AMD has recently announced a surprising and “exclusive” partnership with Bethesda and Starfield, and this news has not been well received by many people. This partnership raises questions about whether the game will support Nvidia’s DLSS and Intel’s XeSS technologies, and unfortunately, we do not currently have a clear answer to that.
Starfield is undoubtedly one of the most highly anticipated games of the year, and it is expected to utilize some of the best graphics cards on the market. While this partnership is advantageous for AMD, it does leave Nvidia users wondering if they will still be able to enjoy Starfield.
AMD made the announcement through a quick video featuring gameplay footage of Starfield and commentary from Jack Huynh, AMD’s senior vice president of the Computing and Graphics group, and Todd Howard, Bethesda’s game director.
Bethesda and AMD have collaborated closely to optimize Starfield, pushing it to its limits. We know that the game will support AMD’s FSR 2 technology to enhance frame rates and improve overall visual quality.
In the video, Huynh stated, “We have worked hand-in-hand with Bethesda Game Studios to optimize Starfield for both Xbox and PC with Ryzen 7000 series processors and Radeon 7000 series graphics. These optimizations improve performance and enhance gameplay quality using multi-threaded code that will benefit both Xbox and PC players.”
Howard added that AMD engineers are currently working within Bethesda’s code base to implement FSR2 image processing and upscaling, with the aim of achieving exceptional visuals and smooth performance.
Currently, the reactions to this announcement have been mixed, primarily due to the lack of information. Describing the partnership as “exclusive” implies that Starfield may not support Nvidia’s DLSS or Intel’s XeSS, and this has caused controversy.
It is worth noting that AMD’s FSR technology is open-source, allowing gamers with Nvidia GPUs to enable it in games whenever they desire, providing them with an additional boost in frame rates. This partnership ensures that gamers will have access to upscaling technology right from the start, without having to wait for further optimizations.
However, the absence of DLSS and XeSS support is a cause for concern. DLSS 3, in particular, still holds an advantage over FSR 2 and remains a significant selling point for Nvidia cards. Being unable to capitalize on this feature in a demanding game like Starfield could be a major setback for Nvidia gamers.
Many people have expressed their concerns about this potential lockout. John Linneman from Digital Foundry posted on Twitter, pleading, “please ensure that DLSS and XeSS are supported.” Tom Warren from The Verge described the move as “anti-consumer.”
Eager players were even more vocal. One commenter on Twitter stated, “this is a big middle finger to PC players blocking DLSS from the game,” and they are not alone. Numerous players are expressing their concerns about the lack of clarity regarding support for non-AMD technologies in Starfield.
Enabling DLSS and XeSS, once FSR 2 has already been implemented, should not pose a significant issue for Bethesda. The question is whether the partnership with AMD will allow for this or not. At present, we do not know if all three upscaling technologies will be supported. Additionally, there is the issue of sheer hardware power. AMD does not currently have the top graphics card in the market, as that title belongs to Nvidia’s RTX 4090. Furthermore, AMD does not seem to have any plans to release a competitor to Nvidia’s flagship GPU.
Understandably, the response to this partnership has been lukewarm, even within the AMD subreddit. Hopefully, Bethesda can provide clarification soon regarding whether we can expect to see the full upscaling trio in Starfield or if FSR 2 will be the sole option. The game is still a few months away, with a planned launch date of September 6.
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