The real unique selling point of FSR 2.0 is its sheer compatibility. Unlike DLSS 2.0, which is only available on RTX 20 and 30-series GPUs, and that too at the mercy of developers, FSR works with a lot more hardware. In fact, FSR even supports NVIDIA’s own older GPUs that can’t utilize DLSS because of their outdated architectures. Another big difference between FSR and DLSS is their codebase. DLSS is closed-source while AMD just made FSR 2.0 open-source a few days ago. That allows normal people like us to take the code and mold it to our liking. Plus, small-scale developers can now easily implement the technology in their games without having to rework the engine and work in tandem with NVIDIA every step of the way. Slowly but surely, more and more games have added support for FSR 2.0 since its launch with incredible results to boot. Today, another major AAA game has been added to that list… unofficially.
Cyberpunk 2077 with FSR 2.0
Cyberpunk 2077 now supports FSR 2.0 thanks to a mod developed by “PotatoOfDoom“. The mod, aptly titled “FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 for Cyberpunk 2077“, does exactly what it sounds like. It takes the source code AMD made available to the public and implements it within Cyberpunk 2077. As you can see in the picture above, the modder is claiming to have seen nearly a 2x improvement in gaming performance. After applying the mod, their GTX 1080 was able to push ~45FPS at 4K resolution, which is quite the impressive feat. Under the hood, what’s happening is that the mod replaces the DLSS 2.0 files baked into the game with FSR 2.0 files, and performs some Windows Registry modifications to bypass any restrictions. This allows Cyberpunk to (technically) have native FSR 2.0 support that enables the game to run better on older hardware. See, DLSS is great and the modder actually says it will produce better results in most cases, but the thing about DLSS is that it’s only available to a certain number of people. That’s because it requires specialized hardware only found in certain NVIDIA GPUs. On the contrary, AMD’s FSR 2.0 does not require any proprietary hardware. That allows it to work with a larger pool of GPUs, enabling both older and unsupported hardware to get a nice boost in performance. Of course, AMD’s own RDNA 2 graphics cards will see the most benefit here. Attached below is an image comparing FSR 1.0 (native) to FSR 2.0 (modded) in Balanced Mode. The difference speaks for itself. Despite essentially being a layer on top of the existing DLSS system in Cyberpunk 2077, you can see just how much of an improvement is made with FSR 2.0. The image quality is a lot sharper overall with FSR 2.0 and it provides a an overall crisper gaming experience. While the mod does seem to do its job as intended, the modded wants it to be clear that this is still more of a “proof of concept” than an actual solution. There are bugs and glitches here and there with this, as you’d expect with any mod. And it doesn’t seem to work nearly as well on every set of hardware. That’s why the modder mentioned that DLSS will still look better. Perhaps, the most interesting thing said here is that the mod supposedly even works on a Steam Deck! But we can’t verify that at the moment, we’ll update the article when(/if) we can. You can find the mod to try out for yourself at NexusMods. Though I should warn you that this is still a third-party modification so it comes with all the disclaimers any other mod comes with. Use it at your own risk to modify your game and only if you know what you’re doing. Another interesting takeaway from this can be that it it’s this easy and, more importantly, possible to implement FSR 2.0 in games just by swapping out some files, it means that this same procedure can be repeated in other games as well. I mean, it is a proof of concept after all and it’ll only be some time before CD Projekt Red adds FSR 2.0 support to their game officially. But, till then, this is the best we’ve got.
