Assassin’s Creed Mirage Intel XeSS vs AMD FSR vs NVIDIA DLSS

Intel’s scaling technology has surprised the world Assassin’s Creed Miragewe talk about your Intel Xe Super Sampling 1.2 (XeSS 1.2). This new release from Ubisoft is ideal for a comparison, since it also offers compatibility with all the technologies on the market. This involves the AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.2 (FSR 2.2), NVIDIA Deep Learning Super Sampling 3.5 (DLSS 3.5), NVIDIA Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing (DLAA) and Native Anti-Aliasing (Native AA). It should be noted that this game really comes with the DLSS 2.3.1. They manually added the DLSS 3.5 version for comparison.

It must also be taken into account that Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a game that has been optimized for Intel hardware. This does not mean that they have harmed the competition, and a clear example is one of the few games counted on one hand that offer this wide range of scaling technologies. What’s more, with so many options, it would be the only one. But on the other hand, they have taken it seriously making the most of Intel technologydespite the fact that there are very few users with an Intel Arc GPU.

Intel XeSS 1.2 stands out compared to its counterparts in Assassin’s Creed Mirage

According to tests conducted by TechPowerUp, Intel XeSS technology includes three scaling cores optimized for different architectures. One of them, obviously, Take advantage of XMX engines present in Intel Arc GPUs. It is where more performance and better visual quality from rescaling can be obtained. Intel also provides an optimized kernel for Intel Integrated Graphics GPUs, and other kernel compatibility, used for all other architectures that support Shader Model 6.4. This can be used with AMD and NVIDIA graphics.

These two kernels use the “Standard XeSS upscaling model“, which is somewhat simpler, with lower performance and quality compared to the “Advanced XeSS upscaling model” which for example used the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 from the tests. The advanced model makes use of DP4a instructions. If they are not available, as in the case of the Radeon RX 5700 XT, they are used instead INT24 instructions, slower. Only AMD RX 6000 Series GPUs support DP4a instructions.

Obviously, the Assassin’s Creed Mirage makes use of Intel XeSS 1.2, the most advanced version of the technology. This technology, despite being very premature compared to the competition, has received significant improvements in terms of image quality, stability in motion and performance.

As indicated, Intel XeSS, in “Quality” mode, only applies a modest reduction in overall image quality details. This means that distant shadows are slightly more unstable. Tree leaves and vegetation in the distance will appear softer (blurred) at lower resolutions, such as 1080p, compared to the native image. Of course, they highlight that at no time is there ghosting, shimmering or flickering in the Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Added to this is that it is capable of offering greater performance compared to NVIDIA DLSS 3.5.

Disadvantages of AMD FSR and NVIDIA DLSS scaling technologies

Looking at its competitors, it is indicated that the AMD FRS 2.2 presents shimmering and flickering problems in leaves, vegetation, distant shadows or fine lines. This happens in any resolution and in any quality mode. Also exist ghosting problems in small particle effects, and even artifacts small size around the main character and NPCs. If that wasn’t enough, the image quality also looks softer/fuzzier. Although it is solved with FSR 2.2 in “native AA”, the rest of the problems with brightness or flickering remain.

As a summary, NVIDIA DLSS offers the best quality. The technology Intel XeSS 1.2 be behind by very little, but offering more performance than NVIDIA. AMD FSR 2.2 It is the one with the worst quality, and offers the same performance as Intel XeSS.

NVIDIA DLSS offers the best quality image in all resolutions and quality modes when scaling is enabled. With DLSS in “Quality” mode you can expect a slightly improved rendering of the details of tree leaves and general vegetation. Also a sharp overall image with perfect stability in motion and small particle effects, and the absence of any form of ghosting or shimmering artifacts. With DLAA enabled, the overall image quality improvement is even greater, delivering more details and the best graphical experience compared to TAA, FSR, DLSS or XeSS solution.

Speaking of performance, the Intel XeSS 1.2 implementation is virtually identical to the AMD FSR 2.2 in terms performance gain on native TAA at all resolutions. NVIDIA DLSS is slightly slower than XeSS and FSR, which is quite unusual. Most XeSS implementations we have tested show a 10-13% lower performance gain using the support kernel instruction set that works with all GPU architectures, compared to NVIDIA and AMD, but in this game XeSS has essentially the same performance gain as FSR 2.2 while producing better image quality using the DP4a instruction set, which is an impressive achievement.