Introduction

Recently we reviewed the FSR 2.0 community mod for Red Dead Redemption 2, and after two months Rockstar Games has now released official support for AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 (FSR 2.0) with the release of patch 1.31. The new patch also adds support for NVIDIA Reflex, and improves the implementation of NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). In order to run this game at maximum graphics settings with 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 with the implementation of NVIDIA’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR 2.0 upscalers, so we are keen to examine both in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Below, you will find comparison screenshots at 4K, 1440p, 1080p, and in different FSR 2.0 and DLSS quality modes. For those who want to see how DLSS and FSR 2.0 perform in motion, watch our side-by-side comparison video. The video can help uncover issues like shimmering or temporal instability, which are inherently not visible in screenshots.

All tests were made using a GeForce RTX 3080 GPU at Ultra graphics settings; motion blur and depth of field were disabled for better image viewing. In the 1.31 patch, the developers updated their DLSS implementation to the 2.4.3 version.

Screenshots

Side-by-Side Comparison Video

Conclusion

With a new patch for Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC, the developers have added the long awaited DLSS sharpening filter slider in the settings menu. The FSR 2.0 implementation also has a separate sharpening filter slider in the settings menu, and this time, we used zero for both sharpening filter values in our testing. Unfortunately, there is a catch with DLSS and FSR 2.0 sharpening sliders: even setting them to 0 in the menu will still apply some level of sharpening filter in the render path, so you can’t completely disable sharpening when using either DLSS or FSR 2.0. Similar issues were seen in the early implementation of DLSS in God of War. The in-game TAA solution also uses a sharpening filter in the render path and we left it at zero value. Also, unlike some of the other FSR 2.0 implementations, FSR 2.0 in Red Dead Redemption 2 can be enabled in both DirectX 12 and Vulkan modes.

Compared to native TAA, FSR 2.0 image quality is a very noticeable upgrade across all resolutions. The in-game TAA solution has a very blurry overall image across all resolutions except 4K, with very poor rendering of small object detail—tree leaves, for example. All of these issues with the in-game TAA solution were resolved with FSR 2.0 enabled.

For those, who been wondering how the official implementation of FSR 2.0 looks compared to the FSR 2.0 community mod: the most noticeable issues with the FSR 2.0 mod were excessive ghosting on NPCs at medium and far distances, very noticeable shimmering issues at lower resolutions such as 1080p, and black trails on power lines while moving. In the official implementation, the issues with excessive ghosting were resolved, and black trails on power lines while moving were greatly reduced, but still visible at lower resolutions. The shimmering issues are different: shimmering on trees at medium and far distances were lowered to some degree compared to the FSR 2.0 mod and DLSS, but the official implementation of FSR 2.0 has additional shimmering on power lines, which was not an issue when the FSR 2.0 mod was applied. These shimmering issues on power lines are seen even if standing still, so the temporal stability of some details of the game, like power lines, is reduced with the official FSR 2.0 implementation in comparison to the FSR 2.0 mod and DLSS.

However, even though the developers have updated the DLSS implementation, updated the DLSS dll file to one of the latest versions and also added the long awaited DLSS sharpening filter slider in the settings menu, the DLSS implementation still isn’t perfect, with certain issues. Most of the issues come from the sharpening filter slider: even setting it to 0 in the menu will have it apply some level of sharpening filter in the render path, because of this, the haloing effect, around Arthur’s hat for example, is still visible in movement, something many people will find distracting.

Overall, with FSR 2.0 applied, small details in the distance are rendered more correctly and completely, and the image is less blurry at lower resolutions. The most noticeable difference between the in-game TAA solution and FSR 2.0 is at lower resolutions. In Quality mode, FSR 2.0 manages to deliver better performance and drastically better image quality while running at lower internal resolution. Compared to native resolution, the FSR 2.0 performance uplift is a great improvement to the game, and compared to DLSS 2.4 in this game, FSR 2.0 works identically in terms of performance gain.