FSR 4 upscaling is finally coming to older Radeon GPUs, and the image quality gains are real

[Daniel Sims]

Recap: Modders have known since last year that AMD was developing a version of FSR 4 that supports older Radeon graphics cards. Still, despite growing outcry from RX 7000 and RX 6000 owners, the GPU manufacturer remained silent about its plans to release the AI upscaling model until this week. Early testing indicates that, while performance savings are significantly smaller than on RX 9000 cards, the image quality enhancements remain worthwhile.

AMD's gaming and graphics VP, Jack Huynh, recently confirmed that Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards will begin supporting FSR 4.1 this summer, with support for RX 6000 arriving in early 2027. The company's presentation confirms what recent leaks indicated: the older GPUs will rely on INT8 processing, a slower alternative to the RX 9000 lineup's FP8.

Similar to Nvidia's DLSS and Intel's XeSS, AMD's FSR 4 uses machine learning to upscale games with image quality far superior to FSR 3. While DLSS has used ML since the RTX 3000 series launched in 2020, FSR 4 currently only supports RX 9000 cards, which began shipping last year.

– Jack Huynh (@jackhuynh) May 14, 2026

Last summer, leaked source code revealed a version of FSR 4 that runs on older Radeon models, which modders promptly tested. TechSpot's analysis shows that, while FSR 4 carries a performance penalty compared to FSR 3, it looks far better and still runs better than native rendering.

The INT8 version on RX 7000 and 6000 cards also looks close enough to the FP8 version on RX 9000 that most users will struggle to tell the difference. Whether AMD has optimized the technology beyond last year's leaked source code remains unclear.

While bringing the new upscaler to older GPUs might give users one less reason to upgrade to RX 9000, the current market already discourages upgrading. Component shortages due to the AI boom and the conflict in Iran have inflated GPU prices, making older cards a more sensible buy. With Nvidia possibly planning to relaunch the RTX 3060 this year, FSR 4 could make RX 7000 and 6000 cards more competitive against it.

AMD's announcement also raises the question of whether the feature will support handheld gaming PCs and Valve's upcoming Steam Machine. The Steam Machine's custom dedicated GPU uses RDNA 3.5, a refresh of the architecture found in RX 7000 cards, and is expected to rely heavily on FSR 4 to achieve 4K gaming.

Meanwhile, most handheld gaming PCs, including the Steam Deck, feature APUs based on RDNA 2 (RX 6000 GPUs), RDNA 3, and RDNA 3.5. Early testing by modders indicates that they could support INT8 FSR 4.

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FSR 4 upscaling is finally coming to older Radeon GPUs, and the image quality gains are real

 

[yRaz]

This is a bad sign. There s could mean AMD is not planning on releasing a new GPU architecture for consumers. Do what everyone else is doing and use all their TSMC allocation to make AI GPUS.

 

[winjer]

About fracking time....

 

[Puiu]

This is a bad sign. There s could mean AMD is not planning on releasing a new GPU architecture for consumers. Do what everyone else is doing and use all their TSMC allocation to make AI GPUS.

What do you mean? RDNA 5 GPUs are slated for H2 2027.

I think they did it because of the huge backlash from the community and because the release window for the 9000 series has ended which should not affect the sales as much.

Anyway, it's very very late, but at least it's not never.

 

[Lionvibez]

This is a bad sign. There s could mean AMD is not planning on releasing a new GPU architecture for consumers. Do what everyone else is doing and use all their TSMC allocation to make AI GPUS.

Bro what?

RDNA 5 is already set for 2027

Don't spread misinformation.

 

[poshflamingos]

Fantastic news, even if it took a little too long.

Huge for the Steam Deck and Steam Machine too. It makes the GPU choice for the Steam Machine go from "mistake" to "somewhat reasonable".

 

[GodisanAtheist]

As usual AMD does the right thing after damaging their reputation for seemingly no reason.

Even a "we're looking into it and this is why it's taking a while" a year ago would have calmed the storm considerably.

Now that tons of people have sworn off AMD, and possibly picked up a 5xxx series instead of a 9xxx series, literally had April Fools articles poking fun at the situation... They make this announcement.

Incredible.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Praise the Omnissiah!

 

[Hecate91]

Better late than never, nice to see FSR4 finally come to RDNA2 and RDNA3.

 

[AnilD]

Good news, finally! That's not to say the GPU market in 2026 is one of the stranger timelines to be a PC gamer in... GPU prices inflated by the AI boom (right when we were over with the crypto boom), a war in Iran, Nvidia relaunching a four-year-old card, and now AMD backporting upscaling to keep older hardware relevant.

 

[Watzupken]

Fantastic news, even if it took a little too long.

Huge for the Steam Deck and Steam Machine too. It makes the GPU choice for the Steam Machine go from "mistake" to "somewhat reasonable".

Honestly, I feel FSR 4 is not going to help the Steam Deck a lot if any at all. Most games that support FSR 4.x are pretty recent titles that are generally struggling on the deck. Not that it's not good, but I think it is a great console more to run indie and graphical intensive games at least 3 years ago that may not support FSR 4.x. In fact, I think FSR 3.x is a better fit for Steam Deck as it produces higher FPS and less demanding on the hardware.

 

[Puiu]

Honestly, I feel FSR 4 is not going to help the Steam Deck a lot if any at all. Most games that support FSR 4.x are pretty recent titles that are generally struggling on the deck. Not that it's not good, but I think it is a great console more to run indie and graphical intensive games at least 3 years ago that may not support FSR 4.x. In fact, I think FSR 3.x is a better fit for Steam Deck as it produces higher FPS and less demanding on the hardware.

The biggest gains will be from using FSR 4.1 Balanced or Performance. Previously, because of the low resolution of the Steam Deck, it would look too awful, now it should be usable (as long as the FPS gains are higher than FSR 3.1 Quality).

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Lookimg forward to this on my Ally X.

 

[Rapob]

Finally but too late, the only reason they didn't say they were working on it, was to sell Radeon 9000's

Don't know anyone with Radeon 7000/6000 anymore, they all upgraded because they were too slow with no proper upscaling to help which pretty much all demanding games today require

The perf hit using INT8 is not "small" either

RDNA2 is dirt slow regardless these days, RDNA3 is still "decent" if you don't go too crazy on visuals

 

[scoffer]

Bro what?

RDNA 5 is already set for 2027

Don't spread misinformation.

Well...who knows really? They have certainly tethered themselves securely to the AI bandwagon. Who's to say that they won't simply do a "Micron" on us? Personally, as for RDNA 5, I will believe it when I see it.

"They think only of Mammon, whose God is the purse."

 

[VariableSpike]

Finally but too late, the only reason they didn't say they were working on it, was to sell Radeon 9000's

Don't know anyone with Radeon 7000/6000 anymore, they all upgraded because they were too slow with no proper upscaling to help which pretty much all demanding games today require

The perf hit using INT8 is not "small" either

RDNA2 is dirt slow regardless these days, RDNA3 is still "decent" if you don't go too crazy on visuals

I've got a 7900xtx and got no issue, so I have no idea what you are on about

If you play at 4K, RT with everything cranked, then maybe, but at 1440p ultra I get plenty of FPS up to the refresh rate of my monitor in many cases (165hz), but often hovering at 140fps+, sure adding in RT does hit the performance, but that's always been RT and not every game has it

 

[phantomwolf]

This is a bad sign. There s could mean AMD is not planning on releasing a new GPU architecture for consumers. Do what everyone else is doing and use all their TSMC allocation to make AI GPUS.

AMD is working on RDNA 5 that will be featured in the new console launching next year. They same architecture will be used for next GPU line.

 

[phantomwolf]

"The Steam Machine's custom dedicated GPU uses RDNA 3.5, a refresh of the architecture found in RX 7000 cards"

This is wrong, the GPU in Steam Machine is RDNA 3.0. It will use Navi 33 chip with less active CUs.

 

[fadingfool]

Finally but too late, the only reason they didn't say they were working on it, was to sell Radeon 9000's

Don't know anyone with Radeon 7000/6000 anymore, they all upgraded because they were too slow with no proper upscaling to help which pretty much all demanding games today require

The perf hit using INT8 is not "small" either

RDNA2 is dirt slow regardless these days, RDNA3 is still "decent" if you don't go too crazy on visuals

Still have my 7800XT as does at least one other friend. Others in my gaming group have a mix of RTX5000 cards and 9700 cards. I haven't had any diffculty playing any games I want at 1440p high (ultra is a waste of performance with little impact on visuals) - only time I reach for upscaling is if I hit the raytracing button (not many of the games I own have RT even as an option - but then I am lucky enough to have a collection of over 2500 games to play).

 

[yRaz]

AMD is working on RDNA 5 that will be featured in the new console launching next year. They same architecture will be used for next GPU line.

When I said no GPUs, instead news more talking about only us getting mid-range offerings and not getting high end GPUs. We'll probably just get rebadged versions of the console GPUs

 

[Stoly]

What do you mean? RDNA 5 GPUs are slated for H2 2027.

I think they did it because of the huge backlash from the community and because the release window for the 9000 series has ended which should not affect the sales as much.

Anyway, it's very very late, but at least it's not never.

I admire your optimism

 

[Rapob]

I would be very surprised if AMD launches RDNA5/UDNA by 2H 2027.

Nvidia RTX 6000 is rumoured to be 2028.

I would love seeing AMD launch first but I somehow doubt they will. It has been almost 15 years since that happend (Radeon 7970/7950 - Sadly AMD drivers sucked massively for the first 10 months, 7000 series saw a nice boost with Catalyst 12.11)

Unless AMD uses an older TSMC node, or cheaper Samsung/Intel node, I don't see prioritize gaming GPU market. They make little to no money here. They rather wants to maximize their TSMC output for CPUs and APUs. AMD has tons of chances to regrab gaming GPU marketshare, but did not.

They even cancelled the RDNA4 flagship, which would probably have rivalled or even beat the 5080 which was disappointing to begin with (worst x80 card in decades, it was like 10% faster than 4080 with the same amount of VRAM)

AMD disappointed with Radeon 9600 series too. Radeon 9700 XT and 9700 are somewhat solid options for the price but mid-end stuff that don't even reach 5070 Ti level.

After all AMD said they left high-end GPU market, officially.

With RDNA5/UDNA they hopefully re-enters this market or at least beat or rival the 6070 Ti

AMD has no chance at beating Nvidia in the highest end segment but they should for sure be competitive in the 60, 70 and 80 space.

 

[Lionvibez]

Well...who knows really? They have certainly tethered themselves securely to the AI bandwagon. Who's to say that they won't simply do a "Micron" on us? Personally, as for RDNA 5, I will believe it when I see it.

"They think only of Mammon, whose God is the purse."

We know

RDNA 5 is coming out 2027 2H

You can comeback to this post then.

 

[Rapob]

We know

RDNA 5 is coming out 2027 2H

You can comeback to this post then.

All rumours - Nothing official have been said by AMD.

Even the RDNA 5 name itself is a rumour. UDNA would make more sense. AMD has officially talked about UDNA being the future.

I don't see AMD launch anything before Nvidia. Would love to see it tho.
I don't expect any next gen GPUs before 2028, if RAM prices have come down by then.

Nvidia cancelled RTX 5000 SUPER refresh due to RAM prices. I don't see this refresh happen at all now. A 5080 Ti or 5090 Ti would be more realistic to see.

Don't think AMD will release anything new in the 9000 series.

 

[Lionvibez]

All rumours - Nothing official have been said by AMD.

Even the RDNA 5 name itself is a rumour. UDNA would make more sense. AMD has officially talked about UDNA being the future.

I don't see AMD launch anything before Nvidia. Would love to see it tho.
I don't expect any next gen GPUs before 2028, if RAM prices have come down by then.

Nvidia cancelled RTX 5000 SUPER refresh due to RAM prices. I don't see this refresh happen at all now. A 5080 Ti or 5090 Ti would be more realistic to see.

Don't think AMD will release anything new in the 9000 series.

The thing though is AMD needs a new product out before NV does.

The 5090 is like 75% faster than a 7900XTX / 9070 XT

There won't be anything new in the 9000 series as there isn't a die available to base a new product on.

Yes ram prices has everyone in a holding pattern so we shall see what happens in second half of 2027.