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While the idea of Render scaling is getting a lot of attention now, the idea behind it dates back to the early/mid-2000s. The Radeon 5xxx series from 2009 offered GPU upscaling. The concept was the user could set a resolution for game rendering, and the GPU would then “upscale” the image to the resolution of the display.
This later evolved into games offering the option to do this in game. One of the first games to bring this option into the menu was Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus in 2017. Other games offer this option previously, but they were enabled through INI file tweaks, not actual in game menus.
Today Render Scaling is almost considered normal, with AMD offering FSR solutions in drivers and many games. We at SAPPHIRE even pulled from the old bag of “TriXX” (Pun intended) and offered a render scaling option known as TriXX Boost that allowed you to set a render scaling and then used the GPUs upscaling and sharpening features to display at the targeted screen resolution.
TriXX Boost is still available today and unlike more modern solutions will work on most older games without the need for extra software or hacks.
A lot of modern games are now making use of more advanced techniques which make use of AI to enable some impressive levels of upscaling without the same degree of image quality loss.
I actually explored this some back in 2021 with the following article:
Looking at FidelityFX Super Resolution
Today however most new games offer in game support for either FSR (AMD) or DLSS (the other guys). These two companies have different approaches, and the problem is that games don’t always support both, so what you can use often depends on which card you own.
For a long time, I told people these options should be a last resort. With how far the technology has come, I’ve had to rethink that. With today’s market, many of us are looking for the best value we can get, and these technologies help bridge the gap between the hardware we can afford and the performance we want.
The good news is the gaming community does what it always has: it finds a way. Open-source developers, along with some help from AI, have created tools that help gamers out of this jam, at least to some extent.
It’s worth noting that these are community made, unofficial tools. They aren’t endorsed or supported by SAPPHIRE, AMD or NVIDIA. Because they work by swapping or intercepting game files, they can also trigger anti-cheat systems, so stick to single-player games and use them at your own risk.
One example is OptiScaler, a free, open-source tool that works by intercepting a game’s calls to DLSS or FSR and redirecting them to a newer version, or even to the competition’s version.
In the example above, I’m using OptiScaler with my SAPPHIRE RX 9070 XT in MW5. The game only offers DLSS in its menu, but OptiScaler redirects those calls so my card can use FSR 4.1 instead, along with frame generation, despite the game having no direct support for either on AMD hardware. What’s really impressive here is that the heavy lifting is all being done by FSR 4.1 on the 9070 XT. The tool simply opens the door to it in a game that never officially supported it. This means that in many games, you’re no longer locked out of these features just because of the brand of card you own, which makes for a smoother gameplay experience.
The community hasn’t stopped there either. Modders have also found ways to get DLSS 5, including its neural rendering features, running on AMD cards. It’s still very much an unofficial workaround, and can come with a noticeable performance cost, but it shows just how far the community is willing to go.
This means these advanced options that were locked behind high end or brand specific hardware are now often available to the end user no matter the hardware they are using. The result is, we, the consumer, can focus on the value of our purchase and not the brand for some of the more advanced features. This is just an example of what PC Gamers have always done, find a way to make it work.
I still stand by previous statements I have made that use of Render Scaling or Frame Generation should be a last resort, not a feature you should consider using all the time. However new tech, SAPPHIRE TriXX Boost and an active gamer community mean you now have more tools and thus more options for helping your game play experience when you need it.
The articles content, opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in SAPPHIRE NATION are the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent official policy or position of SAPPHIRE Technology.
