Dynamic Super Resolution

[Nordic]

Now that I have a gtx 970 I decided to give dynamic super resolution a try. So I turned it on, in the nvidia control panel. If you want to know how to turn in on, watch this video.

So I loaded up bioshock, the original. In the main menu 1080p gets me ~550fps. The textures look a bit faded but its an old game. I went into the graphics options and turn the resolution up to 4k. Still in the main menu my fps dropped to ~250, but the textures looked sharper.

I started a new game to see how it looked. The opening seen swimming in the water looked amazing. Like modern graphics. So I turned it down to 1080p to see the difference. It looked old, which I think is just the textures used were low resolution.

In the water I was getting ~80fps at 4k, even with my 4.6ghz 3570k and overclocked gtx 970. I got out of the water and once on land I was getting ~150-200 fps depending on what i was looking at.


Is anyone else playing with dynamic super resolution? It works on any nvidea gpu 400 series or better.

 

[BiggieShady]

Is anyone else playing with dynamic super resolution?

Not original Bioshock but I was able to run Elder Scrolls Oblivion and Diablo 3 at 4K DSR. It looked pretty and produced instant antialiasing for oblivion's oldschool hdr mode.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

I use it on BF4 and run 2560x1600 and it is pretty awesome I must say.

 

[AsRock]

I use AMD's version of it, you should try a newer game like FC4, although only get 30-60 fps but it's pretty and find it very much playable still.

I would post a pic but they are like 4MB each.

What is all so nice to do is to bump up the DPI in windows and use a higher res.

Here's one but was edited in paint to 1/2 the size.

 

[Nordic]

I was trying it with windows, but it just makes it look blurry unlike in games.

 

[MakeDeluxe]

I was trying it with windows, but it just makes it look blurry unlike in games.

Try playing around with the DSR smoothness percentage if it's too blurry. The higher the percentage the blurrier the image.

 

[qubit]

It's an interesting feature, but I found that I could get a better picture by using AA rather than DSR. Also, DSR tanks my framerate while AA doesn't so much.

It's especially good for giving you a feel for what a 4K desktop would look like on a 2K monitor if you're looking to upgrade. Most text look ridiculously tiny, but the desktop real estate is vast. Of course, it inevitably either looks blurred or extremely aliased depending on the smoothness setting.

 

[AsRock]

It's an interesting feature, but I found that I could get a better picture by using AA rather than DSR. Also, DSR tanks my framerate while AA doesn't so much.

It's especially good for giving you a feel for what a 4K desktop would look like on a 2K monitor if you're looking to upgrade. Most text look ridiculously tiny, but the desktop real estate is vast. Of course, it inevitably either looks blurred or extremely aliased depending on the smoothness setting.

On the desktop though you can just use a higher DPI, how ever not all apps like you changing that. I find that D3 don't like 150% dpi as my mouse pointer goes invisible lol.

If there is a reason not to use it in games it be the power requirements as it will push your gfx card much harder than having high AA.

 

[qubit]

Changing the DPI doesn't change everything proportionally like it does with changing the resolution though. They're similar, but not equivalent.

Now you mention about the power requirements, it reminds me that it's also an excellent way of checking if your system is fast enough to run games at 4K (and graphics card has enough memory) without actually shelling out for a 4K monitor. This is probably the biggest benefit of this feature.

I can catagorically say that my single 780 Ti as enormously fast as it is, is not sufficient for smooth framerates in modern games at this resolution. I'm aiming for a solid 120fps when I say this - quite a high performance level.

 

[Nordic]

It's an interesting feature, but I found that I could get a better picture by using AA rather than DSR. Also, DSR tanks my framerate while AA doesn't so much.

It's especially good for giving you a feel for what a 4K desktop would look like on a 2K monitor if you're looking to upgrade. Most text look ridiculously tiny, but the desktop real estate is vast. Of course, it inevitably either looks blurred or extremely aliased depending on the smoothness setting.

With Bioshock I had 8x AA along with the 4k resolution. Its such an ancient game I could take that kind of performance hit with my 970. I am mostly using it so far to make old games look better. Now I am playing Rage for the first time. I have the absolute max settings on, and can only push 1440p for playable framerates and the games textures look like crap still. Bioshock at 4k and 8x AA looked modern, unlike Rage.

With these older single player games I am aiming for 40 fps. I wouldn't even consider this for multiplayer games where I want 120fps. I am trying to go through my steam library and play through all the games I have. Some are dated like bioshock and rage, so playing them at high resolution is kind of nice.

 

[qubit]

Ok, sounds cool, James. Do you not find that you get a better picture and better performance just by turning up AA though? I realize that different games will react differently to these settings.

In Cod: Advanced Warfare for example, it looked decidedly better with AA on than DSR.

Also, the game tends to hitch a bit when playing it at 2K and has a setting to reduce this. However, it hitched really badly in 4K mode and that setting didn't help. The game has received several patches since then and I haven't played it for a while, so I wouldn't be surprised if this issue has been fixed.

Anyway, I really like the DSR feature to experiment with and I remember a few months ago I saw a post which showed how to achieve this effect in a limited way (resolution didn't go as high and less options) before NVIDIA officially supported it.

 

[Nordic]

Ok, sounds cool, James. Do you not find that you get a better picture and better performance just by turning up AA though? I realize that different games will react differently to these settings.

In Cod: Advanced Warfare for example, it looked decidedly better with AA on than DSR.

Also, the game tends to hitch a bit when playing it at 2K and has a setting to reduce this. However, it hitched really badly in 4K mode and that setting didn't help. The game has received several patches since then and I haven't played it for a while, so I wouldn't be surprised if this issue has been fixed.

Anyway, I really like the DSR feature to experiment with and I remember a few months ago I saw a post which showed how to achieve this effect in a limited way (resolution didn't go as high and less options) before NVIDIA officially supported it.

Speaking for bioshock only, AA only helped so much but 4k really put the pop back in. I played with different AA settings and resolutions testing performance before realizing I could just turn everything to max. The textures are just so terrible in bioshock is the only reason I think DSR made a enormous difference.

 

[qubit]

Interesting. I wonder how it would look at a real 4K?

 

[Nordic]

Playing a new game I just got called Depth. Its a low requirement UE3 engine game. I am getting well over 120fps at max settings. AA makes a much bigger difference than 4k resolution does in this game. Having both is noticeable but not by much. 4k also drops my fps to 40 which I dont want in this game.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Not bustin on you james, but i do get a chuckle when someone describes a 2007 game as "ancient." To me, that was just a short time ago with how long I have been playing with pc's. It's all a matter of perspective, i guess.

And, to stay on topic, I did enjoy your run-thru of DSR on Bioshock. I may have to give it a try.

 

[Nordic]

Not bustin on you james, but i do get a chuckle when someone describes a 2007 game as "ancient." To me, that was just a short time ago with how long I have been playing with pc's. It's all a matter of perspective, i guess.

And, to stay on topic, I did enjoy your run-thru of DSR on Bioshock. I may have to give it a try.

In PC gaming terms it is kind of ancient. Its almost a 5 year old game. Thousands of games have been released between then and now. It looks ancient before dsr. I am not thinking how many years ago that was, but how much pc gaming and pc hardware have advanced since then.

 

[RejZoR]

Try "Alien Rage - Unlimited" game. Unreal Engine 3 game that already looks awesome at 1080p. Should run fairly well even at 4K on GTX 970. It's a very bright and shiny game so it might look even better with DSR.

 

[qubit]

Try "Alien Rage - Unlimited" game. Unreal Engine 3 game that already looks awesome at 1080p. Should run fairly well even at 4K on GTX 970. It's a very bright and shiny game so it might look even better with DSR.

That game looks good and it's got quite the Unreal Tournament about it. It's only got a 52% Metacritic rating on Steam though. Gonna try out the demo.

 

[RejZoR]

It's is a bit frustrating around the middle of the game where you'll die a lot (and rage a lot, that's why it's named like this ), but once you get past that point, you get some proper upgrades for weapons and it becomes fun massacre again. Runs super smooth on my system, it's very fast paced shooter. Even though it was frustrating in some segments, it was really pulling me further to beat those seemingly unbeatable segments/checkpoints and is so far one of the best shooters I've played in a while. Which is quite a surprising verdict so far considering the mediocre scores it got from reviewers.

Main reason why it feels good is the usual Unreal motion of the player character so this is already awesome. Second one is fully configurable FOV. Something that is really pissing me off in modern games. Stupid FOV that makes my eyes bleed and head hurt. But here, it was a matter of moving the slider and I was ready. Massive bonus for that. Weapons, even though you can only hold only 3 at once, pistol comes with unlimited ammo and two main weapons, all the weapons feel properly good and they also have 2 fire modes as well as iron sights. Oh and the player perks, this is imo the main reason why I was so eager to push forward, constantly wondering what next upgrades I'll unlock. And these do help you A LOT, so you can re-configure your strenghts and weaknesses during combat or for many bosses that you'll meet.

Anyway, it should certainly be interesting in seeing this one with DSR if it really makes such a difference, because the game uses a lot of girders and railings in the game.

 

[dcf-joe]

In Battlefield 4, what is the difference between using the resolution scale slider and using DSR?

 

[Nordic]

In Battlefield 4, what is the difference between using the resolution scale slider and using DSR?

If DSR is turned on, it allows you to turn up the resolution above your native resolution. The GPU then down samples for an additional AA effect.

 

[AsRock]

If DSR is turned on, it allows you to turn up the resolution above your native resolution. The GPU then down samples for an additional AA effect.

And a higher electrical bill lol.

 

[Nordic]

And a higher electrical bill lol.

Well yes, but I personally fold 24/7 so my gpu is almost always loaded.


Some games really benefit from this, like bio shock, others do not.

 

[AsRock]

Well yes, but I personally fold 24/7 so my gpu is almost always loaded.


Some games really benefit from this, like bio shock, others do not.

Well you always have those games were AA is not present or not working as it should so yes it has a use here and there.

 

[qubit]

Well you always have those games were AA is not present or not working as it should so yes it has a use here and there.

I think the biggest use for this feature is to be able to benchmark your PC at 4K so you can decide whether you need to upgrade it for smooth gameplay, before you buy the monitor.