FSR 4.1 Leak Prompts First Image‑Quality Comparisons Ahead Of AMD’s Reveal

AMD's FSR 4 is a massive evolution from the company's previous-generation upscalers, and the leap in quality is directly attributable to the use of AI versus the older deterministic upscalers. That doesn't mean AMD is resting on its laurels, though; the company is apparently preparing an improved version of the upscaler. We know that not because AMD has told us, but because a tester leaked a library file for FSR 4.1 that you can try out now in almost any game if you want.

Posting on the /r/Radeon sub-Reddit, /u/AthleteDependent926 dropped a GoFile link with the new DLL, which he himself grabbed from the Guru3D forums. Purportedly, the file originates with a beta version of the AMD Adrenalin 26.3.1 drivers, presumably to be released next week. Sketchy as downloading random DLLs from strangers on the internet can be, the file does indeed appear to be a legitimate AMD FSR library, as several users have been able to load up the library in various games using the OptiScaler tool.


The results? Well, a bit mixed. The tone in the thread overall is broadly negative, but that's more about frustration with AMD's slow pace of FSR updates than about the new version itself. Folks who have actually tested the leaked FSR DLL say that it offers a marked improvement in quality over FSR 4.0, particularly in the Performance and Ultra Performance upscaling modes.

One remark a couple of users pointed out is that the new FSR version seems to force a relatively high degree of sharpening, a rendering feature that emphasizes edges to give a more contrasty look that some users love and some users hate. Most of the image quality results posted in the thread were captured with a 1920x1080 output resolution; at such a low resolution, Ultra Performance mode is only rendering at 640x360 before upscaling. The fact that you can even recognize the games being played is a testament to the capability of FSR 4.


Unfortunately, this new FSR 4.1 DLL is using FP8, which means it is exclusive to RDNA 4 GPUs. While /u/AthleteDependent926 tested the new library on a Radeon RX 7900 XT, he's on Linux and using the Mesa hack that we reported on before, which offers remarkably poor performance compared to native FP8 (or indeed INT8) computation. If you have an RDNA 4 GPU and you're familiar with Optiscaler, it might be worth fooling around with this new DLL at your own risk.