AMD FSR Ray Regeneration Enters Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, But How Does It Stack Up Against NVIDIA's DLSS?
In a move that has largely flown under the radar, AMD has quietly integrated its FSR Ray Regeneration technology into Call of Duty: Black Ops 7. This development positions AMD as attempting to mirror NVIDIA's prowess in AI-driven image upscaling and reconstruction, a feature that has become increasingly important for gamers seeking higher frame rates without sacrificing visual fidelity. However, initial independent testing by ComputerBase, as reported by VideoCardz, suggests that AMD's offering may still have a significant journey ahead to rival its competitor.
A Stealthy Debut and the Quest for Clarity
The absence of a formal announcement from AMD regarding the inclusion of Ray Regeneration is noteworthy. As ComputerBase themselves pointed out, "All information in this article was independently researched, and AMD declined to comment even when asked." Such a low-profile launch often hints at a product that isn't quite ready for prime time, and the version number of the relevant DLL file (0.9.0.0) in Black Ops 7 further supports this notion, implying an unpolished release.
The Battlefield: Testing Conditions and Initial Observations
To gauge the effectiveness of FSR Ray Regeneration, ComputerBase conducted rigorous tests at a 2560x1440 resolution with FSR set to its 'Quality' preset and all graphics settings maxed out, including ray-traced reflections. It's crucial to note that ray tracing in Black Ops 7 is currently confined to multiplayer. The testing utilized a Radeon RX 7900 XT and a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, ensuring a relatively balanced comparison in terms of raw hardware performance.
When pitted against the game's native denoising, FSR Ray Regeneration does demonstrate improvements in many scenarios. Reflections appear to retain more detail during motion, and the AI-based denoising seems to react more promptly to dynamic scene changes. However, the positive aspects are quickly overshadowed by significant caveats. ComputerBase highlights that the "quality is highly variable and prone to errors." In certain scenes, Ray Regeneration introduces noticeable artifacts, a stark contrast to the intended enhancement.
When the game's default denoising is overly blurry, activating FSR RR can replace that blurriness with unstable, but sharper images.
A Direct Comparison: Ripples and Flicker
The comparison with NVIDIA's DLSS Ray Reconstruction reveals further disparities. Both technologies exhibit a slight "waviness" in specular highlights, but with DLSS, this is a subtle effect, whereas with FSR, it escalates into a more apparent shimmering. The reconstruction of details also proves inconsistent: sometimes DLSS pulls ahead, and at other times FSR does, with the quality potentially fluctuating between static and moving frames. This inconsistency is a significant drawback for a technology aiming to deliver a stable, high-fidelity image.
The researchers' conclusion is unequivocal: Ray Regeneration "cannot compete with DLSS Ray Reconstruction, at least not in Black Ops 7," primarily due to the significantly more stable image provided by DLSS. Curiously, the performance impact of both technologies is minimal. On the RX 7900 XT, switching from the game's denoising to FSR Ray Regeneration resulted in a modest drop of about 3% in average frame rates (from 74.5 to 72 FPS). Similarly, the RTX 4070 Ti saw a roughly 2% decrease (from 61.0 to 59.9 FPS) when enabling DLSS Ray Reconstruction.
The Author's Take: A Disappointing Reality
Beyond the technical breakdowns from ComputerBase and VideoCardz, there's a visceral impression that, in the vast majority of showcased instances, AMD FSR Ray Regeneration yields inferior results compared to NVIDIA DLSS Ray Reconstruction. While this might be a subjective observation, and the author expresses a personal hope for AMD's technology to perform better given their own Radeon hardware, the current reality in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 appears to be a significant gap in favor of NVIDIA.
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