MSI confirms AMD FSR 4.1 upgrade plans for its Claw A8 handheld
MSI promises to deliver FSR 4.1 Upscaling to its Ryzen Z2 Extreme-powered Claw A8 handheld next month
MSI has confirmed it plans to bring AMD FSR 4.1 Upscaling to its Ryzen Z2 Extreme-powered Claw A8 (BZ2EM) handheld next month, giving it a major graphical boost.
MSI’s Claw A8 BZ2EM model uses a similar SOC to ASUS’ ROG Xbox Ally X and X20 handhelds. Both handhelds use AMD’s Radeon 890M graphics, which use the AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture. ASUS has already released a preview update to enable AMD FSR 4.1 Upscaling support. MSI is taking a more cautious approach, targeting a December 2026 release, subject to proper stability testing and validation.
FSR 4.1 is AMD’s ML-powered upscaler, and its newest models offer gamers optimised upscaling performance on compatible AMD Ryzen-powered gaming handhelds and laptops. Compared with FSR 2 and FSR 3, AMD’s FSR 4.1 delivers much higher levels of image quality, especially when upscaling from low resolutions. This makes FSR 4.1 Upscaling a major upgrade for portable devices. Note that FSR 4.1 Upscaling on AMD APUs uses a lighter model than the model
Why isn’t FSR 4.1 already available through AMD’s AMD Software Adrenalin Drivers?
AMD does not support Ryzen Z-series-based gaming handhelds with its AMD Software Adrenalin drivers. The manufacturers of these devices need to distribute their own drivers based on AMD’s drivers. This causes a delay between AMD’s desktop GPU driver releases and driver releases for AMD Ryzen Z-series handhelds. Not all AMD driver versions will make it to handhelds, and device makers control what level of driver support their devices receive.
MSI plans to release an AMD FSR 4-1 ready driver for its Claw handheld next month. This driver should enable AMD’s modern ML-based upscaler on all compatible games if AMD’s “FSR Upgrade” feature is enabled. Hopefully, MSI can deliver this update on schedule. If something delays this rel
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