Developer lonewolf0622 released the HelixSR mod, allowing devices with AMD graphics chips, such as the Steam Deck, to run the neural network models used by NVIDIA DLSS 3.7. Early community tests on the Steam Deck show that the mod's per-frame processing time is lower than that of FSR 4.
HelixSR integrates by replacing the FSR 3.1 upscaler in Direct3D 12 games. The game still uses the FSR 3.1 interface, while image reconstruction is handled by the mod. It utilizes the Preset E model from the DLSS 3.7 era, running via DirectX 12 compute shaders without requiring NVIDIA drivers, CUDA, or ROCm; on Linux, it can also work with Proton and vkd3d-proton.
This solution also involves the hardware support range for handhelds. Official support for FSR 4 is limited to RDNA 4, while the Steam Deck and some other handhelds use earlier AMD architectures.
One user set the Steam Deck's GPU frequency to 1400MHz and measured that at 800p, HelixSR took approximately 3.5 milliseconds per frame, while FSR 4 took about 4.5 milliseconds; at 1080p, the two took approximately 7 milliseconds and 11 milliseconds respectively. These are early community test results and cannot be directly applied to all games and handhelds.
Regarding image quality, testers have mixed opinions: some believe HelixSR is inferior to FSR 4 but superior to FSR 3, while others think it may outperform FSR 4 in certain scenarios. Since its release, the mod has added an installer and new upscaling modes, and fixed issues with blurry images on some RDNA 3 devices under Windows.
Currently, HelixSR only supports Direct3D 12 and does not support Vulkan. For games that do not use FSR 3.1, OptiScaler is also required.