When we look at the best gaming laptops here at Tom's Guide, our testing guru Matthew Murray runs frame rate tests at both a laptop's native screen resolution and at 1080p (1920 x 1080). This is a key process for detecting the raw processing power of a laptop's GPU, and these numbers are absolutely TO DO matter.
However, if you have an Nvidia 30-series or 40-series graphics card, both lines support Team Green technology. Streaming Security System (DLSS) — or if a game supports AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution or Intel XeSS, and you're not using either form of supersampling, you're playing poorly on PC.
At least, in this writer's semi-spicy opinion.
What is oversampling?
In case you don't know what supersampling is, it's an increasingly AI-driven technique that smooths out game image quality by removing jagged edges while also helping to increase frame rates by rendering a title at a higher resolution and then downsampling it to fit the size of your monitor.
This all sounds a bit technical, doesn't it? Simply put, when supersampling is done well, it increases a game's framerate with minimal loss in image quality compared to playing at your display's native resolution.
Image amplification technology first appeared when Nvidia launched DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) in early 2019. Over the years, it has continued to improve.
In some games, like my beloved Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Freedomusing DLSS 3.5 in Quality or Balanced mode, the rendering is so good that even my obsessive eyes can't tell the difference between the upscaled image and native 4K playback on my 48 inch LG OLED C2which I use as my main gaming monitor in my home office.
God of Wow
The above image of the awesome PC port of God of War is the dictionary definition of “a picture is worth a thousand words”. DLSS remains the most effective form of upsampling and is a real game changer when it comes to extracting additional frames.
Stepping into the shoes of Pappa Kratos in upscaled 4K versus running the reboot natively at that resolution can result in you losing up to 36 frames per second (depending on your hardware). I've played tons of games that support DLSS, and the technology has gotten to such a phenomenal point thanks to AI advancements that I'll never use it when a title supports it in the future.
There’s no doubt that Nvidia remains the undisputed leader in supersampling, but Intel XeSS has impressively gained ground on its rival when it comes to fast split times. As for AMD’s scaling methods? Well, they’re excellent. you can make Steam Deck even better thanks to FSR 3.1 in a bunch of PlayStation ports, this is generally the worst form of upsampling in terms of delivering anything close to native screen resolution image clarity.
In a nutshell, if a game supports supersampling and you have the PC hardware to do it justice, my opinion is that you should always, always activate it.