AMD FSR 4.1 Lands, and FSR 4 Heads to Older Radeon Cards

AMD's upscaling story is moving fast in 2026. FSR 4.1 arrived for RX 9000 series cards with real image-quality gains, and AMD then did something it had originally ruled out: it brought the same machine-learning upscaler to older Radeon GPUs months ahead of schedule. If you own a Radeon card from the last three generations, there is now a path to modern AI upscaling without buying new hardware.

Key takeaways

• FSR 4.1 improves ray regeneration, motion detail, and frame rates on RX 9000 (RDNA 4) cards, and any game already overridden to FSR 4 picks up the 4.1 model automatically.
• AMD shipped official FSR 4.1 support for the RX 7000 series (RDNA 3) in Adrenalin 26.6.2 on June 22, 2026, earlier than the July date it first promised.
• RX 7000 cards run an INT8 version of the model rather than the RX 9000's faster FP8 path, so expect a small performance cost in exchange for the quality jump.
• FSR 4.1 is now live in 300-plus games; you unlock it with a driver update and a per-game override, no developer patch required.
• RDNA 3 APUs are getting a lightweight model "soon," and RDNA 2 (RX 6000) discrete cards are slated for early 2027.

What FSR 4 Is

FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 is AMD's first machine-learning upscaler. Unlike the heuristic FSR 3.1 before it, FSR 4 leans on the second-generation AI accelerator cores built into the RDNA 4 architecture that powers the RX 9000 series. That hardware ML approach is what closed the quality gap with competing upscalers, particularly in motion stability and fine detail.

The RX 9000 series and RDNA 4 were first previewed at AMD's CES keynote in January 2025, and FSR 4 launched as a flagship feature of that generation. FSR 4 reconstructs a higher-resolution image from a lower internal render, so you get the visual quality of, say, 4K while the GPU only renders closer to 1440p, the headroom that buys you frames.

What's New in FSR 4.1

FSR 4.1 is an incremental but meaningful upgrade for current RX 9000 owners. The main improvements:

• Ray Regeneration 1.1 for cleaner reflections and global illumination in ray-traced and path-traced titles.
• Finer detail in motion, with foliage as the standout example. AMD showed grass looking noticeably sharper and less blocky than under FSR 4.0.
• Higher frame rates from optimization work that landed alongside the quality gains.

Crucially, games that could already be upgraded to FSR 4 through a driver override automatically pick up the improved 4.1 model. You do not have to wait for each developer to patch in the new version.

FSR 4.1 Is Already on RX 7000 Cards

The biggest news for the wider Radeon install base is backward support, and AMD overdelivered. It originally locked FSR 4 to RDNA 4 hardware, then promised RX 7000 support in July 2026. In practice, Adrenalin 26.6.2 (released June 22, 2026) shipped official FSR 4.1 for the entire desktop RX 7000 lineup, including the RX 7900 XTX, RX 7900 XT, RX 7800 XT, RX 7700 XT, and RX 7600.

The catch is in the math. RDNA 3 lacks the FP8 acceleration that RDNA 4 uses, so AMD ported the model to run on the INT8 instructions RDNA 3 does support. That makes the upscaler backward compatible at the cost of a slight performance hit relative to a native RX 9000 run. You still get the machine-learning quality, sharper detail and far better motion stability than FSR 3.1, but the frame-rate uplift is more modest.

How to Turn It On

The whole point of the driver-level override is that you do not wait for game patches. The flow is the same on RDNA 3 and RDNA 4:

1. Update to AMD Adrenalin 26.6.2 (or newer) from the AMD drivers page or the auto-update prompt inside the Adrenalin app.
2. Open Adrenalin and go to Gaming, then select the game you want.
3. Under the game's graphics settings, find AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution and enable the FSR 4 override.
4. Launch the game with an in-game FSR option enabled. The driver swaps in the FSR 4.1 model.

If a title already exposes FSR 4 natively, you can simply select it in the game's own settings menu and skip the override.

Here is where each Radeon generation stands so you know exactly what your card can do today:

GPU generation	Cards	FSR 4.1 status	Model path
RDNA 4	RX 9000 series	Full support now	FP8 (fastest)
RDNA 3 (desktop)	RX 7000 series	Supported in 26.6.2	INT8 (small perf cost)
RDNA 3 (APU)	Ryzen AI handhelds	Lightweight model "soon"	INT8 lite
RDNA 2	RX 6000 series	Slated early 2027	TBD, FSR 3.1 for now

If you are deciding between upscalers across vendors, our breakdown of DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS lays out which one wins in which scenario.

What's Still Coming

AMD's roadmap now extends beyond discrete cards:

• RDNA 3 APUs (the integrated graphics in Ryzen AI chips and handhelds) are getting a "lightweight machine learning model" for FSR 4.1, useful context if you also tune a Windows gaming handheld.
• RDNA 2 (RX 6000) discrete cards are slated for early 2027.

For older cards, FSR 3.1 remains the fallback until that support lands. Upscaling is only one half of the smoothness equation, though, if your frames are fast on average but the game still hitches, the problem is often low GPU usage or a CPU bottleneck, and our guide to fixing low GPU usage and low FPS covers the fixes that actually move 1% lows.

Why This Matters

For years, AMD's upscaling trailed the competition on image quality, especially in fine detail and motion. FSR 4's move to machine learning narrowed that gap, and FSR 4.1's ray regeneration and foliage improvements push it further. Extending the feature down to RDNA 3, and soon RDNA 2, means millions of existing Radeon owners get modern upscaling for the price of a driver download. If you have been weighing AMD against NVIDIA, it is worth reading our breakdown of enabling NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 frame generation to see how the two upscaling stacks now compare.

What to do right now

If you own a recent Radeon card, here is the fastest path to better image quality tonight:

• Download Adrenalin 26.6.2 or newer from AMD's drivers page, or accept the in-app update prompt.
• Open Adrenalin, go to Gaming, and pick the title you play most.
• Enable the AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution / FSR 4 override for that game.
• Launch with an in-game FSR option turned on so the driver swaps in the 4.1 model.
• On an RX 7000 card, expect a clear quality jump over FSR 3.1 with a modest, not huge, frame gain.

Frequently asked questions

Does FSR 4.1 work on my RX 7000 card?

Yes. As of Adrenalin 26.6.2 (June 22, 2026), every desktop Radeon RX 7000 GPU supports FSR 4.1 through the driver. It uses an INT8 version of the model, so expect a small performance trade-off versus an RX 9000 card, but the image-quality gain over FSR 3.1 is substantial.

Do I need a game patch to use FSR 4.1?

No. The Adrenalin driver can override compatible games to FSR 4.1, so you unlock it for 300-plus titles just by enabling the override in the Adrenalin app, even if the game only shipped with an older FSR option.

When are RDNA 2 (RX 6000) cards getting FSR 4?

AMD has slated RDNA 2 support for early 2027. Until then, FSR 3.1 is your best option on an RX 6000 card.

Is FSR 4.1 as good as DLSS?

The machine-learning models have closed most of the historical gap, especially in motion. NVIDIA still leads in some path-traced scenarios, but FSR 4.1 is genuinely competitive in everyday play, and on RDNA 4 it is hard to tell apart from rival upscalers without pixel-peeping.