Recap: The latest advancements to AMD's FSR upscaler only support Radeon RX 9000 graphics cards, much to the chagrin of RX 6000 and 7000 owners. Their dissatisfaction worsened when AMD inadvertently leaked an improved version of FSR with broader hardware support, which the company has yet to acknowledge. A recent interview indicates that this variant may have been intended for Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro console.
PlayStation architect Mark Cerny recently told Digital Foundry that a new, improved version of Sony's PSSR upscaler utilizes 8-bit integer (INT8). Since the company developed PSSR and FSR 4 with AMD, Sony's new variant likely incorporates technology that could expand FSR 4 to GPUs that do not officially support it.
FSR 4 enhances image quality significantly compared to FSR 3, but only supports AMD's latest graphics cards. This is because the company introduced hardware support for 8-bit floating point (FP8) with the Radeon RX 9070 and 9060 series GPUs.
However, Team Red briefly hosted source code for an INT8 variant on its GitHub repository, which modders promptly compiled into an FSR 4 model that supports older AMD hardware. TechSpot's testing indicates that, while the INT8 version incurs a higher performance cost on RX 7000 and 6000 cards than the FP8 variant on RX 9000, the improvements to image quality justify the hit to frame rates.
While FP8 might improve performance by up to 90% on an RX 9070, INT8 might only increase frame rates by approximately 30% on an RX 6750 XT or a Steam Deck while producing similar image quality.
Unfortunately, AMD has not commented on the leak or announced plans to release INT8 FSR 4 officially. Currently, users can only activate the feature by manually modding it into games or through third-party tools such as Optiscaler.
Also Read – AMD Tried to Hide This: FSR 4 Upscaling Already Works on Older Radeon GPUs
Cerny's remarks indicate that work on INT8 FSR 4 went into a new version of PSSR, which improves image quality for several games on the PS5 Pro. The PlayStation architect also confirmed that Sony plans to introduce machine-learning-based frame generation, likely for the PlayStation 6 but possibly also for the PS5 Pro.
Sony's collaboration with AMD on FSR is a cornerstone of the PS6, but the results are also expected to impact the GPU manufacturer's upcoming RDNA 5 lineup of PC graphics cards. As GPUs become more expensive, many users will likely keep their RX 7000 and 6000 hardware for years to come. While some ongoing improvements to Nvidia's DLSS upscaler can support the company's RTX 20 series cards, which debuted back in 2018, AMD's work in the sector may abandon customers who purchased Radeon GPUs before 2025.