PS5 Pro's PSSR upscaler proves AMD FSR 4 can work on older Radeon GPUs

[Daniel Sims]

Recap: The latest advancements to AMD's FSR upscaler only support Radeon RX 9000 graphics cards, much to the chagrin of RX 6000 and 7000 owners. Their dissatisfaction worsened when AMD inadvertently leaked an improved version of FSR with broader hardware support, which the company has yet to acknowledge. A recent interview indicates that this variant may have been intended for Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro console.

PlayStation architect Mark Cerny recently told Digital Foundry that a new, improved version of Sony's PSSR upscaler utilizes 8-bit integer (INT8). Since the company developed PSSR and FSR 4 with AMD, Sony's new variant likely incorporates technology that could expand FSR 4 to GPUs that do not officially support it.

FSR 4 enhances image quality significantly compared to FSR 3, but only supports AMD's latest graphics cards. This is because the company introduced hardware support for 8-bit floating point (FP8) with the Radeon RX 9070 and 9060 series GPUs.

However, Team Red briefly hosted source code for an INT8 variant on its GitHub repository, which modders promptly compiled into an FSR 4 model that supports older AMD hardware. TechSpot's testing indicates that, while the INT8 version incurs a higher performance cost on RX 7000 and 6000 cards than the FP8 variant on RX 9000, the improvements to image quality justify the hit to frame rates.

While FP8 might improve performance by up to 90% on an RX 9070, INT8 might only increase frame rates by approximately 30% on an RX 6750 XT or a Steam Deck while producing similar image quality.

Unfortunately, AMD has not commented on the leak or announced plans to release INT8 FSR 4 officially. Currently, users can only activate the feature by manually modding it into games or through third-party tools such as Optiscaler.

Also Read – AMD Tried to Hide This: FSR 4 Upscaling Already Works on Older Radeon GPUs

Cerny's remarks indicate that work on INT8 FSR 4 went into a new version of PSSR, which improves image quality for several games on the PS5 Pro. The PlayStation architect also confirmed that Sony plans to introduce machine-learning-based frame generation, likely for the PlayStation 6 but possibly also for the PS5 Pro.

Sony's collaboration with AMD on FSR is a cornerstone of the PS6, but the results are also expected to impact the GPU manufacturer's upcoming RDNA 5 lineup of PC graphics cards. As GPUs become more expensive, many users will likely keep their RX 7000 and 6000 hardware for years to come. While some ongoing improvements to Nvidia's DLSS upscaler can support the company's RTX 20 series cards, which debuted back in 2018, AMD's work in the sector may abandon customers who purchased Radeon GPUs before 2025.

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PS5 Pro's PSSR upscaler proves AMD FSR 4 can work on older Radeon GPUs

 

[GodisanAtheist]

At this point only reason I can see for AMD holding out on Int8 is some kind of exclusively or non-compete agreement with Sony.

Otherwise they basically have a working backward compatible version of FSR4 that will increase adoption of native FSR4 support in games and they're not going to release it just cause.

 

[Lawdog]

But sure… what exactly is AMD waiting for to finally make its (few) loyal users happy?"

 

[Theinsanegamer]

At this point only reason I can see for AMD holding out on Int8 is some kind of exclusively or non-compete agreement with Sony.

Otherwise they basically have a working backward compatible version of FSR4 that will increase adoption of native FSR4 support in games and they're not going to release it just cause.

They wont release it, because the suits at AMD would rather spit in your face and tell you its raining. Go buy another GPU if you want what the consoles get.

If you could upgrade a console GPU, guarantee they would gatekeep it to a new rDNA4 model.

 

[Hotdog1n]

See? See? It works, so just allow us to do it
Or piss your customers off even more!

 

[maxxcool7421]

Everyone already knew this.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Everyone already knew this.

It was speculated, but not confirmed before now.

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

It was speculated, but not confirmed before now.

Not confimed
Not explained
Not communicated
Not released

The IP to this may or may not be (partially) owned by Sony.
It may or may not work on older AMD GPUs as PS5Pro units are Hybrid custom thing not exactly the same as RDNA2 or RDNA3.

One thing is sure. AMD's silence about it managed to do a lot of harm.

 

[noel24]

Cannot say for sure, but since started buying PCs, I owned around 7 nVidia cards and 5 from AMD. Always performance/$. My last two were AMD. While I got old and not planning on gaming anymore in some major capacity, I think I will definitely not consider AMD anymore. They are just on the end of Their rope. Decision to abandon support of INT8 for owners of older generation is such a strange quirk. Like, They have no more money for basic operations? Anyway, I don't recommend anyone from My circle to buy GPU based on performance/$. It's just "buy the nVidia card You can afford". Cause, You know, performance per $. AMD seems to gives You no future anymore. Brutal monopoly won.

 

[daffy duck]

I've upgrade to 9070XT, but if I still owned the 6800XT I'd be royally peeved with AMD. I expect FSR5 will be RDNA5 only too, so I'll be SOL soon enough.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I've upgrade to 9070XT, but if I still owned the 6800XT I'd be royally peeved with AMD. I expect FSR5 will be RDNA5 only too, so I'll be SOL soon enough.

That's me. My 6800xt is still OK but for newer games its starting to show its age. The 9070xt was on the fence of being worth enough, especially when you consider how much those 6000 series were going for when new. AMD's mistreatment of customers is what pushed me away from it. Upscaling is a genuinely useful tool and to gatekeep their tech to newer cards leave a very sour taste in my mouth.

We're not only stuck with FSR 3's graphical issues, but we also have no effective alternative to DLAA either, so were stuck with the garbage that is TAA. I dont want to overpay for an nvidia card but if they keep gatekeeping things, how can I justify buying into that ecosystem? Especially when nVidia is over here porting DLSS 4.5 to the RTX 2000 series.

I fully believe that FSR5 will be rDNA5 only. There was no reason to not release FSR4 INT8 publicly, the suits want you to keep upgrading to new hardware.

 

[Watzupken]

I think this is no longer news since we already know that it is possible to use FSR 4.x on older RDNA GPUs. I recalled that the GPU used in the PS5 Pro is not just adding more compute units and faster memory. Which is why PSSR is limited to PS5 Pro, not the base PS5.

 

[urielejh]

They just want buyers to upgrade. Sad

 

[Melkor Unlimited]

And another small detail to hide the devil:
As RDNA4 does not have all HW to provide full support for Shader Model 6.9 the next generation of FSR will have features limited to RDNA5 and newer architectures.
The only question is only .. How much of them?

Edit: Added more numbers
One small detail to think about:
PS5Pro ..... 300 Int8 TOPs
7900XTX .. 123 Int8 TOPs
7900XT .... 103 Int8 TOPs
7800XT ...... 74 Int8 TOPs
7700XT ...... 70 Int8 TOPs
7600XT ...... 45 Int8 TOPs

Does anybody have RDNA2 numbers to compare?

 

[TheCountess667]

Does it prove that?
I mean the PS5 pro has over twice the int8 performance of even the 7900xtx. And that difference gets much bigger further down the stack.

There was a reason the leaked int8 version of FSR4 was a clear downgrade compared to the regular FSR4, it was retuned and balanced to work on much less powerful int8 hardware.
And int8 FSR version would be one that they would need to separately develop and maintain, not just regular FSR4 simple recompiled to use INT8.

 

[NightAntilli]

Cannot say for sure, but since started buying PCs, I owned around 7 nVidia cards and 5 from AMD. Always performance/$. My last two were AMD. While I got old and not planning on gaming anymore in some major capacity, I think I will definitely not consider AMD anymore. They are just on the end of Their rope. Decision to abandon support of INT8 for owners of older generation is such a strange quirk. Like, They have no more money for basic operations? Anyway, I don't recommend anyone from My circle to buy GPU based on performance/$. It's just "buy the nVidia card You can afford". Cause, You know, performance per $. AMD seems to gives You no future anymore. Brutal monopoly won.

You correctly identified the monopoly problem and then decided to accelerate it. But let's talk about the company you're recommending everyone buy instead.

Nvidia shipped the GTX 970 advertised as 4GB when it was effectively 3.5GB, settled a class action lawsuit for $30 per owner, and that card became Steam's most popular GPU anyway.

They disabled PhysX entirely when an AMD card was detected in the system. Not degraded, disabled. Did anyone stop buying Nvidia? No.

They shipped driver 196.75 which physically killed graphics cards by disabling fan cooling. Hundreds of pages of complaints, many people lost expensive hardware. Did people stop buying Nvidia? No.

Bumpgate: defective chip packaging across their entire 65nm and 55nm lineup, $196 million charge, millions of failing GPUs, and they blamed HP. Did people stop buying Nvidia? No.

The GTX 590 blew up on nine separate reviewers' test benches due to missing overcurrent protection in shipping drivers. Did people stop buying Nvidia? No.

The GeForce Partner Program attempted to force ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte to strip AMD branding from their gaming lines under threat of losing Nvidia engineering access, dropped only after press exposure, and still silently reintroduced. Did people stop buying Nvidia? No.

GameWorks dropped AMD framerates about 60% in all games with hairworks through a deliberately obfuscated black box. It was about 40% on Nvidia, which is still a lot. AMD bypassed it by allowing a lower amount of tessellation which did not degrade visuals but improved performance significantly, proving that it was a deliberate tactic. Nvidia never allowed changing the tessellation setting during the GameWorks program, forcing their users to keep the performance killing setting. Did people stop buying Nvidia? No.

They pressured Ubisoft to remove DX10.1 from Assassin's Creed because it gave AMD a 20% performance advantage Nvidia hardware couldn't match. Did people stop buying Nvidia? No.

They pressured Oxide Games to disable Async Compute entirely. Not on Nvidia hardware, ENTIRELY, simply because Maxwell couldn't handle it while AMD could. Did people stop buying Nvidia? No.

DLSS Frame Generation: artificially locked to RTX 40 series despite Nvidia's own VP confirming there was no hardware barrier, the same community tools situation you're criticizing AMD for. Did people stop buying Nvidia? No. They don't even complain about it!

RTX 5090 cards have a high risk of catching fire. Did people stop buying Nvidia? No.

AMD didn't officially support INT8 on older hardware. That's it. That's the thing that broke you after five AMD cards. Not a single one of the above broke the people recommending Nvidia to your circle.

You've correctly diagnosed brutal monopoly. You've incorrectly identified who built it. The 9070 and 9070XT cards are way too good for AMD to be at only 5% market share. The GPU market sucks right now, and it's because everyone kept supporting Nvidia while they not only did not deserve it, but were actively working against gamers' own interests.

But now everyone is up in arms and on a "Radeon is trash" bandwagon because AMD is not supporting a feature that you can still freely activate with 3rd party tools.

It's only wrong when AMD does it. That is why the GPU market we have is exactly the one that all of you deserve.