Xbox Series X graphics get a boost thanks to AMD FidelityFX

AMD is bringing its FidelityFX graphics technology to Xbox Series X and S, giving game developers more ways to enhance and fine-tune new-gen graphics and, according to the announcement, "make it even easier than before to write cross-platform games."

FidelityFX is a collection of graphical effects that developers have been using on PC (in over 40 games) for over a year. The full library includes: variable shading, denoiser, contrast adaptive sharpening, screen space reflections, ambient occlusion, downsampler, parallel sort, and HDR mapper. For the initial Xbox Series X rollout, developers will have access to contrastive adaptive sharpening, variable shading, and the raytrace shadow denoiser.

As AMD explains, adaptive sharpening makes it easier to sharpen or scale images without losing any quality. Similarly, variable shading allows games to shade different parts of a scene to different degrees, adding detail where it matters most while freeing up resources to improve performance. The most important piece of tech is arguably the raytrace denoiser, which can be used to clear up the fuzzy artifacting that games can get with raytraced light and shadows.

To sum all of that up, some really powerful graphics tech previously limited to PC will now be available to Xbox Series X developers. We won't see it in every game on the platform, and the Series S may not support some effects, but this is ultimately good news for new-gen graphics.

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.