AMD releases FSR 4.1 for RX 9000-series GPUs — new update delivers better Ray Regeneration, finer upscaled detail, and higher FPS

AMD has just released a new graphics driver that enables the latest edition of its upscaling tech for RDNA 4 GPUs: FSR 4.1. This is an iterative update, but it does bring official support for Crimson Desert (and Death Stranding 2), adding Ray Regeneration 1.1 to the game, along with improving the base upscaler for "ML-powered" FSR games. The Ultra Performance Mode is now faster, too, delivering higher FPS than before.

Most notably, FSR 4.1 improves the quality of AMD's AI-enhanced upscaling. Games that could previously be upgraded to FSR 4 via driver override will now use the upgraded 4.1 model for this purpose. The new model appears to offer more detail in objects in motion, especially foliage. AMD showed an example where grass looked significantly sharper and less blocked-up like with FSR 4.0. Finer details like these usually become subject to artifacting or just look blurry with less advanced upscaling approaches, but FSR 4.1 seems to be handling them well, and better than the first FSR 4 model.

The latest driver also upgrades FSR Ray Regeneration to version 1.1. Ray Regeneration is AMD’s way of denoising a limited number of ray-traced samples and rebuilding them into a higher-quality final image, similar to Nvidia's DLSS Ray Reconstruction. AMD showed Ray Regeneration 1.1 producing better contrast in scenes, with much more realistic shadows, alongside the potential benefits of RT for global illumination and enhanced reflections.

Lastly, AMD also talked up Ultra Performance Mode, where the game is rendered at a low internal resolution to maintain high FPS. Apparently, it's also getting a performance boost, squeezing out even more frames without sacrificing image quality (at least compared to the limitations for IQ already present in Ultra Performance mode). AMD didn't offer specific performance claims for this improvement, though.

All of these features were demoed using Crimson Desert, and AMD says at least FSR 4.1 upscaling is available on all "ML-powered" games. That likely means titles that already supported FSR Redstone, but gamers have been able to manually override FSR versions in AMD's Radeon Software since FSR 4 first arrived, so it's likely that replacement will now use FSR 4.1 with the latest driver.

As an interesting note, FSR 4.1 uses the same underlying AI model as PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) 2. The second iteration of that tech has just come out for the PS5 Pro, and PlayStation lead system architect Mark Cerny confirmed on X that the two technologies share a common underpinning. PSSR 2 is based on FSR 4.1 and is part of Project Amethyst, Sony and AMD's joint effort to advance AI tech in gaming.

For all its improvements, FSR 4.1 remains limited to RX 9000-series GPUs only. In contrast, Nvidia's DLSS 4.5 upscaler works on much older GeForce GPUs. Unofficial community support for FSR 4 on older Radeons thanks to leaked source code appears not to have moved AMD's official position on the availability of FSR 4 yet, so owners of those older cards will continue to miss out.

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