Cyberpunk 2077 user-made FSR 2.0 mod dramatically improves performance

Last week AMD made its killer Fidelity FX Super Resolution 2.0 (say that five times fast) upscaling technology available for all developers to implement in their PC games. “Developers” is a broad term, of course, and it technically includes tireless PC game modders, who love nothing more than to tinker with releases until they’re better, stronger, faster than they were before. Such is the case with Cyberpunk 2077, CDProjekt Red’s troubled sci-fi opus, and a selfless and intrepid modder known only as PotatoOfDoom1337.

The FSR 2.0 mod for Cyberpunk allows for advanced resolution super sampling on more or less any graphics card. Unlike Nvidia’s similar DLSS technology, it doesn’t require developers to apply game-specific machine learning algorithms, and it works on any graphics card from any manufacturer. That doesn’t mean it’ll be all that helpful if you’re running Cyberpunk on, say, a dusty old GT 730. But if you have a mid-range card you can see dramatic improvements at high resolution versus running with FSR disabled. The developer said that on a GTX 1080 (a six-year-old card that doesn’t support DLSS), the framerate doubled with the mod applied.

The base game supports the original FSR 1.0 from the developers. But PotatoOfDoom1337’s mod, available on NexusMods and spotted by Tom’s Hardware, forces the newer and much more advanced FSR 2.0 system to take its place. Once the slightly tricky setup process is done, users can apply FSR 2.0 using the DLSS setting in the game’s default graphics menu. The developer warns that the mod is currently in a proof of concept stage, and that “changing certain graphics settings” will break it. There’s also a ghosting issue while driving.

This user implementation of FSR 2.0 isn’t quite as powerful or efficient as the latest version of DLSS running on an RTX 30XX graphics card, as demonstrated by PotatoOfDoom1337’s comparison video. And even that’s using fairly standard static and tracking shots — performance might dip during gameplay, especially with tons of enemies on screen or a high-speed chase. But it was cobbled together by a solo modder in just a few days, and it doesn’t require the latest hardware from a specific vendor. It’s a promising demonstration of how AMD’s technology could benefit PC gamers, especially on budget machines.