A few days ago, Intel revealed the next iteration of its AI-upscaling tech, Intel XeSS 1.3. Intel XeSS 1.3 promises to provide a better image quality and better performance. Not only that but PC gamers can already mod XeSS 1.3 in games that already support older versions of it, like XeSS 1.1 and XeSS 1.2. So, let’s take a closer look at it.

First things first. Intel XeSS 1.3 will come with some new presets that PC gamers will be able to use. The following table shows these new presets and compares them with those that were available in XeSS 1.2.

In a way, this table should give an idea of how Intel was able to increase performance. For instance, Intel XeSS 1.3 Performance has a 2.3X resolution scaling, and not a 2.0X. This means that a game using Intel XeSS 1.3 Performance is being rendered at a lower resolution than the same game with Intel XeSS 1.2 Performance. So, no wonder the games run better with Intel XeSS 1.3.

In short, there isn’t any magic sauce here. The performance benefits are mostly due to a lower internal resolution.

With this out of the way, let’s look at image/visual improvements. YouTube’s ‘S2Games Bench’ has shared a video, comparing Intel XeSS 1.3 with Intel XeSS 1.2. The good news here is that XeSS 1.3 has less ghosting than XeSS 1.2. Compared to AMD FSR 2.2 and NVIDIA DLSS 3.7, Intel XeSS 1.3 falls somewhere in between. While it looks better than FSR 2.2, it’s not as good as DLSS 3.7.

So, as an alternative to DLSS, XeSS 1.3 appears to be great. However, AMD is already working on the next major version of FSR. AMD FSR 3.1 promises to resolve all the major visual issues that plagued FSR 2.2. So, it will be interesting to see whether XeSS 1.3 will be able to compete with FSR 3.1.

Those interested can download the Intel XeSS 1.3 SDK from this link. By using it, you will be able to create the necessary DLL files so that you can mod XeSS 1.3 in games that already use Intel’s AI-upscaling tech. If this sounds too complicated, we suggest waiting for some mods. In theory, we should see some Intel XeSS 1.3 Mods pop up in the next few days or weeks. Thus, we’ll be sure to share these mods once – and if – they ever come out.

Stay tuned for more!

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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