Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- AMD is expanding FSR 4 upscaling technology beyond RDNA 4 cards to older Radeon GPUs, addressing gamer frustration over initial exclusivity.
- PCWorld reports that RDNA 3 cards (RX 7000 series) will receive FSR Upscaling 4.1 in July, while RDNA 2 cards (RX 6000 series) must wait until early 2027.
- The expansion will benefit over 300 games by July for RX 7000 owners, significantly improving gaming performance across AMD’s graphics card lineup.
FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) is AMD’s alternative to upscaler tech like Nvidia DLSS, and it’s pretty good. But the latest frame generation goodies in FSR 4 are only available to the latest Radeon 9000-series cards on the RDNA 4 architecture, a move that has rankled gamers using older but still powerful Radeon 7000 and 6000 cards. Today, AMD is officially changing its tune… but it’ll still be a bit of a wait.
“My team and I have been working hard to evolve AMD FSR 4 and bring it to more cards,” says Jack Huynh, AMD’s senior vice president in charge of computing and graphics. “This July, RDNA 3 players will experience FSR Upscaling 4.1, delivering sharper visuals and smoother gameplay than ever before.”
RDNA 3 cards include the Radeon RX 7000 series for desktop and discrete laptop cards. Technically, it also applies to integrated graphics in the 7X0M and 8X0M series, as well as Ryzen Z1 chips from 2023 (though the integrated graphics didn’t get a shout-out in the tweet). Those integrated graphics, including devices like the Asus ROG Ally family, do support FSR 3.1, so they could get the upgrade.
Huynh kept the good news coming for those on older hardware, but it’s going to be an even longer wait. “And for our RDNA 2 players, we have something exciting coming in early 2027. FSR Upscaling will be coming to your cards as well,” he added. RDNA 2 cards include the Radeon RX 6000 series of cards and integrated graphics in the 6X0M series, which notably includes the APU used by the Steam Deck. The oldest consumer product on an RDNA 2 chip is the Radeon RX 6800 XT, released in November of 2020.
Gamers were pretty upset when FSR 4 debuted last year and excluded all but the latest and most expensive AMD graphics cards. (Many replies to Huynh are from gamers who sold their older Radeon cards and switched to Nvidia, and they aren’t alone.) They probably weren’t any happier when the source code leaked and it turned out that FSR 4 could run on both RX 7000 cards and even older Nvidia GPUs. One might be tempted to speculate on whether that leak got AMD’s teams working on the feature themselves, but it would only be speculation.
FSR 4 will be available in “over 300 supported games” by the time RX 7000 owners get access to it in July. It’s possible to coax it into other games with a little tweaking, too.