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ComputerBase conducted the online blind test involving thousands of gamers to evaluate the visual quality of current video rendering technologies. The study compared Nvidia's latest Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) 4.5 against AMD's machine learning-based FSR 4 and native resolution rendering with standard Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA).
ComputerBase's test was performed at Ultra HD (4K) resolution using the “Quality” presets for both AI upscalers across six major titles: Anno 117, ARC Raiders, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Forbidden West, Satisfactory, and The Last of Us Part II. To eliminate brand bias, the comparison utilised videos labelled only with numbers for the first two weeks of the survey.
The final results revealed a significant preference for Nvidia's DLSS 4.5, which emerged as the winner across all games tested. On average, approximately 48% of participants voted DLSS 4.5 as having the best image quality, while roughly 24% preferred native rendering and only 15% chose AMD's FSR 4. The margin of victory for DLSS 4.5 was particularly substantial in titles like Satisfactory and Horizon Forbidden West, where it received 60.9% and 56.3% of the total votes, respectively. Interestingly, Cyberpunk 2077 presented the closest contest, with DLSS 4.5 nearly equal to native-resolution rendering. That suggests that in some cases, DLSS 4.5 may not be the preferred option.
In contrast, AMD's latest ML-based video technologies in the “Redstone” package struggled to win over the community. While FSR 4 provides a meaningful boost in frame rates and improves upon previous iterations by reducing ghosting and better preserving particle effects, it failed to surpass native resolution during this test. The detailed results of this test can be found below:
| Native + TAA | Nvidia DLSS 4.5 | AMD FSR Upscaling AI | Equivalent | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anno 117 | 282 (22.8%) |
621 (50.1%) |
204 (16.5%) |
132 (10.7%) |
1,239 (100%) |
| ARC Raiders | 328 (27.3%) |
570 (47.4%) |
166 (13.8%) |
138 (11.5%) |
1,202 (100%) |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 372 (32.4%) |
394 (34.4%) |
122 (10.6%) |
259 (22.6%) |
1,147 (100%) |
| Horizon Forbidden West | 208 (19.4%) |
604 (56.3%) |
125 (11.7%) |
135 (12.6%) |
1,072 (100%) |
| Satisfactory | 155 (15.1%) |
627 (60.9%) |
128 (12.4%) |
119 (11.6%) |
1,029 (100%) |
| The Last of Us Part II | 274 (25.9%) |
433 (40.9%) |
268 (25.3%) |
83 (7.8%) |
1,058 (100%) |
| Final result | |||||
| In total | 1,619 | 3,249 | 1,013 | 866 | 6,747 |
| Average | 24.0% | 48.2% | 15.0% | 12.8% | 100% |
As noted by ComputerBase, the test results show only how frequently each option was rated “the best image quality”. The results, however, don't show the second- and third-best choices. Neither the wording of the question nor the surveys themselves were designed to reveal this. Therefore, stating something like “FSR Upscaling looks worse than native” based on these results is invalid.
KitGuru says: Do these results match your own experience with native, DLSS 4.5, and FSR 4?
