FSR 4.1 Coming to Xbox Series X and Series S

AMD is bringing FSR 4.1 to Xbox Series X and even the less powerful Series S. The technology is expected to arrive on the consoles in the coming weeks. However, exactly when games will begin to utilize it remains to be seen.

What is FSR 4.1 on Xbox?

FSR stands for FidelityFX Super Resolution, AMD's upscaling technology. Console games often have to upscale high resolutions like 4K instead of rendering them natively. Earlier FSR versions offered increased sharpness but frequently introduced distracting visual artifacts. AI-based upscalers like FSR 4 are designed to remedy this, but they are significantly more compute-intensive.

According to GamePro, alongside the full-fledged FSR 4.1 version for PCs, there's also a half-precision variant. This is intended for older graphics cards, laptop APUs, and consoles. This lighter model will reportedly also run on the Xbox Series X|S.

Which Other Devices Will Benefit from FSR 4.1?

AMD's graphics chief Jack Huynh has confirmed that handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally X will also be able to utilize the lighter model. The same applies to RX 6000 series graphics cards. Ultimately, it remains crucial whether and how developers integrate FSR 4.1 into their games.

Why Won't Every Game Get FSR 4.1?

Improved image quality comes at the cost of processing time. Digital Foundry, as reported by GamePro, measured an additional 4.4 milliseconds for Sony's console upscaler QSSR. At 60 fps, only about 17 milliseconds are available per frame, and roughly 34 milliseconds at 30 fps. Therefore, such an AI upscaler primarily makes sense in 30 fps graphics modes with lower resolutions. Since the AI capabilities of the Series X, and especially the Series S, are similarly limited to those of the PS5, FSR 4.1 will likely require a comparable performance budget.

For context: Sony has already demonstrated with QSSR that AI upscaling is possible on current-gen hardware. We've touched upon how this performs in practice in our article discussing whether Rockstar will forgo Sony's new QSSR upscaler for GTA 6.

From our perspective, FSR 4.1 on Xbox is good news, but it's no magic bullet. Whether you, as a player, will notice a difference ultimately depends on the studios that integrate the upscaler into specific graphics modes.

Source: GamePro

Do you play on Xbox Series S or X? Let us know which game you want to see with FSR 4.1 first.