Intel's Lisa Pearce: GPU integer scaling graphics support coming

[HEXUS]

Instead of using an upscale filter algorithm, driver can use integer multiples (Gen 11).

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[Tabbykatze]

I'm struggling to see validation for this, what specifically is the benefit other than having smoother edges/images in pixel based games...?

[kalniel]

Actually I think smoother edges is _not_ a benefit of this method, quite the opposite. It's saying take my one pixel and instead represent it as a square of 4/9/16/etc. pixels. The benefit is simply an enlarged image on higher res monitors without any smoothing/blurring - but equally steps/jaggies get enlarged too.

It's trivial, and thus embedded in almost any tool for running older games already without needing driver support. Monitors can also do it, but the advantage of keeping it to a window is you could just enlarge a single window rather than your whole desktop.

[AGTDenton]

I'm struggling to see validation for this, what specifically is the benefit other than having smoother edges/images in pixel based games...?

They are just trying to add some benefit to those who don't play Forza but rather F-Zero. Players who may not have a lot of money/space/whatever to play AAA games on ultra and want to use integrated. I see this as perfectly valid for SFF/USFF/Mobile PC's and where people just don't want to have to buy a nVidia/AMD graphics card just for some extra features for basic games.
This has probably had more hype than it needed to. I suspect a bit of marketing is at play here as well, 'we listened to our customers, here do you see it on Reddit, we're such a nice company'...

[Tabbykatze]

Actually I think smoother edges is _not_ a benefit of this method, quite the opposite. It's saying take my one pixel and instead represent it as a square of 4/9/16/etc. pixels. The benefit is simply an enlarged image on higher res monitors without any smoothing/blurring - but equally steps/jaggies get enlarged too.

It's trivial, and thus embedded in almost any tool for running older games already without needing driver support. Monitors can also do it, but the advantage of keeping it to a window is you could just enlarge a single window rather than your whole desktop.

Yeah, I thought I have seen some monitors do it and it sometimes does look better/the same. The term is quite familiar but i'm not all up to snuff with it.

They are just trying to add some benefit to those who don't play Forza but rather F-Zero. Players who may not have a lot of money/space/whatever to play AAA games on ultra and want to use integrated. I see this as perfectly valid for SFF/USFF/Mobile PC's and where people just don't want to have to buy a nVidia/AMD graphics card just for some extra features for basic games.
This has probably had more hype than it needed to. I suspect a bit of marketing is at play here as well, 'we listened to our customers, here do you see it on Reddit, we're such a nice company'...

I play F-Zero, that's it I'm sold!

I kid, a lot of emulators these days have anti-aliasing for the upscaling and frankly, I don't have a problem upscaling to 1080p. So this still just feels like a mediocre "oh ok, so you've got something in the driver that no one else has because everyone else does it in software because the use case for it is so niche it's not worth noting...?"

[kalniel]

I suspect a bit of marketing is at play here as well, 'we listened to our customers, here do you see it on Reddit, we're such a nice company'...

This.

[wsjudd]

Basically, it's a relatively easy ask that should be possible to accomplish only in software and would work really nicely for pixel-lite games like FTL. In fact, you can already get Lossless Scaling on Steam that does the same job.

[ValkyrieTsukiko]

I mean, AMD already asked about this in a poll a few months ago and it was one of the highest voted options of that list. Integer scaling should be coming to AMD cards before the year is out.