Death Stranding header screenshot 3

Death Stranding – Native 4K vs FidelityFX Upscaling vs DLSS 2.0


505 Games and Kojima Productions have just released Death Stranding on the PC. Death Stranding supports both DLSS 2.0 and FidelityFX Upscaling. As such, and instead of sharing our initial 4K performance impressions, we’ve decided to test these re-construction techniques. We’ve also included Native 4K screenshots in order to showcase the graphical differences between them.

In order to capture the following screenshots, we used an Intel i9 9900K with 16GB of DDR4 at 3600Mhz. Naturally, we’ve paired this machine with an NVIDIA RTX 2080Ti. We also used Windows 10 64-bit and the latest version of the GeForce drivers. We’ve also included MSI Afterburner in our screenshots in order to give you an idea of the in-game performance.

As we can see, FidelityFX Upscaling and DLSS 2.0 Quality Mode perform similarly. However, FidelityFX comes with a Sharpening slider that lets you improve overall image. Thus, and thanks to it, the FidelityFX Upscaling screenshots can look sharper than both Native 4K and DLSS 2.0.

On the other hand, DLSS 2.0 does a better job at eliminating most of the jaggies. Take a look at the fence (on the right) in the seventh comparison for example. That fence is more detailed in DLSS 2.0 than in both Native 4K and FidelityFX Upscaling.

Now while DLSS 2.0 can eliminate more jaggies, it also comes with some visual artifacts while moving. Below you can find a video showcasing the visual artifacts that DLSS 2.0 introduces. Most of the times, these artifacts are not that easy to spot.

Death Stranding - 4K Native vs FidelityFX Upscaling vs DLSS 2.0

It’s also worth noting that FidelityFX Upscaling introduced some artifacts during some cut-scenes. These artifacts were completely gone when we disabled FidelityFX (or when we restarted the game). So yeah, this is something that you should also consider before enabling it.

FidelityFX Upscaling Artifacts Cut-scenes

All in all, DLSS 2.0 is slightly better than both Native 4K and FidelityFX Upscaling. Performance-wise, both FidelityFX and DLSS 2.0 perform similarly. FidelityFX Upscaling comes with a sharpening slider via which it can provide a sharper image than both Native 4K and DLSS 2.0. However, there is more aliasing with FidelityFX Upscaling than in both Native 4K and DLSS 2.0. On the other hand, DLSS 2.0 can eliminate more jaggies, but also introduces some visual artifacts.

Below you can find the our comparison screenshots. Native 4K is on the left, DLSS 2.0 is in the middle, and FidelityFX Upscaling is on the right. We also suggest opening the images in new tabs.

Stay tuned for our PC Performance Analysis!