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Nvidia Sharpen+ filter, things just got more interesting...

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There is a new Sharpen+ filter that came out with Driver 471.11, only accessible via Geforce Experience overlay for now.
I tested it out in a couple of games and the results are interesting.
In CP2077, when Sharpen+ is used in combination with DLSS, I have a hard time distinguishing 4K Native and 4K DLSS Performance, below is comparison between 4K DLSS Performance Sharpen+ vs 4K Native at 200% zoomed in.
CP.jpg

What do you guys think? Which image you do think look better, left or right?
Here is Death Stranding comparison between 1440p with Sharpen+, 4K Native and 1440p Native (DLSS is not used in this comparison as 4K DLSS Quality already look better than 4K Native LOL)
death stranding.jpg
 
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Left picture for Cyberpunk looks a bit better.
 
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Now for Watch Dogs Legion, again with 4K Native vs 4K DLSS Performance Sharpen+
watchdogs.jpg
 

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Native on the right? Bloody hell it's a close call.
 
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It's DLSS on the right :D
 

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It's DLSS on the right :D
Dude that's insane, so it even has, to my eye, a slight sharpness advantage over native. And this is bloody Performance mode too...

Clearly, there's a fair bit left in the tank in terms of polishing DLSS, I'd love games that feature it to have a sharpness slider to accompany it, with sample imagery so you can see the result right there and then.
 
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Dude that's insane, so it even has, to my eye, a slight sharpness advantage over native. And this is bloody Performance mode too...

Clearly, there's a fair bit left in the tank in terms of polishing DLSS, I'd love games that feature it to have a sharpness slider to accompany it, with sample imagery so you can see the result right there and then.

Yeah I find that DLSS Performance with Sharpen+ filter is the best combination so far since Sharpen+ takes about 10-15%FPS, hopefully Nvidia incorporate it into the NVCP in the future to reduce the performance cost.
Sharpen+ is not just limited to boosting DLSS visuals though, some games just don't look good even at 4K Ultra settings like Hitman 3, where I think it looks too blurry on 48in OLED TV (yeah first world problem I know)
hitman3.jpg

Don't Sharpen+ make this gentleman more attractive?

Edit1: Yeah I think Nvidia could just do away with DLSS Quality and Balanced and make Performance the standard DLSS mode, with the Sharpen+ slider bar :D
 
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Yeah I find that DLSS Performance with Sharpen+ filter is the best combination so far since Sharpen+ takes about 10-15%FPS, hopefully Nvidia incorporate it into the NVCP in the future to reduce the performance cost.
Sharpen+ is not just limited to boosting DLSS visuals though, some games just don't look good even at 4K Ultra settings like Hitman 3, where I think it looks too blurry on 48in OLED TV (yeah first world problem I know)
View attachment 205747
Don't Sharpen+ make this gentleman more attractive?
Those light reflections on the handrail - how far technology has progressed. Games are rendering subpixel details almost perfectly. In my days we had to run max supersampling to see that much light banding...
 

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AMD has a sharpening filter too, I used it when I had my RX 6800 and it did help in some games, other games it didn't work so well though. I feel like all the settings can be a never ending rabbit hole honestly. Which is a big reason why I am hoping I can get a PS5 and OLED tv someday soon... life is just much more simple that way.
 

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Benchmark Scores I dont have time for that.
Hopefully they add this to the driver CO itself because I don’t install GeForce experience at all.
 
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Hopefully they add this to the driver CO itself because I don’t install GeForce experience at all.

Yeah, all filters in GFE overlay have quite high performance penalty like 10-15%, maybe Nvidia will include this option in the NVCP in the next driver update. However it may take some trial and error to find the preferable sharpness value (value too high can add noticeable noise) and using the overlay can save people some time as you can apply it in-game vs quitting the game and use NVCP

AMD has a sharpening filter too, I used it when I had my RX 6800 and it did help in some games, other games it didn't work so well though. I feel like all the settings can be a never ending rabbit hole honestly. Which is a big reason why I am hoping I can get a PS5 and OLED tv someday soon... life is just much more simple that way.

with PS5 you have the 30FPS and 60FPS options, so you will have to choose between FPS or IQ, not too simple now aren't they :D
 
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I think I've hypothesized this multiple times on TPU, there's clearly more to give quality wise with DLSS, as there can be up to ~75% performance gained in quality mode vs native, a rather large delta to squeeze a new mode into. Hec even roughly equal to native perf but a noticeable super sampling effect would be welcome when you have enough in the tank for it. But I have a feeling it would still offer better performance too.
 
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may i ask a question in between;

those new shiny thingis: DLSS and sharpen+ are GeForceXP features only?
 
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may i ask a question in between;

those new shiny thingis: DLSS and sharpen+ are GeForceXP features only?

DLSS are in game options that you can enable, Sharpen+ is a only accessible via Geforce Experience overlay (Atl + F3) for now
 
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Make a comparison between 4K Native vs 4K DLSS Performance Sharpen+


I guess without a FPS counter, people would be hard pressed to tell which one is DLSS
 
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For Death Stranding, with 1440p, looks like Sharpen+ is better.
 

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@nguyen I may be mistaken, but I don't have GFE installed with latest drivers, yet I am still seeing a sharpen + option at top of the drivers for my gtx 1070.

can anyone confirm? or have I lost my mind? or is this sharpening option different than sharpening+ option?

 
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@nguyen I may be mistaken, but I don't have GFE installed with latest drivers, yet I am still seeing a sharpen + option at top of the drivers for my gtx 1070.

can anyone confirm? or have I lost my mind? or is this sharpening option different than sharpening+ option?

i was about to ask the same myself.
Untitled.png


i would be grateful for any info on the difference. actually how best to use it. i haD been on maxwell for so long, it looks like i have learning curve.
 

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at a glance left is native right is DLSS
text is a dead give away its always blurry
 
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@nguyen I may be mistaken, but I don't have GFE installed with latest drivers, yet I am still seeing a sharpen + option at top of the drivers for my gtx 1070.

can anyone confirm? or have I lost my mind? or is this sharpening option different than sharpening+ option?

The Image Sharpening option in NVCP is the old Freestyle Sharpen filter that is not comparable to the new Sharpen+ in term of image quality, but it's a cheap way to sharpen up your game (similar behavior to AMD RIS)
Sharpen+ however is much better at improving image quality without introducing ringing artifacts (like halo)

As you can see here

Halo is the black edges surround objects when you oversharpen the image, it make the image look flat and cartoony (like Borderlands) Other artifacts with older Sharpen (and especially AMD CAS) is that it break the contrast of the game in order to make image sharper, light objects become brighter and dark object become darker, it make image look like shit IMO.

Like this comparison in Necromunda, FSR just oversharpen the image, make it looks just like Borderlands
 
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The Image Sharpening option in NVCP is the old Freestyle Sharpen filter that is not comparable to the new Sharpen+ in term of image quality, but it's a cheap way to sharpen up your game (similar behavior to AMD RIS)
Sharpen+ however is much better at improving image quality without introducing ringing artifacts (like halo)

As you can see here

Halo is the black edges surround objects when you oversharpen the image, it make the image look flat and cartoony (like Borderlands)

yeah Sharpen+ is vastly superior in that example.

so if I install GFE my gtx 1070 will have access to Sharpen+? I may give it a shot if its not RTX only cards that can use it.
 
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yeah Sharpen+ is vastly superior in that example.

so if I install GFE my gtx 1070 will have access to Sharpen+? I may give it a shot if its not RTX only cards that can use it.

Yes you use Sharpen+ with any Nvidia GPU, just install GFE, note that the performance cost of Sharpen+ is quite high atm (15% or even 20%perf).
Hope Nvidia will bring Sharpen+ to their NVCP to reduce the performance overhead.

at a glance left is native right is DLSS
text is a dead give away its always blurry

Which one are you referring to?
 

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Yes you use Sharpen+ with any Nvidia GPU, just install GFE, note that the performance cost of Sharpen+ is quite high atm (15% or even 20%perf).
Hope Nvidia will bring Sharpen+ to their NVCP to reduce the performance overhead.



Which one are you referring to?


a 15% hit in FFXIV might be worth it for this, that game needs a bit of polish at 1080p.
 
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at a glance left is native right is DLSS
text is a dead give away its always blurry
The "DLSS blur" LOL! Blurriness, especially in the non-foreground, IIRC, has been a thing for DLSS. Albeit this was only based on looking at screenshots, because I never have been able to get an 'RTX.
 

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Make a comparison between 4K Native vs 4K DLSS Performance Sharpen+


I guess without a FPS counter, people would be hard pressed to tell which one is DLSS
its blatantly obvious the right is DLSS its blurry the loss of detail is pretty bad even at 1440p
don't test with cyberpunk 2077 its got the worst DLSS implementation on the market
 
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