms of image quality, but can even match it.
Furthermore, many users assume it is easy to distinguish an image from an upscaled version and that it looks better. However, the test shows that many individuals cannot perceive the difference and actually prefer a scene with DLSS. How far upscaling can go and where its limits lie is shown in a test by an expert: Can you play Cyberpunk 2077 with a 13-year-old graphics card? Expert tests it, the result is sobering.
