Introduction

Hogwarts Legacy is out now on PC, with plenty of additional visual enhancements over its PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series release, such as higher quality ray tracing effects: ray traced reflections, ray traced shadows, ray traced ambient occlusion, full support for ultra-wide screens, and this version on PC also has support for NVIDIA’s DLSS Super Resolution (DLSS 2.5), NVIDIA’s DLSS Frame Generation (also known as DLSS 3), NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA), Intel’s Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 (FSR 2.1). In order to run this game at maximum graphics settings and reasonable framerates at native resolution, quite a powerful GPU is required, which is why upscaling solutions are so important. But depending on the game, there are subtle differences in the implementation of NVIDIA’s DLSS Super Resolution (DLSS 2.5), NVIDIA’s DLSS Frame Generation (also known as DLSS 3), NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA), Intel’s Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) and AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 (FSR 2.1), so we are keen to have a look at these temporal upscalers in this game.

Below, you will find comparison screenshots at 4K, 1440p, 1080p, and in different DLSS, XeSS and FSR 2.1 quality modes; the TAA, DLAA and DLSS Frame Generation screenshots are also available in the dropdown menu. For those who want to see how DLSS Super Resolution, DLSS Frame Generation and FSR 2.1 perform in motion, watch our side-by-side comparison video. The video can help uncover issues like shimmering or temporal instability, which are not visible in the screenshots.

All tests were made using a GeForce RTX 4080 GPU at Ultra graphics settings with ray tracing enabled; motion blur, chromatic aberration and depth of field were disabled for better image viewing. DLSS was manually updated to version 2.5.1 by swapping the DLL file.

Screenshots

Side-by-Side Comparison Video

Conclusion

In Hogwarts Legacy, the in-game TAA, DLAA solution and XeSS do not use any sharpening filter in the render path and it’s not possible to enable it using a separate sharpening slider. However, the DLSS 2.5 and FSR 2.1 implementations, both have the ability to use a sharpening filter in the render path through a sharpening slider. By default, the game sets the sharpening values for DLSS at 0 and for FSR 2.1 at 0.2. Even though DLSS and FSR 2.1 are using the same sharpening slider, the actual amount of sharpening applied is very different even if it is set to equal values, that’s why we used a setting of 0 for all sharpening filter values in our testing. The inclusion of a separate sharpening filter for DLSS and FSR 2.1 is a great option to have, especially when it is properly implemented, like in Hogwarts Legacy. The sharpening filter does not cause any negative side effects when using upscaling. Also, even when DLSS is updated to version 2.5.1, which disables any built-in DLSS sharpening filter, in this game the developers have implemented their own sharpening solution, so you can use it together with the latest DLSS version.

XeSS comes with three upscaling kernels that are optimized for various architectures. The first is the kernel that gets used on Intel Arc GPUs with XMX engines. This is the most advanced model too, that not only performs better in terms of FPS, but also offers the best upscaling quality, Intel calls this “Advanced XeSS upscaling model.” Intel also provides an optimized kernel for Intel Integrated Graphics, and another compatibility kernel, used for all other architectures that support Shader Model 6.4, e.g. all recent AMD and NVIDIA cards. These use the “Standard XeSS upscaling model,” which is somewhat simpler, with lower performance and quality compared to what you get on Arc GPUs (we use the compatibility model on our RTX 4080). If DP4a instructions aren’t available, as on the Radeon RX 5700 XT, slower INT24 instructions are used instead.

Hogwarts Legacy is an action game with a lot of small particle effects on screen during combat, so when using any temporal upscaling solutions, the stability of the image is key to enjoyable gameplay. When using DLSS, the image was stable in motion in all Quality modes, the level of detail rendered in vegetation and tree leaves is improved in comparison to the in-game TAA solution, and small details in the distance, such as thin steel objects, are rendered more correctly and completely. The FSR 2.1 implementation comes with a few compromises in image quality—in favor of performance in most sequences of the game. We spotted excessive shimmering and flickering on character hair, vegetation and tree leaves; they are shimmering even when standing still. This is the same level of shimmering that we’ve previously seen in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt with FSR 2.1. XeSS on the other hand, does not have these shimmering issues at all, but XeSS is suffering from ghosting at medium and far distances. Flying birds have black trails behind them, for example. To be fair, DLSS also has these shimmering problems, but only in motion at extreme angles, and with DLSS you have the ability to minimize these issues by upgrading to the newer DLSS version 2.5.1.

The NVIDIA DLSS Frame Generation is excellent, the overall image quality is quite impressive. Even small flying particle effects, such as different varieties of magic spells, are rendered correctly, during with fast movement. However, there’s also a few important issues of note. We spotted excessive shimmering and flickering in motion on tree leaves and vegetation at 1440p and below, but it is less pronounced when compared to the FSR 2.1 shimmering issues. Also, as mentioned in our performance review, you can’t enable Frame Generation without enabling DLSS first. The issue is that the developers falsely assumed that enabling DLSS 3 Frame Generation, requires enabling DLSS 2 Upscaling, too. If you want to use Frame Generation with DLAA instead of DLSS: enable DLSS in the menu, then enable Frame Generation and only after that enable DLAA. Many other DLSS Frame Generation games that we’ve tested had issues with the in-game on-screen UI, which had a very jittery look—the DLSS Frame Generation implementation in Hogwarts Legacy does not have this issue.

Speaking of performance, Hogwarts Legacy is a very CPU intensive game, especially with ray tracing enabled, as the CPU usage is mostly single-threaded on PC due to a very poor implementation of Unreal Engine 4 DirectX 12, and high-powered GPUs such as the GeForce RTX 4080 can end up CPU bottlenecked in some sequences of the game, even at 4K. We’ve seen these issues before in other recent Unreal Engine 4 games, like The Callisto Protocol or Gotham Knights. In such a CPU limited scenario, a very welcome help comes from the DLSS Frame Generation technology, which has the ability to bypass CPU limitations and increase the framerate. With DLSS Super Resolution in Quality mode and DLSS Frame Generation enabled, you can expect more than doubled performance at 4K and 1440p, and during our testing, overall gameplay felt very smooth and responsive, we haven’t spotted any issues with the input latency.