The promise of FSR 4: Amazing image quality for gamers, but with a frustrating catch! AMD's FSR 4 arrived last year, bringing a much-needed boost to Radeon users by offering image quality that finally rivaled Nvidia's DLSS. It was a huge leap forward! However, there was a significant limitation: FSR 4 was initially exclusive to the newer RDNA 4 graphics cards. But here's where it gets interesting... a leaked version of FSR 4, using INT8 processing, hinted that this exclusivity might not be a necessity.
On RDNA 4 GPUs, AMD leverages special hardware acceleration for FP8 math to power its AI upscaling. This advanced hardware isn't present in older Radeon graphics cards. Yet, this experimental INT8 version of FSR 4 has shown promise, with gamers successfully testing it on older RDNA 3 and RDNA 2 GPUs. While this INT8 build is clearly a work in progress and not as polished as the RDNA 4/FP8 version, it opens up exciting possibilities.
Hardware Unboxed reached out to AMD for clarification on their plans for FSR 4 INT8 support. AMD's response was brief: they have "no updates to share at this time." This leaves us wondering if FSR 4 will ever make its way to older GPUs. Honestly, I believe it would be a missed opportunity if AMD doesn't extend FSR 4 support to RDNA 3 and even RDNA 3.5 graphics cards, especially with new RDNA 3.5 hardware hitting the market this year. Failing to do so could lead to ongoing criticism from the gaming community.
And this is the part most people miss: AMD could learn a lot from Nvidia's approach to upscaling. When Nvidia introduced their more advanced DLSS 4 and DLSS 4.5 with their new Transformer models, they didn't lock out older hardware. Instead, they offered a "DLSS Override" feature, allowing users of older RTX graphics cards to access these newer, more demanding versions. Yes, these newer DLSS versions might run a bit slower on older cards, but the key is that they provided the option. Even users with RTX 20 series cards can now benefit from DLSS 4.5 upscaling. Nvidia wisely gave gamers the choice between their faster, older DLSS models and the newer, higher-quality (though potentially slower) ones.
While the INT8 FSR 4 might not be as fast as FSR 3.1 on RDNA 3/3.5 GPUs, the improvements in image quality could be well worth the trade-off. More importantly, bringing FSR 4 to older RDNA GPUs would be a fantastic way for AMD to earn significant goodwill from its customers. It would also provide a substantial visual upgrade for AMD's RDNA 3.5-powered laptops and gaming handhelds. It seems like a clear win-win for AMD. So, why the hesitation?
What do you think? Is AMD right to focus solely on RDNA 4, or should they embrace older hardware with FSR 4 INT8? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below – we'd love to hear your perspective on this! Agree or disagree, your voice matters!
