AMD officially released FSR 4.1 Upscaling for the RX 6000 series (RDNA 2) graphics cards last week, all the way detailing upcoming support for handhelds, Xbox consoles, and more. Well, shortly after the desktop-focused driver was released on October 20, along came a Preview driver for the Xbox Ally X and X20 on October 23. Early adopters have already been testing it out.

ASUS released the Preview driver through Armoury Crate SE, allowing gamers to enable AMD FSR Upscaling in the Command Center to unlock FSR 4.1 Upscaling in games that support it. This must be enabled before launching the title, and one of the go-to examples is Cyberpunk 2077 after Update 2.5 added support last week. So far, performance is similar, but visuals are improved.

FSR 4.1 Upscaling tested on the Xbox Ally X

Xbox Ally X owners have already been offering up some comparison benchmarks. One user, u/0degreez on Reddit, shared results comparing FSR 2.1 and FSR 4 after Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.5 replaced its FSR 3 implementation with the newer version. FSR 3 Upscaling has been replaced by FSR 4.1 Upscaling, while version 2.1 remains available as a legacy version.

Based on the tests, the FSR 4 implementation offers cleaner edges and less shimmering at 1080p, though u/0degreez notes that the visuals actually look worse if you run it at 720p. After further tests in Performance mode (rather than Balanced), the gap in performance between 4.1 and 2.1 was practically the same, at around 3-4 FPS.

For reference, both the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X feature 7-inch screens with an FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution, though some may be accustomed to 720p as a performance-boosting measure. ASUS’s special edition ROG Xbox Ally X20 released earlier this month also comes with a 1080p panel, albeit upgraded to 7.4 inches and OLED technology. The older non-Xbox ROG Ally handhelds do not support the FSR 4.1 driver, while ASUS says a similar GPU driver for the Xbox Ally (non-X) is “coming soon”.

About the Author

Jack Goodall

At PC Guide, Jack is mostly responsible for reporting on hardware deals. He also specializes in monitors, TVs, and headsets and can be found putting his findings together in a review or best-of guide.