AMD is preparing to bring FSR 4 to a much wider range of hardware, and gaming handhelds appear to be a major part of those plans. The company expects to expand its machine learning-based upscaling technology to APUs, gaming laptops, and handheld devices before the end of 2026, while a new generation of APUs with FSR 4 support is also reportedly on the way.

The update comes from AMD Senior Vice President Jack Huynh, who recently discussed the company’s plans with South Korean media. According to Huynh, AMD has developed a dedicated lightweight version of FSR 4 designed specifically for the more limited performance available from integrated graphics.

FSR 4 is expanding to more hardware

FSR 4 originally launched as a feature for AMD’s RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9000 desktop graphics cards. AMD later expanded the technology to RDNA 3 Radeon RX 7000 GPUs, but APUs with integrated Radeon graphics were left out. That is now expected to change before the end of the year. FSR 4 is also currently planned to come to RX 6000 cards early next year.

“We will expand the machine learning AI-based FSR4 technology, which was first introduced to existing external graphics cards, to the entire product line including APUs, gaming laptops, and handheld devices by the end of this year. We plan to respond in two directions: launching existing APUs and new product lines.”

AMD Senior Vice President Jack Huynh, via The Elec [translated]

Existing APUs won’t necessarily run exactly the same version of FSR 4 found on RDNA 4 desktop GPUs. RDNA 4 can natively handle the FP8 calculations used by the original model, while older RDNA 3 hardware relies on INT8 instead. AMD therefore had to modify its approach when bringing FSR 4 to the Radeon RX 7000 series, and APUs require further optimization. The company previously (back in June) said “no such decision” had been made on bringing FSR 4 to RDNA 3.5.

Huynh says AMD has now developed a lightweight model specifically suited to the APU environment, with the company focusing on maintaining good image quality while keeping latency low. This could be particularly useful for handheld gaming PCs, where GPU performance and power consumption are much more limited compared to desktop systems.

More interestingly, AMD is also expected to introduce a new generation of APUs before the end of 2026, with FSR 4 included as part of those new products. While AMD hasn’t officially revealed their names or specifications, previous rumors have pointed toward potential Ryzen Z3 and Z3 Extreme processors aimed at future gaming handhelds.

For gaming handhelds in particular, FSR 4 could be a significant upgrade. These devices regularly rely on upscaling to reach higher frame rates while operating within strict power limits. A lighter machine learning model capable of producing better image quality could give both existing and upcoming AMD handheld hardware some extra room to improve performance without sacrificing as much visual clarity.

About the Author

Abdul Haddi

Abdul is a tech writer and Editor for PC Guide, specializing in all things tech, gaming, and hardware.