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Horizon Zero Dawn supports AMD FidelityFX SPD, AMD TressFX and Asynchronous Compute

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Horizon Zero Dawn has finally been released on the PC. As we’ve already reported, Guerrilla Games and Virtuos partnered with AMD in order to bring this game on PC. And, AMD has detailed all the new AMD PC features that the game packs under its hood.

According to the red team, Horizon Zero Dawn is the first game that supports AMD FidelityFX Single Pass Downsampler. Moreover, the game supports AMD TressFX, as well as Asynchronous Compute.

Here are some more details about these PC features, taken directly from AMD’s press release:

Horizon Zero Dawn AMD Tech Features

  • AMD Radeon FreeSync Premium Pro. Gamers on any hardware can enjoy breathtaking gaming experiences with AMD’s leading adaptive sync technology, offering stutter- and tear-free gaming with stunning HDR rendering.
  • AMD FidelityFX SPD. Optimized for RDNA architecture, SPD utilizes asynchronous compute to accelerate texture mapping for more efficient post-processing, driving effects like bloom and screen space reflections faster without sacrificing framerates.
    AMD TressFX. A true-to-life hair physics system taking high visual fidelity to a new level, enabling incredible photo-realistic hair effects with Radeon graphics cards – so much so, you may forget there’s even a screen in front of you.
    Asynchronous Compute. GPU multi-threading allowing Radeon GPUs to execute multiple tasks simultaneously, enabling graphics and visual effects workloads to be distributed efficiently for faster framerates and higher visual fidelity.

Theoretically speaking, NVIDIA’s GPUs should also be able to support TressFX and Asynchronous Compute. However, there is no option to enable/disable TressFX in the game. Not only that, but AMD implies here that only its Radeon GPUs support these features. The team specifically mentions its own GPUs and not all GPUs (like it did with AMD Radeon FreeSync Premium Pro). This could explain why AMD’s GPUs run the game faster than NVIDIA’s GPUs. That, or this is only a PR thing, meaning that both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs support all of the aforementioned features.

Since the game features numerous AMD features, we can safely assume that Virtuous will not add support for DLSS 2.0. After all, and contrary to Death Stranding, this is an AMD-sponsored game.

Our PC Performance Analysis article will go live later today. Until then, you can find here our early performance impressions.