AMD FSR 4.1 update leaks with big image quality gains for Radeon GPUs

[Daniel Sims]

First look: While FSR 4 has considerably narrowed the image quality gap between AMD's upscaler and Nvidia's DLSS, TechSpot's prior benchmarks still place DLSS 4.5 comfortably in front. A newly leaked build, however, suggests that Team Red's recent silence doesn't mean it has given up the fight.

A Guru3D forums user named "The Creator" recently shared a beta DLL file for an unannounced update to AMD's FSR upscaler. It didn't take long for users on Guru3D and Reddit to circulate mirrors and begin publishing side-by-side comparisons. The early verdict: noticeably less blur than the public release at identical frame rates.

Radeon RX 9000 owners can test what appears to be FSR 4.1 by downloading the leaked file from mirrors posted on Guru3D and Reddit. Users can then replace the "amdxcffx64.dll" file in System32, modify the Adrenalin installer executable, or load the DLL through OptiScaler.

Comparisons in games such as The Last of Us Part II, Stellar Blade, and Monster Hunter show that FSR 4.1 resolves substantially more detail in textures and foliage across multiple resolutions and quality presets, even in Ultra Performance mode. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077 (below, zoomed), texture quality for both near and distant objects in FSR 4.1 Ultra Performance closely mirrors FSR 4.0.3 running in Quality mode, with shadows extending further into the distance.

Some of the most dramatic differences appear in Hogwarts Legacy (above, zoomed). Using 1080p Ultra Performance to showcase a worst-case scenario, grass and bushes look significantly clearer with the beta DLL. Zooming in on the character's coat almost suggests a new texture has been added. Users also quickly confirmed that FSR 4.1 supports the unofficial INT8 mode on older AMD graphics cards, on both Windows and Linux.

AMD has recently come under fire for withholding components of FSR that could make it more competitive against DLSS. While FSR 4 nearly matches the image quality of Nvidia's upscaler, it supports a much smaller selection of games, and only on newer Radeon 9000 series GPUs.

Although the leaked INT8 path on Radeon RX 7000 and RX 6000 graphics cards does not improve frame rates as much as FSR 4's standard model on RX 9000, it could extend the upscaler's benefits to owners of older Radeon GPUs and handheld gaming PCs. While AMD has not revealed plans to release this feature, modders have demonstrated that it can be activated relatively easily. OptiScaler has also introduced a method for enabling FSR 4 under Vulkan, which AMD does not officially support.

AMD will likely announce and release FSR 4.1 alongside its next major Adrenalin driver update. While a release date remains unclear, it would not be surprising if the launch coincides with the company's next sponsored game, Crimson Desert, on March 19.

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AMD FSR 4.1 update leaks with big image quality gains for Radeon GPUs

 

[Theinsanegamer]

AMD is doing themselves a major disservice by continuing to abandon older customers. Why would anyone want to pay anything near what nvidia cards cost only to be treated like third rate customers. Even intel treats their customers better at this point.

 

[Hotdog1n]

AMD is doing themselves a major disservice by continuing to abandon older customers. Why would anyone want to pay anything near what nvidia cards cost only to be treated like third rate customers. Even intel treats their customers better at this point.

So valid it’s crazy

 

[daffy duck]

AMD is doing themselves a major disservice by continuing to abandon older customers. Why would anyone want to pay anything near what nvidia cards cost only to be treated like third rate customers. Even intel treats their customers better at this point.

Maybe because their GPU's won't have melting connectors?

 

[Beerfloat]

Maybe because their GPU's won't have melting connectors?

Lot of things their GPUs don't have, including customers

 

[Vixiy]

AMD is doing themselves a major disservice by continuing to abandon older customers. Why would anyone want to pay anything near what nvidia cards cost only to be treated like third rate customers. Even intel treats their customers better at this point.

Because of the big performance drop when using the INT8 mode.

They don't want to have customers complain that a driver update dropped the framerate on cards that are already older and less powerful.

Maybe the best solution is to have a toggle in the driver settings with off being the default.

 

[godrilla]

Maybe because their GPU's won't have melting connectors?

There is about 5 reported cases of 9070xt Saphire Nitro with 12VHPWR connector that were affected.
I would think AMD would want more games supporting FSR than it has currently. By not supporting older generations they are limiting the pool of customers that Developers would be inclined to add FSR support to their games.
For comparison a 2018 rtx 2000 series has support for dlss 4.0 transformer model k while still able to run dlss 4.5 with a significant hit to performance, 2022 4000 series can run dlss 4.5 model m and l transformer models with about a 5% delta hit to performance. The pool of customers for dlss goes all the way to 2018. The messaging AMD is giving its customers we want to match Nvidia's greed without the benefits imo!

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Maybe because their GPU's won't have melting connectors?

Most customers wont have any issues.

Bigger problem is the total lack of support. MS updated DX12 ultimate today, and most of the features are unsupported on rDNA3 and earlier, and even rDNA4 doesnt fully support the new spec.

You know what does? The RTX 2000 series. From 2018. That's a year older then rDNA1 (except shader reordering, that is only 4000 and 5000).

Like at some point AMD has to stop this LARPing as a "premium brand" and admit they're the budget option.

 

[zavrix]

Lot of things their GPUs don't have, including customers

I know of plenty of people who have switched to AMD cards and they love them

 

[James321]

I know of plenty of people who have switched to AMD cards and they love them

Many like myself also switched back to Nvidia because of AMD lies and the way they handle their customers.

 

[dangh]

Many like myself also switched back to Nvidia because of AMD lies and the way they handle their customers.

Are you trying to say nvidia is more honest? Or treats customers better? Lol.

Buying 9070xt tomorrow. Time to upgrade and it doesn't seems prices will go down anytime soon. And given how still crappy is nvidia sorry on Linux, it is the best card to go with. Those improvements as well are quite nice.

 

[Nobina]

Many like myself also switched back to Nvidia because of AMD lies and the way they handle their customers.

That's the dumbest thing I've read today. AMD is nowhere near as bad as Nvidia in that department.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Because of the big performance drop when using the INT8 mode.

They don't want to have customers complain that a driver update dropped the framerate on cards that are already older and less powerful.

Maybe the best solution is to have a toggle in the driver settings with off being the default.

This is a cop out.

1) INT 8 still produces faster results in native
2) you don't have to remove FSR3

Look at Nvidia. You can choose whichever version of DLSS is supported, not just the latest one. You can still use DLSS 2 or 3 if you want.

There's no real justification for AMD to screw over their user base when Nvidia demonstrably can do it without screwing previous generations. It's about consumer choice!

That's the dumbest thing I've read today. AMD is nowhere near as bad as Nvidia in that department.

AMD has repeatedly required bullying to support their hardware properly. They lie just as much as Nvidia does regarding their hardware ( poor volta, over clockers dream, using crossfire to fight pascal, ece). Now we have the new lie they were caught in, which was that FSR4 couldn't function on older GPUs.

They also have a long history of bad support. Denying frame pacing issues until called out by fcat, leaving evergreen users with broken drivers, refusing to fix the black screen bug that plagued the 300 series, the entire debacle of the Radeon Vii, the list goes on.

From a support standpoint, AMD is objectively worse then Nvidia

 

[Benses]

AMD is no ones friends, they would do the same as Nvidia or worse given the chance. I recently switched back to NVidia because the lack of support from AMD even current models (FSR Redstone on Vulkan anyone). At least the modding community can help.

 

[letsgoiowa]

AMD is doing themselves a major disservice by continuing to abandon older customers. Why would anyone want to pay anything near what nvidia cards cost only to be treated like third rate customers. Even intel treats their customers better at this point.

Doesn't the article itself say "Users also quickly confirmed that FSR 4.1 supports the unofficial INT8 mode on older AMD graphics cards, on both Windows and Linux."

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Doesn't the article itself say "Users also quickly confirmed that FSR 4.1 supports the unofficial INT8 mode on older AMD graphics cards, on both Windows and Linux."

The word "UNOFFICIAL" probably should have tipped you off there.

The INT8 code exists. We know it can be made to work. Several have made it work with third party tools. But that is not an official solution, nor is it official support. Using these tools in MP games will get you flagged and banned for cheating, and there is no help for when this mode breaks because it isnt 100% finished. They are also reliant on leaked code that AMD could issue C&Ds for at any time.

AMD intentionally chose not to give these tools to the community. This reflects very poorly on them. They could have released it as a "Beta" feature through Adrenaline, but they didnt. If you use official AMD drivers, you cannot use FSR4 in any way on rDNA 3 or 2.

In context: nVidia officially, with their official drivers and software, supports modern DLSS on RTX 2000 series cards and later. RTX 2000 cards are a year older then rDNA1, which AMD no longer optimizes for. There are some features missing that depend on newer hardware, like MFG on blackwell, but everything that can run on older hardware is officially supported. No outcry was required for this either, nVidia just.....did it. We didnt have to beg or demand them.

 

[airbornex]

The modding community enabling FSR 4 on older GPUs before AMD officially does is such a recurring theme in PC gaming. At some point AMD has to ask itself whether it's a hardware company or a software company, because right now the answer seems to be "a hardware company that reluctantly makes software until random forum users finish it for them."

 

[zavrix]

Many like myself also switched back to Nvidia because of AMD lies and the way they handle their customers.

Lol I switched from Nvidia because of all their bullshit, you just cant win. But I've been very impressed with my AMD card so far.

 

[James321]

That's the dumbest thing I've read today. AMD is nowhere near as bad as Nvidia in that department.

They both equally bad, AMD is just showing their true colour now. Honestly people that are loyal to either of these two companies is dumb. AMD has tendency to shoot themselves in the foot lately and they don't seem too bothered about it anymore and their main focus is like Nvidia is AI now.

But you do you, if you honestly think AMD cares about your feelings.

 

[RaXelliX]

Most customers wont have any issues.

Most customers likely wont have their 9800X3D's dying on AsRock motherboards either, but that's not the point.

No one wants to play lottery with their hardware and end up as one of the unlucky "winners".
Consumer confidence matters and at the end of the day it will cause lost sales - however small.
The effect is there and 16pin is just fundamentally flawed design that should be entirely scrapped as I dont see any way to salvage it.

Bigger problem is the total lack of support. MS updated DX12 ultimate today, and most of the features are unsupported on rDNA3 and earlier, and even rDNA4 doesnt fully support the new spec.

That is because most of there now standardized features originated from Nvidia.
You're berating AMD for not foreseeing and adopting Nvidia elusive features in RDNA2 and RDNA3 years ago when these were designed?

The only thing RDNA4 lacks is SER that is so new that even Nvidia itself supports it only on their two newest series.
Where's the outrage about that? Why are 20 and 30 series not supporting SER?

Look at Nvidia. You can choose whichever version of DLSS is supported, not just the latest one. You can still use DLSS 2 or 3 if you want.

But why would anyone use inferior models when they can choose a superior model with a click?
Im all for choice, but this is just legacy junk no one even bothers using.

There's no real justification for AMD to screw over their user base when Nvidia demonstrably can do it without screwing previous generations. It's about consumer choice!

Bro Nvidia has constantly screwed over their previous generation users. Should I just forget all previous transgressions because they gave DLSS4 to older series? No I shouldn't.

An abusive boyfriend should not be forgiven because he gifted flowers that one time.

Now we have the new lie they were caught in, which was that FSR4 couldn't function on older GPUs.

How about Nvidia's lie that older series cant run FG despite Lossless Scaling and AMD FSR FG of all things proving otherwise?

They are also reliant on leaked code that AMD could issue C&Ds for at any time.

Stop with this nonsense. AMD will never issue a C&D. If they wanted to they would have done it last year already.

There are some features missing that depend on newer hardware, like MFG on blackwell, but everything that can run on older hardware is officially supported.

No it's not. How about ReBAR? A standard PCI-E feature that can be enabled on 20 series cards with a BIOS mod. Expect Nvidia never bothered even giving the users the option for free performance.

Then FG on 30 series that it and 20 series are clearly capable of - thanks to AMD of all companies.
No MFG on 40 series that was another lie. 40 series is architecturally very similar or 50 series as the 50 series is essentially a refresh on the same node. Of course it could run MFG, but Nvidia choose not to give this option to it's users.

No outcry was required for this either, nVidia just.....did it. We didnt have to beg or demand them.

They did one thing right, but refuse to do three other things.

 

[Nobina]

They both equally bad, AMD is just showing their true colour now. Honestly people that are loyal to either of these two companies is dumb. AMD has tendency to shoot themselves in the foot lately and they don't seem too bothered about it anymore and their main focus is like Nvidia is AI now.

But you do you, if you honestly think AMD cares about your feelings.

They are not equally bad as they haven't done same the things, that's just dismissive. Would AMD be just as bad as Nvidia if they were in Nvidias position? Maybe, but you can't blame them for something they might have done. I am not loyal to AMD, don't care about them one bit beyond the product I use, same goes for Nvidia. If Nvidia had slightly better prices, I would buy their product like I have in the past. I have no side.