On March 20, 2025, the highly anticipated game Assassin’s Creed Shadows debuted across all major platforms, including PC. Leveraging cutting-edge ray-tracing technology, this title promises to revolutionize its environments, creating breathtaking visual experiences. However, to experience the game with full ray-tracing features, players are encouraged to activate upscaling technologies such as NVIDIA’s DLSS or AMD’s FSR to ensure optimal performance.
Yet, a common question arises: should players opt for DLSS 4 or FSR? This article aims to dissect these upscaling methods within the context of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and provide guidance on the optimal choice.
Comparing DLSS 4 and FSR in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Both NVIDIA’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR are upscaling technologies designed to enhance frame rates by rendering games at lower resolutions before upscaling to higher resolutions. This technique allows for a significant performance boost, albeit with some compromise on visual fidelity.
With both technologies now on version four, they are compatible with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, yet they have specific hardware requirements and performance characteristics. Your hardware setup will largely inform your choice between DLSS and FSR, which we will break down further.
Understanding Upscaling Technology
NVIDIA’s DLSS is exclusive to its RTX series graphics cards and is not compatible with older GTX models. Presently, NVIDIA offers two AI models for DLSS: CNN and Transformer.
The CNN model provides decent image quality alongside satisfactory performance, while the more advanced Transformer model significantly enhances image clarity, albeit at the potential cost of some performance. For players using NVIDIA RTX graphics cards, DLSS is highly recommended for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Conversely, AMD users with Radeon graphics cards up to the 7000 series should primarily utilize FSR 3, which is less advanced than DLSS but still adequate. Interestingly, even older NVIDIA GTX cards are compatible with FSR 3, providing players with an alternative avenue for performance enhancement. Only the newest Radeon 9000 series supports FSR 4.
In terms of visual quality, the hierarchy is clear: DLSS Transformer > FSR 4 > DLSS CNN > FSR 3. Based on this ranking, it is evident that DLSS outperforms FSR when it comes to image upscaling.
Frame Generation Insights
The landscape shifts when discussing Frame Generation. Here, AMD’s FSR Frame Generation takes the lead over NVIDIA’s DLSS. AMD’s technology yields cleaner images devoid of artifacts, and often provides greater performance gains in various gaming scenarios.
Nonetheless, for Multi-Frame Generation (MFR), NVIDIA DLSS holds a distinct advantage, as AMD has yet to introduce an equivalent feature.
In summary, if you own an NVIDIA RTX graphics card, DLSS remains the superior choice for upscaling. In contrast, AMD Radeon users can rely on FSR, with older GTX card owners having the option to utilize FSR as well due to their incompatibility with DLSS.
However, with respect to Frame Generation in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, players from both NVIDIA and AMD camps should lean towards FSR Frame Generation, which consistently outperforms its NVIDIA counterpart. NVIDIA’s Frame Generation should only be considered when utilizing the MFR feature.