DLSS vs FSR: Which Upscaler Should You Use?
Upscaling renders the game below your monitor's resolution and reconstructs the rest. It is the single largest free frame-rate gain available on modern hardware — the only question is which one your card supports and how hard to push it.
NVIDIA DLSS
- Hardware: RTX 20-series and newer only
- Image quality: Best in class, especially in motion
- Frame generation: RTX 40-series and newer
- Availability: 17 games in our database
Runs a trained model on dedicated hardware. If you own an RTX card and the game offers DLSS, it is almost always the right pick.
AMD FSR
- Hardware: Runs on virtually any modern GPU
- Image quality: Very good; slightly behind DLSS on fine detail
- Frame generation: FSR 3 and newer, broadly compatible
- Availability: 18 games in our database
Open and vendor-agnostic. The right choice on AMD, Intel Arc and GTX cards, and a solid fallback when a game lacks DLSS.
What each quality mode gives you
| Mode | Render scale | Typical FPS uplift | Best used at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | 67% | +25 to +40% | Any resolution — the safe default |
| Balanced | 58% | +40 to +55% | 1440p and 4K |
| Performance | 50% | +55 to +80% | 4K, where the source is still 1080p |
| Ultra Performance | 33% | +90% and up | 4K only, and only when desperate |
Uplift figures assume you are GPU-bound. If your processor is the limit, upscaling gains far less — check with the bottleneck calculator first.
Which upscaler does your graphics card support?
Games with upscaling support
16 of these support both, so you can pick whichever suits your card. This covers the 36 titles whose features we have verified — Steam publishes no upscaling field, so the rest are unconfirmed rather than unsupported.
| Game | Year | DLSS | FSR | Ray tracing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palworld | 2026 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Monster Hunter Wilds | 2025 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Black Myth: Wukong | 2024 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Path of Exile 2 | 2024 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Satisfactory | 2024 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| World of Warcraft: The War Within | 2024 | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Baldur's Gate 3 | 2023 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Hogwarts Legacy | 2023 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Resident Evil 4 | 2023 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 2020 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Destiny 2 | 2019 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 2019 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Rust | 2018 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Fortnite | 2017 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS | 2017 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| No Man's Sky | 2016 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Warframe | 2013 | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 2012 | — | ✓ | — |
| Minecraft: Java Edition | 2011 | ✓ | — | ✓ |
Frequently asked questions
Is DLSS better than FSR?
On image quality, generally yes — particularly on fine detail and in motion, because DLSS runs on dedicated hardware with a trained model. FSR's advantage is compatibility: it works on nearly any modern card. If you own an RTX card and the game offers both, take DLSS.
Which quality mode should I use?
Quality mode is the sensible default: roughly a 25–40% uplift with very little visible loss. Performance mode holds up well at 4K because the source resolution is still 1080p, but becomes obvious at 1080p.
Does upscaling reduce input lag?
Upscaling raises frame rate, which lowers latency. Frame generation is different — it inserts generated frames and adds a little latency, so use it when your base frame rate is already reasonable, not to rescue an unplayable one.
Should I use upscaling at 1080p?
Only if you need to. At 1080p the source render is already low, so artefacts are more visible. Quality mode is usually fine; below that, consider lowering a setting instead.