Better late than never, AMD has announced plans to officially support its FSR 4.1 upscaling tech on RDNA 3 and RDNA 2 GPUs. This marks a welcome shift from prior RDNA 4 exclusivity, but some gamers will need to wait longer than others to join this proverbial party.
AMD’s SVP and GM of computing and graphics, Jack Huynh, made the surprise announcement via his X account. From July, says Huynh, RDNA 3 GPUs, which includes Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards and integrated graphics on new handhelds, including the MSI Claw A8, will be able to reap the benefits of FSR 4.1 upscaling.
RDNA 2 GPUs will gain support much later, at some point in 2027. However, when full FSR 4.1 support does arrive, it will massively benefit not only Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards but also the likes of the Steam Deck, for which FSR 3.1 was the best option available until now.
For those out of the loop, the reason FSR 4 launched exclusively for RDNA 4 GPUs was on account of their hardware acceleration for FP8 instruction sets. Prior AMD graphics architectures lacked this keystone, but the company claims to now have created an INT8 version of the technology “without compromising quality or performance.”
This claim is important, as existing FSR 4 mods for older GPUs come at the cost of performance. However, AMD is yet to provide any performance comparisons relative to FSR 3, instead focusing on image quality improvements in its announcement video.
Given that Nvidia DLSS 4.5 upscaling works across all GeForce RTX graphics cards, it’s fantastic to see AMD work towards creating greater feature and support parity with its rival. I know our own Fahd will be over the moon to have access to FSR 4.1 on his Radeon RX 7900 XT.
Celebrations aside, I would like AMD to provide clarification on how far support for FSR 4.1 will reach. For instance, does this include frame generation? Moreover, does this open the door to FSR Redstone support in due time? Regardless, this is a win for gamers.
If you’re curious to see how FSR 4.1 holds up relative to FSR 3, check out my Radeon RX 9070 XT review, where you’ll find analysis of the new upscaler compared to its predecessor.
