AMD and Microsoft have made official the arrival of FSR 4.1, the latest evolution of AMD's upscaling technology, in the XBOX ecosystem. The first to receive it will be the laptops of the ROG XBOX Ally family, while XBOX Series X and Series S will be updated at a later date. The promised performance leap is remarkable, especially for less powerful hardware.

For those unfamiliar with the acronym, FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) allows games to process images at a lower resolution, and then reconstruct a sharper image thanks to machine learning. The hardware therefore works less and the margin of power released translates into higher performance. FSR 4, formerly known as Project Redstone, was AMD's first machine learning-based upscaler and guarantees a much higher visual performance than previous versions at the same frame rate. In addition to upscaling and anti-aliasing, the package also includes frame generation and ray reconstruction, so as to approach the offer of NVIDIA's competing DLSS technology.

On the portable front, support will cover all ROG XBOX Allys based on the Z2 Extreme and Z2A chips. After initial uncertainty about the base model, it has been confirmed that FSR 4.1 will also arrive there, as well as on ROG XBOX Ally X and the brand new ROG XBOX Ally X20. The update will be available on October 23 in preview form. To install it, just open Armoury Crate SE and follow the path "Update Center" and then "Preview Updates". A new switch dedicated to the function will appear in the Command Center. Since this is a preliminary version, however, we may run into some bugs or some instability.

For XBOX Series X and Series S, on the other hand, there is only talk of a generic "coming soon" for now, without a precise time window. The arrival of the technology could be particularly convenient for XBOX Series S, historically difficult for developers due to its particular RAM allocation. If FSR 4.1 manages to take over some of the work, teams may be less constrained by the need to achieve a native 1080p image. XBOX Series S and the less pushed laptops should be among the devices that will benefit from the most substantial gains, but XBOX Series X will also benefit from improvements in performance and graphic effects; in some games, for example, it may be possible to activate Ray-Tracing even in Performance mode, or use graphics effects that have been off so far for performance reasons.

The announcement took place via a video with speeches by representatives from AMD, ASUS and XBOX. Among them was XBOX CTO Scott Van Vilet, who emphasized the long relationship with the partner: "At XBOX we are building a platform designed to reach gamers wherever they are and to make it easier for creators to get to them. AMD has been a key partner in this journey for over twenty years: together we have advanced gaming on XBOX and Windows, from silicon at the heart of our consoles and laptops to technologies such as DirectX, Advanced Shader Delivery and AutoSR, which help developers get more out of the hardware. " Van Vilet explained that the two teams have worked closely together to optimize FSR 4.1, giving developers an additional tool to improve performance and visual quality. He then added that "this is just the beginning", anticipating that the joint work will continue with Project Helix, which will take advantage of FSR Diamond. This is AMD's next-generation technology, intended for the entire Helix family of devices.

As for games, AMD's official list already has over 400 compatible titles, i.e. those that currently support FSR 3.1. These include 007 First Light, Gears of War: E-Day and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. To show the potential of the technology, AMD has chosen The Blood of Dawnwalker, with a comparison that highlights the achievable gain.

The announcement of XBOX is part of a larger expansion of FSR 4.1, which involves a total of five new platforms. It was presented by AMD's senior vice president Jack Huynh, who had already anticipated the arrival of the technology on portable devices as well. In addition to XBOX Series X|S and laptops with Z2 Extreme and Z2A chips, the list includes Radeon RX 6000 video cards, Gorgon Halo and Strix Halo mini PCs and mobile workstations, and Ryzen 9 laptops based on the same platforms. On PC, support comes with the Adrenalin Edition 26.10.1 driver. According to ASUS, the driver also enables the feature on Ryzen AI Max 300, Ryzen AI Max 400, Ryzen AI 9 300 and Ryzen AI 9 400 processors, and adds support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Final Fantasy Resonance. In the future, other APUs will receive FSR 4.1, which will also arrive on Vulkan games. This API was already supported by FSR 3 and previous versions, but it is not yet clear how soon developers will be able to integrate the new version into their titles. With this move, AMD also officially brings its latest upscaler to a much wider range of devices, where so far only unofficial ports from the modder community had arrived.