AMD recently officially launched the FSR 4.1 upgrade for RDNA 3 architecture graphics cards. Previous tests have shown that this version brings considerable performance improvements on the Radeon RX 7000 series compared to native resolution rendering. However, the latest comparison test by German technology media ComputerBase shows that in the same RDNA 3 environment, FSR 4.1 has a certain performance regression compared to the previous generation FSR 3.1, which has attracted attention from the outside world.
Based on the test results, ComputerBase selected three RDNA 3 graphics cards: Radeon RX 7900 XTX, RX 7800 XT and RX 7600, and compared the performance of FSR 4.1 and FSR 3.1 in a variety of games. It also added the data of Radeon RX 9070 XT equipped with RDNA 4 architecture running FSR 4.1 as a reference. In the 4K resolution geometric mean frame rate statistics of nine games, the RX 9070 XT performed roughly the same as the RX 7900 XTX at the native resolution, but when the FSR 4.1 "Quality" preset was turned on, the former achieved 56.5 frames and the latter only 52.6 frames, and the RX 7900 XTX was about 7% slower. In the more aggressive "Performance" mode, the gap widens further, with the RX 7900 XTX only clocking 65.2 frames and the RX 9070 XT reaching 71.9 frames, with the RDNA 3 flagship about 9% slower than the new RDNA 4 card.
If we compare FSR versions within the same generation architecture horizontally, the performance cost between FSR 4.1 and FSR 3.1 is more intuitive. On the RDNA 3 platform, geometric mean results show that FSR 4.1 has a performance loss of approximately 11% over FSR 3.1 in Quality mode, while this regression widens to approximately 14.5% in Performance mode. In other words, under the same preset name, although FSR 4.1 can still bring a higher frame rate than native rendering, its own computing overhead has increased significantly compared to the previous generation FSR 3.1.
AMD has previously explained the differences in the implementation of FSR 4.1 on different architectures, pointing out that there are key differences at the hardware level between RDNA 3 and RDNA 4. Specifically, RDNA 3 relies primarily on the 8-bit integer (INT8) data path when running FSR 4.1, while RDNA 4’s second-generation AI acceleration unit has built-in support for FP8 and can perform inference in a precision format more suitable for machine learning workloads. Under this premise, AMD emphasizes that its goal is to maintain image quality "alignment" across RDNA generations and try to output similar visual effects on different graphics cards. This is also considered to be one of the important reasons for the more obvious performance drop on RDNA 3.
Similar trends also exist on the more mainstream RX 7800 XT and RX 7600. Testing shows that on the RX 7800 XT, FSR 4.1's "Performance" mode is about 9% slower than FSR 3.1 "Performance" mode, while "Quality" mode has about a 7% frame rate rollback. The RX 7600 comes close: FSR 4.1 "Quality" mode is about 7% slower than FSR 3.1 "Quality", while in "Performance" mode the gap between the two generations remains at about 9%. Overall, the performance disadvantages of FSR 4.1 across the full range of RDNA 3 products are consistent, indicating that the cost of its more complex algorithm features cannot be ignored on an architecture that lacks targeted hardware acceleration.
It is worth noting that FSR 4.1 has not yet officially opened support for the older generation RDNA 2 (Radeon RX 6000 series). AMD's roadmap shows that the RX 6000 series is expected to receive official FSR 4.1 support in early 2027. The company also emphasized that the adaptation work for this generation of products is more complicated, because RDNA 2 is not equipped with a dedicated AI acceleration unit, and FSR 4.1 must completely rely on stream processors (Stream Processors) to complete inference and amplification operations. This means that once implemented, the performance cost of the RX 6000 series after turning on FSR 4.1 may be further amplified, and its actual performance remains to be verified by subsequent tests.
From the overall technical roadmap, FSR 4.1 is obviously evolving in the direction of being more complex and more dependent on AI computing power, releasing a more ideal balance of performance and image quality on RDNA 4 with FP8 support, while on RDNA 3 or even earlier generation architecture, additional GPU computing power is needed to "fill" the algorithm requirements. With the goal of maintaining cross-generation image quality consistency, AMD chose to let the old card bear a certain performance loss in exchange for image quality performance closer to the new generation. This strategy also caused FSR 4.1 to trigger discussions among the player community around "whether it is worth upgrading" and "how to set the default gear."