Earlier this year, AMD wouldn't commit to bringing FSR 4.1 support to handheld consoles, but surprise, surprise, the company just announced that its flagship scaling technology will be available on multiple platforms, including Xbox consoles.
FSR, or FidelityFX Super Resolution, is AMD's version of NVIDIA DLSS or Intel's XeSS 3, both of which have been eating AMD's lunch in the last year. Basically, FSR renders the game you're playing at a lower resolution and then utilizes AI to generate a better image.
Importantly, it makes the graphics card more efficient, meaning any savings can be put straight back into performance. It's a big step up over previous versions of FSR, which didn't use machine learning to optimize performance.
With this update, AMD is partnering with Microsoft to bring FSR 4.1 not only to the Xbox Series X but also to the Series S and the Xbox Ally X and X20, both of which should benefit immensely from huge performance boosts.
Notably, a release date for this feature was not provided in any announcement videos or posts we could find. Presumably, the Xbox Ally X will get FSR 4.1 before the end of the year. Xbox consoles are listed as "coming soon." Unfortunately, the vanilla Xbox Ally handheld does not appear compatible with FSR 4.1.
While cheaper, the Series S has been a boondoggle for developers due to its weaker hardware, so maybe FSR 4.1 will be able to do some of the hard work.
It's not just Xbox
AMD also revealed that FSR 4.1 will be coming to Radeon RX 6000 and Ryzen AI Max graphics cards and processors. It should also feature on AMD Ryzen AI 9-powered laptops like the Asus TUF Gaming A14.
Gaming handhelds powered by the Ryzen Z2 Extreme and Ryzen Z2A, which are basically just the Xbox Ally handhelds right now. AMD also said that it's working on bringing FSR 4.1 to more APUs.
Outlook
This is a much-needed, and probably overdue, update from AMD, which has been losing to NVIDIA and DLSS 4.5 this year. In one study, nearly half of gamers picked Nvidia over AMD (and native rendering) in a blind gaming test. AMD even lost to native rendering, nabbing 15% of the vote compared to 24% for native.
At Tom's Guide, my colleagues Jason England and Tony Polanco are putting FSR 4.1 through its paces, so keep us in your tabs to see how our testing shakes out.
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