What is upscaling? DLSS, FSR, and XeSS explained

Upscaling is the single best free performance setting in modern games — and unlike frame generation, the frames it gives you are real. Our calculator shows an RTX 4070 climbing from 57 to 74 fps at 4K with it on, at near-native image quality. If you only change one setting, make it this one.

DLSS, FSR, and XeSS get lumped together and half-understood. Here's what upscaling actually does, how much it really adds, how it's different from frame generation, and which version to use on your GPU.

What is upscaling, exactly?

Instead of rendering every pixel at your full resolution, the GPU renders the frame at a lower internal resolution — say 1440p when you're playing at 4K — and an algorithm reconstructs the missing detail back up to the target. Because the card is doing less actual rendering work, your frame rate goes up, while modern reconstruction keeps the image surprisingly close to native.

You pick how aggressive it is with a quality setting — typically Quality, Balanced, and Performance. Quality renders closest to native (best image, smaller fps gain); Performance renders from a much lower base (biggest fps gain, softer image). Three vendors do this: Nvidia's DLSS, AMD's FSR, and Intel's XeSS.

How much performance does it actually add?

Here's a Ryzen 5 7600 + RTX 4070 in Cyberpunk 2077, from our FPS calculator, with upscaling (Quality) off and on:

Around a third more frames in Quality mode, and far more if you drop to Balanced or Performance. Crucially, these are rendered frames — they count toward how the game responds, not just how it looks.

Upscaling vs frame generation — don't confuse them

This is where the marketing blurs two very different things. Upscaling produces real frames at a lower render cost, so it raises your frame rate and lowers input latency — the game genuinely runs better. Frame generation inserts interpolated frames between real ones, so it raises the displayed number without making the game any more responsive.

The practical rule: reach for upscaling first. It's the setting that actually improves performance. Frame generation is a smoothness layer you add on top once your real frame rate is already good.

DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS: which is best?

On pure image quality, DLSS is widely judged the sharpest and most stable — but it only runs on Nvidia RTX cards. AMD's FSR is the most compatible, working on almost any GPU including older and non-AMD ones, and version 3.1 narrowed the quality gap considerably. Intel's XeSS sits in between: best on Intel Arc, and a strong fallback elsewhere that often beats FSR on a non-RTX card (Digital Trends).

In practice you rarely choose freely — you use whichever your GPU and game support. The short version: on an RTX card, use DLSS; on anything else, try XeSS first, then FSR.

Quality or Performance mode?

Match the mode to your resolution. At 4K there's so much detail that even Performance mode often looks excellent, so you can be aggressive. At 1440p, Quality or Balanced is the sweet spot. At 1080p, upscaling has the least source detail to work with, so stick to Quality — or skip it if your frame rate is already fine. The higher your output resolution, the better upscaling looks, which is exactly why it pairs so well with 4K gaming.

For almost everyone, upscaling in Quality mode is close to free performance — the first box to tick before you touch anything else, or think about upgrading a part.