Qualcomm's Snapdragon Game Super Resolution promises game improvements
Qualcomm unveiled Snapdragon Game Super Resolution today, a technology that promises increased battery life, higher resolutions and improved frame rates on mobile devices.
Upscaling techniques are used commonly in these days to improve the resolution of content to a higher resolution. This is done mostly to improve performance and battery life. A basic example is a 1080p image that is resized to 540p and then upscaled to 1080p again using upscaling technologies.
Qualcomm explains that Snapdragon Game Super Resolution is a single pass spatial aware super resolution technique. It can be compared to AMD's FSR 1.0 technology, but offers better performance than it, according to Qualcomm.
The feature provides the following benefits to mobile and XR games:
- Improved resolution while maintaining visual quality of graphics.
- Increase the framerate of games.
- Improve battery life.
- Improve visual fidelity while maintaining the framerate.
Qualcomm says that 1080p games can become 4K games with Game Super Resolution, and that 30 frames per second (FPS) games can become 60 FPS games. All of this can be achieved without impacting battery usage negatively. The feature allows gamers to set priorities while gaming, e.g., to maximize power usage or FPS, while playing games on their mobile devices.
The technology is optimized for Snapdragon Adreno graphics processing units. Qualcomm claims that Snapdragon Game Super Resolution offers "two times performance improvement" when compared to "other mobile upscaling solutions".
Snapdragon Game Super Resolution uses "as few registers, texture samples, and Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) instructions as possible on Adreno hardware" on the technical side. Qualcomm has combined upscaling and edge sharpening in a single pass, which sets it apart from some of the other solutions. The change reduces latency and memory bus usage, which in turn improves battery life and speed.
Games and XR products need to support Qualcomm's Snapdragon Game Super Resolution technology. Qualcomm expects that the first games to support the feature will launch later in 2023. The company lists several quotes from game studios on its site. Games such as Call of Duty Warzone Mobile, Jade Dynasty: New Fantasy, Return to Empire, Justice Mobile, Naraka Mobile, or Farming Simulator 23 Mobile will be among the first games to support the new feature.
Time will show how well supported the new feature will be and whether it delivers the promised improvements.
Qualcomm isn't the only company that is investing in super resolution techniques. NVIDIA unveiled RTX Super Resolution for its RTX graphics processing units earlier this year. Microsoft has been testing Microsoft Super Video Resolution in its Edge web browser recently as well.
