ARM Accuracy Super Resolution (ASR), dedicated temporal upscaling for low-power devices

Wake up samurais GPU enthusiasts, there’s new upscaling in town.

Today, ARM introduced a new upscaler for mobile devices. The company confirmed it is an open-source solution intended for all developers working with ARM-powered devices. ARM explained why it skipped spatial upscaling techniques (like AMD’s FSR1) and jumped directly to temporal upscaling.

ARM engineers were inspired by FSR2, which is provided under the MIT license and allows other developers to participate in its development or create something entirely new. FSR2 was a starting point that encouraged ARM to focus on enabling higher fidelity and better performance for low-power devices. These devices now power billions of units, many of which are smartphones running thousands of 3D games.

ARM says that temporal upscalers are more complex to implement, but the final result is better. The company used FSR2 code and started adjusting it for their purposes. This allowed ARM to save a lot of engineering effort while focusing on important aspects, such as optimizations. The company is also using familiar APU configurations and has similar quality profiles.

ARM made a comparison based on ARM Immortalis G720 graphics using a simple 3D scene at 2800×1260 resolution. Since both FSR2 and FSR1 are open-source and usable on ARM, the company was able to generate a performance comparison chart.

ASR vs FSR vs GSR, Source: ARM

Unlike desktop PCs or laptops, which are either connected directly to a socket or use much larger batteries, the focus for ASR is not just on higher performance, but also on battery life and low temperatures. Instead of rendering at native resolutions, games can be rendered with fewer details, which will limit thermal throttling and improve the overall experience, says ARM in the official announcement.

ASR vs FSR, Source: ARM

The ARM team developed a demo using Unreal Engine (version not specified), sharing the following comparison results. It is worth noting that FSR2 is (surprisingly) absent from this comparison, perhaps because it looked similar to ASR.

ASR vs FSR vs GSR, Source: ARM

The ARM ASR joins a long list of upscaling technologies, including FSR, GSR, TSR, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Game Super Resolution. Hopefully, mobile devices will see a unification of the API akin to Microsoft DirectSR rather than experience further market segmentation.

Source: ARM