Gamers Pick the Best Upscaler Blind — DLSS 4.5 Demolishes FSR 4.1, but AMD Still Has Something to Be Proud Of

Portal ComputerBase updated its massive blind upscaling tech test, adding the fresh version of AMD FSR 4.1 to the mix. The results weren’t as clear-cut as you might think just by looking at the raw specs.

The methodology stayed the same: participants were shown gameplay footage from seven demanding titles without being told which upscaling tech was used. The game list included Anno 117: Pax Romana, ARC Raiders, Assassin's Creed Shadows, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Resident Evil Requiem, and The Last of Us Part I. All three options — FSR 4.1, its predecessor FSR 4.0, and DLSS 4.5 — went through a public vote.

NVIDIA’s DLSS 4.5 took first place in six out of seven games. Participants noted a more stable image in motion, fewer artifacts on small objects, and cleaner frame generation. The only exception was Resident Evil Requiem — there, to many people’s surprise, AMD FSR 4.1 claimed victory. In that specific game, AMD’s solution came across as more appealing to the audience, beating both DLSS 4.5 and its own previous version. If you take the direct competition out of the equation, AMD’s progress is clearly visible to the naked eye. The difference between FSR 4.0 and FSR 4.1 is genuinely noticeable in several scenes — the image is cleaner, and a lot of the typical noise from the previous version is gone. In some moments, FSR 4.1 looks practically indistinguishable from what DLSS 4.5 delivers.

The gap between DLSS 4 and DLSS 4.5 turned out to be more substantial than the step AMD managed in a year moving from FSR 4.0 to FSR 4.1. While NVIDIA switched to a new machine learning model, AMD stuck with a solid but local refinement. Playing catch-up is always harder when the leader steps on the gas.

More and more participants in such polls pick an upscaled frame even when native rendering is placed right next to it for comparison. Today’s scaling algorithms have learned not just to boost resolution but also to effectively smooth out jagged edges and boost sharpness — something that "pure" rendering without anti-aliasing sometimes fails at. While the formal leader in this race kept its top spot, AMD’s results make one thing clear: NVIDIA no longer has a monopoly on good-looking image quality.

Are you willing to sacrifice a few frames per second for a more stable image, or in multiplayer shooters every millisecond counts? Share your thoughts in the comments.