FSR 4.1 Is Coming to Xbox Series X|S and the Ally Handhelds, With No Date Yet

More options are always welcome, as long as nobody forces you to use them, and that is how I read AMD’s FSR 4.1 for Xbox.

AMD announced on October 20 that FSR 4.1, its upscaler, is coming to the Xbox Series X and Series S and to the Ally handhelds. The idea is to render a game at a lower resolution to save resources, then use machine learning to rebuild a sharper image. Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet appeared in AMD’s presentation and said Microsoft worked very closely with AMD to optimize the technology, which he described as another tool for developers.

There is no release date. According to Engadget, a video suggests the Ally X gets it before the end of the year, while the Ally X20, the Ally S and the consoles are listed as coming soon. Neither company has published a list of games that will support it, and the announcement does not say whether players will be able to switch it off. On PC, AMD is also bringing FSR 4.1 to the older Radeon RX 6000 cards, and the RX 7000 series already has it.

Engadget expects the biggest gains on the weaker machines, the Series S, the Ally S and the original Ally, since the Series X and the Ally X already perform well without it. I think the difference will probably be noticeable. I have not tried it, so that is a guess, not a test.

Should it matter when you buy? Software is always defined by the hardware it runs on, so it always weighs in the decision. How much this particular update will change things is still to be seen.

AMD and Microsoft have not given a date for the consoles or a list of supported games.