A mod for the PC version of Starfield that adds support for Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology has already been released.
Only FSR2, the most recent version of AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution technology, is initially supported by the game.
This essentially enables players with specific AMD graphics cards to save performance by allowing them to upscale their game in real-time.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Play At Your Best with AMD Radeon™ and AMD FSR 2
— AMD Radeon (@amdradeon) July 28, 2023
For example, a game could be rendered at 1080p and then upscaled to 4K resolution using only a fraction of the processing power required for native 4K rendering.
The technology also frees up processing power, allowing players to potentially increase frame rate or detail settings.
Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), an equivalent technology used by Nvidia cards and supported in its GeForce RTX graphics cards, is not supported by Starfield at launch.
The modder PureDark produced Starfield Upscaler – Replacing FSR2 with DLSS or XeSS, which accomplishes what it says in the title.
It replaces FSR2 support with either DLSS (for players with Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics cards) or XeSS (for players with Intel Arc graphics cards).
The effectiveness of the upscaling will depend on each player’s unique setup, according to PureDark. The difference might be negligible if the player’s CPU is running slowly and their graphics card is already very powerful.
Performance improvement is based on how GPU-limited you are, they claim. “It’s very normal if you don’t see any gains; you’re probably CPU-limited.”
The fact that AMD refers to itself as “Starfield’s exclusive PC partner” may help to explain why the game initially only supported FSR2 technology.
But AMD gaming chief Frank Azor hinted last week that this apparent exclusivity may not be permanent.
“Bethesda’s decision to use FSR is console leverage,” he explained to The Verge, referring to the fact that AMD GPUs are also used in the Xbox Series X/S.
“Bethesda has our full support if and when they decide to add DLSS to the game.”
