- AMD FSR 4 will supposedly be a ‘drop in’ replacement for FSR 3.1
- In theory, that means all FSR 3.1 games should support the newer tech
- This is just a rumor, though it chimes with hints AMD has already dropped
AMD could have a whole bunch of games lined up for FSR 4 support, its frame rate boosting tech exclusive to incoming RDNA 4 graphics cards, right from the get-go (one of which will be Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, pictured above).
So far, there’s been something of a guessing game as to how FSR 4 support could shake out – especially given that Nvidia has a lot of PC games lined up for its rival DLSS 4 from launch – but this is the best news Team Red fans could’ve hoped for.
The theory is – and it is just a rumor, floated on X by a regular hardware leaker, Kepler – that AMD is just going to replace the existing FSR 3.1 DLL file with the new FSR 4 one.
What that means, as a drop-in replacement, is that FSR 4 will be compatible with all existing FSR 3.1 games, without the game developers needing to do anything. In other words, it’ll ‘just work’ with the existing titles that are covered for FSR 3.1 support.
Or this ‘should’ be the case, as Kepler phrases it, so we must note that they aren’t fully sure on this. As ever with rumors, we should exercise caution around them, but in this case, AMD has already hinted that FSR 3.1 games would get FSR 4 in marketing materials (during the FSR 4 reveal at CES 2025).
As VideoCardz, which noticed the above post, points out, there are in excess of 50 games which currently support FSR 3.1, so should be good to go with FSR 4.
If you’re wondering why that support is based on FSR 3.1, rather than FSR 3, it’s because AMD made the move to include frame generation with the former, so the latter being brought up to FSR 4 would require a lot more work than just dropping in a new DLL file.
Analysis: Good news, but with that RDNA 4 catch
This is seemingly good news, then, for those looking at buying an RX 9070 graphics card, which will be the first boards to use FSR 4 when these next-gen GPUs are released in March. Indeed, AMD has already said that the reason it’s taking a bit more time with these RDNA 4 graphics cards is to get them right for launch, and perfect the graphics drivers as well as enabling more FSR 4 games.
This sounds like a smart move to me, especially given the rumors around Nvidia’s RTX 5000 range, which currently make it seem like there’s no a big rush to get RX 9070 on sale. I’d like all these next-gen GPUs to be on sale sooner rather than later, ideally, but if I have to wait for a good product, then so be it.
AMD’s FSR 4 sounds like a sizeable stride forward for frame rate boosting from Team Red, but the catch, of course, is that it’s exclusive to RDNA 4. This goes against the grain for FSR in that the tech has previously been open in nature and available for Nvidia RTX GPUs, as well as previous-gen AMD graphics cards (back to the RX 5000 series, technically, albeit not with frame generation).
So, it’s a definite shame to lose that aspect, but that’s seemingly the price Team Red has had to pay for making FSR 4 offer better quality upscaling (and frame generation). Given the constant chatter from gamers about how AMD is behind DLSS in this respect, I’m hardly surprised Team Red made this call, but as we’ve discussed in the past, it’s a compromise which some PC gamers could find difficult to accept.
