AMD CTO hints at FSR AI upscaling plans

AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution tech could be getting an AI upgrade this year

AMD’s CTO, Mark Papermaster, has stated that 2024 will be a “huge deployment year” for AMD. He even suggested that AI upscaling will soon arrive for AMD Radeon graphics cards, potentially taking their FSR technology to the next level. This new AI development for AMD was first reported by Videocardz.

AMD has already developed three generations of their FidelityFX Super Resolution technology. Their first generation upscaler, FSR 1, was a spatial upscaler. This was replaced by a non-AI temporal upscaler called FSR 2. Last year, FSR 2 was upgraded with support for Frame Generation, turning FSR 2 into FSR 3. Now, it looks like AMD is planning to give their FSR technology an AI upgrade.

If AMD upgrade their FSR technology with AI upscaling, FidelityFX Super Resolution will become much more competitive with Nvidia’s DLSS and Intel’s XeSS. Both DLSS and XeSS utilise AI to enhance the quality of their upscaling, and soon FSR may have similar improvements.

Below is what Mark Papermaster had to say about AMD’s AI plans. Expect to hear a lot about AMD’s AI ambitions this year.

This, for us, is a huge year because we have spent so many years developing our hardware and software capabilities for AI. We’ve just completed AI enablement for our entire portfolio. So cloud, edge, our PC, our embedded devices, and gaming devices. We’re enabling our gaming devices to upscale using AI. 2024 is a really huge deployment year for AMD.

So now, the bedrocks are there, the capabilities are there. I’ve talked to you about our partners that we are working with. So 2024 is, for us, a huge deployment year.

While Mark Papermaster’s statements do not mention FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), it would be silly for AMD to release an AI upscaler under new branding. AMD’s FSR technology is well known by PC gamers, making it likely that AMD will call their AI enhanced version of FidelityFX Super Resolution FSR 4.

Currently, it is unknown how AMD will use AI to boost the quality of their Super Resolution technology. It is also unknown if AMD’s new AI upscaler will remain open source. After all, both XeSS and DLSS remain closed source. Regardless, it is exciting to see that AMD has plans to improve their upscaling technology.

You can join the discussion on AMD’s AI plans on the OC3D Forums.