Credit: AMDAMD is acting on its promise to keep your existing hardware relevant, and not just by reviving old products. The company has released an Adrenaline Edition 26.6.2 driver update for Windows that brings FSR Upscaling 4.1 to Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs.
The software release promises to further improve performance in the 300-plus games that support the technology while simultaneously reducing visual glitches. If a game was borderline-playable before, it could be worth a revisit now.
MSI Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX Gaming Trio Classic
FSR 4.1 is optimized to run across “hundreds of configurations,” according to AMD, and should run on everything from a mid-range Radeon 7600 through to the flagship 7900 XTX.
The company notes that you only get upscaling with these older, RDNA 3-based GPUs. FSR Redstone features like AI frame generation and ray regeneration are still limited to RDNA 4 GPUs like the RX 9000 series.
Just in time for the Steam Machine
Lower-end PCs are now more relevant
The FSR 4.1 driver update arrives just as Valve starts taking pre-orders for the Steam Machine, its long-expected living room PC with custom RDNA 3 graphics. While that device runs the Linux-based SteamOS, it’s expected to receive similar benefits as FSR 4.1 arrives.
That could be crucial to the Steam Machine’s success. Valve has pitched the mini PC as capable of 4K gaming at 60 frames per second, but has openly acknowledged that this depends on upscaling. Better FSR performance could improve the experience and boost sales.
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AMD is back in the fray but has to improve its GPUs to truly challenge NVIDIA.
This is also a way for AMD to foster loyalty and spur sales of the Radeon RX 7000 series cards still lingering at electronics stores. With surges in PC component prices, particularly memory, many gamers have to either buy older video cards or hold off on upgrades. This could make a budget GPU viable for lighter gaming duties, or help you delay an upgrade by months.
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That, in turn, could reduce the chances that you buy an Nvidia GPU. If your existing card is running well enough, you might wait for the RX 9000 series’ eventual successor instead of buying whatever happens to be on the market right now.
