Intel has officially released its AI-powered XeSS upscaling technology today before unleashing the company’s newest Arc A770 GPU. Intel XeSS, or Intel Xe Super Sampling, will allow for higher performance levels while increasing image fidelity through hardware acceleration and an innovative AI algorithm. The first game title to take advantage of the XeSS technology will be Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Intel reveals the company’s highly anticipated XeSS AI-enhanced upscaling technology, available before the release of the Arc A770 GPU
Interested players and users can download Intel XeSS 1.0 from the company’s GitHub page. The patch, which was first revealed on the Steam release notes for the game, fixes the deprecated online authentication method while adding the XeSS support for systems compatible with DirectX 12 (DX12). Intel XeSS is the second upscaling technology that has been published on GitHub. The first temporal upscaler was from AMD with their FSR 2.0 upscaling technology.
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On Intel’s official XeSS page, Courtney O’Neill, Chief Operating Officer for Hashbane Interactive, introduces the technology in action on their latest game Instinction, which was developed in Unreal Engine 5. The new AI-enhanced upscaler offers an additional 20fps or higher than traditional hardware rendering. The process is explained to provide various upscaling options, such as “ultra quality” modes to higher performance modes, that gamers can take advantage of in their current games.
Image source: Intel.
The most significant prerequisite for Intel’s XeSS algorithm is graphics drivers with assistance for Shader Model 6.4, allowing the upscaler to be compatible with a comprehensive collection of hardware. Shader Model 6.4 is a new version of the HLSL compiler technology that is demanded in several DirectX 12 features, such as DirectML, DirectX Mesh and Amplification Shaders, and DirectX Raytracing. DirectX’s compiler, DXC (or DXIL compiler), is based on LLVM and develops Shader Model 6 programs.
Image source: Intel.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning offer the ability to “synthesize images” similar to what is seen from ultra-high resolution rendering by rebuilding subpixel data from the primary pixels and compensating motion from previous frames. The process is accomplished by the neural network specifically trained to produce higher performance levels while also delivering high levels of quality.
Image source: CapFrameX.
Additionally, Intel XeSS will support AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards, which were tested by CapFrameX using the AMD Radeon RX 6800XT graphics card. The new upscaling technology will also leverage the DP4a and XMX hardware abilities in Intel Xe graphics cards to enhance performance.
Image source: Intel.
While the XeSS upscale technology is available, the code has not been offered as an open source option, and it is unknown if and when the company will release the official code. For now, developers will have to manage with the initial SDK and DLL libraries that are currently available.
Image source: Intel.
Intel does mention that XeSS upscaling performance will vary by use, configuration, and additional factors. The rendering on the company’s official page notes that the demonstration was created by using the Arc A770 GPU and the company’s Core i9-12900K CPU at 1440p resolution. Intel directs interested parties to Intel.com/PerformanceIndex to learn more.
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