AMD has recently announced a series of significant updates to its FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 4.1 'Redstone' technology while simultaneously accelerating the official rollout to a broader hardware spectrum. With the release of the Adrenalin 26.10.1 driver, AMD has enabled FSR 4.1 support on RDNA 2 and RDNA 3.5 GPUs, meaning users of Radeon RX 6000 series cards and Ryzen AI processors can now benefit from the enhanced upscaling features. This step was taken ahead of the originally communicated schedule and even includes upcoming support for specific Ryzen Z2 models in handheld devices. Furthermore, AMD confirmed that FSR 4.1 support is planned for the Xbox Series X|S platforms as well, although no specific availability date has been provided.
A central aspect of the announcement is the planned introduction of Vulkan API support for FSR 4.1. Until now, the upscaling technology was optimized exclusively for DirectX 12. The integration into Vulkan will be realized through the upcoming FSR SDK 2.4, which significantly increases the versatility of the technology for developers and users alike. Interestingly, early reports from the community suggest that the already released Adrenalin 26.10.1 driver contains a preliminary Vulkan DLL. This can already be utilized now through third-party tools like OptiScaler, which eases access to the new functionality for technically savvy users.
In addition to the API expansion, AMD has introduced improved frame pacing for the FSR 4 Frame Generation technology. This feature aims to smooth out frame rate distribution, thereby enhancing the visual experience through a more consistent presentation. However, this optimized pacing technology is currently exclusive to the latest generation of Radeon RX 9000 graphics cards featuring RDNA 4 architecture. Older hardware that already supports FSR 4.1 will fall back to FSR 3.1 features in these instances, as the specific computational resources required for the new pacing system are only provided by the RDNA 4 hardware.