Apple is quietly using AMD's FSR for MetalFX graphics upscaling

Apple announced Metal 3, which is the company’s latest graphics framework, at WWDC 2022. It comes with MetalFX, which helps GPU offer better graphics performance. So far, people have been assuming that Apple has developed MetalFX in-house. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

According to a new report from NotebookCheck, MetalFX is based on the FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology from AMD. The publication found the information in the Legal & Regulatory section of the software. AMD made FSR available under the MIT License, which is open source. That means Apple is most likely not paying AMD anything to use FSR for MetalFX. This license only requires the company to acknowledge that it is using FSR, and that’s what Apple is doing here.

Many AAA games for Windows, Xbox, and PlayStation use FSR, including Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding, Lies of P, Myst, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Village, and The Medium. Since Apple’s MetalFX is based on FSR, it becomes easier for developers to port these titles on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. That’s most likely why Capcom could bring Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil Village on the iPhone 15 Pro series and selected iPad Pro and iPad Air models so quickly.

So, if developers use FSR for their games, it will become easier for them to port those titles on Apple’s platforms. That means more and more developers will adopt this technology so that they can make their games available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS easily and quickly. This approach could boost the sales of AMD’s GPU and bring games to Apple’s devices faster. As NotebookCheck says in its article, it will benefit Apple, AMD, developers, and people gaming on Apple’s devices.