AMD leaves the door open to experimental FSR Redstone support on RDNA 3

PCWorld speaks to AMD's Andrej Zdravkovic at CES 2026
(Image credit: PCWorld via YouTube)

At CES 2026, AMD used an interview with PCWorld to restate its official position on FSR Redstone while softening the surrounding edges. During the interview, AMD Chief Software Officer and head of graphics software Andrej Zdravkovic said the full Redstone feature set remains tied to RDNA 4 hardware. At the same time, he stopped short of shutting down the idea of an experimental Redstone build for RDNA 3 users who are trying to make it work on their own.

Redstone bundles several ML-driven graphics features, including upscaling and frame generation, under a single umbrella. AMD has been clear that these features are designed around the performance characteristics of RDNA 4. Zdravkovic reiterated that position, saying the decision is not about artificial product segmentation, but whether the hardware can deliver a consistent experience across a wide range of games and systems. If enabling a feature degrades performance or image quality, AMD does not see value in shipping it.

Zdravkovic also explained that frame generation and similar ML workloads must complete within a single frame budget. If the GPU cannot do that fast enough, the result can be counterproductive. “If you don’t have enough time to do… the machine learning operations required, then you have to reduce the frame rate… to double it,” he said, describing a scenario where the feature undermines its own purpose.

Inevitably, the conversation switched to community experimentation. Asked about users who are already forcing parts of Redstone to run on RDNA 3 GPUs, Zdravkovic said, “all the power to them,” noting that such hacks may work on a specific machine or in a specific title. “I’m a geek myself, so I would do that for any technology,” he added.

Could AMD offer a beta or prototype Redstone build for RDNA 3? Not right now, according to Zdravkovic — such a release is “currently not in the plan,” but he did thank PC World “for the hint” and expressed interest in thinking through how such a prototype might work. AMD also emphasized that it continues to improve older architectures where it makes sense. Zdravkovic said the company is “definitely not going to withhold anything that really makes a difference,” but only when the net result is a clear improvement to gameplay quality or responsiveness.

So, there you have it. FSR Redstone is an exclusive RDNA 4 feature set for now, and RDNA 3 users will have to fall back to earlier FSR implementations. However, it’s encouraging to know that AMD is acknowledging the demand and recognizing the modding community’s efforts and not completely ruling out official support with a hard no.

Google Preferred Source

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Luke James
Contributor

Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist.  Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory. 

  • usertests
    Just get FSR4 upscaling to work on RDNA3. That's all anybody wants.
    Reply
  • Notton
    Could AMD offer a beta or prototype Redstone build for RDNA 3? Not right now, according to Zdravkovic — such a release is “currently not in the plan,” but he did thank PC World “for the hint” and expressed interest in thinking through how such a prototype might work. AMD also emphasized that it continues to improve older architectures where it makes sense. Zdravkovic said the company is “definitely not going to withhold anything that really makes a difference,” but only when the net result is a clear improvement to gameplay quality or responsiveness.

    I guess we'll see if Valve and Xbox can wrangle AMD to officially support Redstone on their hardware.
    Reply
  • palladin9479
    Yeah this is totally about artificial product segmentation. FSR4 takes advantage of specialized hardware instructions that RDNA4 has, and while it could be made to work with RDNA3 what would be the economic benefit to AMD to do so? If anything it would lower demand for RDNA4 cards as it would be one less reason to convince people to upgrade.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    As much as nvidia does the same stuff they haven't blocked DLSS upscaling even when it will give poor performance (4.5 quality on 20/30 series is slower than native). Upscaling has definitely become a quality of life thing as resolutions and detail have increased along with the prevalence of TAA making native not necessarily looking great.

    As long as the feature does work it should be enabled for older cards even if it doesn't work as well.
    Reply