AMD brings FSR 4.1 upscaling to Xbox Series X|S and Radeon RX 6000

AMD has announced that FSR 4.1, its machine-learning upscaler, is expanding beyond Radeon RX 7000 and 9000 graphics cards. In a video with Microsoft, AMD said the technology is coming to Xbox Series X|S consoles, Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs and Ryzen-powered handhelds. Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet said in the video that FSR 4.1 will reach Xbox Series X|S “soon.”

What AMD is bringing

FSR 4.1 renders a game at a lower resolution and uses a neural network to reconstruct a higher-resolution image. It is more demanding than FSR 3, which is why support for weaker hardware has been slow to arrive.

Tom’s Hardware reports that AMD changed the model to run on INT8 shader hardware, instead of the higher-precision FP8 matrix acceleration found on Radeon 9000 cards. The version for handhelds is cut down further, to less than half the size of the full model. IGN says AMD SVP Jack Huynh described the model as trimmed so it runs efficiently on chips without the AI accelerators of RDNA 4 cards.

GameSpot lists the supported hardware as RX 6000-series cards, Gorgon Halo and Strix Halo Ryzen 9 laptops, and handhelds such as the Asus ROG Xbox Ally devices with Z2 Extreme and Z2A chips. Tom’s Hardware names Ryzen AI Max and AI 9 machines as well.

The sources differ on timing. Tom’s Hardware describes the release as available now, while IGN and GameSpot say the Xbox version is not out yet and carries only a “soon” label from AMD and Microsoft.

Van Vliet also said Microsoft and AMD are working to bring the technology to Project Helix, the next Xbox. IGN adds that he confirmed AMD’s next-generation FSR, called ‘Diamond’, is planned for Helix.

Why it matters

The move follows a similar one on PlayStation. IGN notes that AMD and Sony recently shrank PSSR 2 into a model called QSSR for the base PS5, and that Sony’s Project Amethyst partnership with AMD helped make lighter models possible. FSR 4.1 gives Xbox Series owners access to a comparable approach.

Expectations should stay modest. GameSpot points out that Xbox Series X|S lack dedicated machine-learning hardware, so the results are unlikely to match the PS5 Pro. It also stresses that FSR integration takes manual developer work, and the new version will not upgrade existing games automatically. As an example, Capcom built the console versions of Pragmata around FSR 1, upscaling from 720p on Series S and 1080p on Series X. On PS5, only Marvel’s Wolverine and Ghost of Yotei are listed for QSSR support on the base console.

The timing sits close to the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6. IGN says that launch is next month, and GameSpot notes Rockstar has not said whether the game will use PSSR, QSSR, FSR 4.1 or any other upscaler.

What we don’t know yet

AMD has not said when FSR 4.1 reaches Xbox consoles. Which games will adopt it is also unclear, and so is the performance cost on older hardware.