AMD's tiny FSR 3 update aims to improve upscaling quality but also lays the foundation for adding Redstone AI tech to games

Software updates usually only grab news headlines when it's a major new version, bringing something special or different for users to enjoy. So a minor revision by AMD to its FSR toolkit wouldn't normally be of note, but this one is actually special, despite the fractional change in version number. With this update, FSR will be even easier to update in the future and, more importantly, it paves the way for Redstone features to be added to games.

As always, AMD spilt the beans on the new version of FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) via its GPUOpen site, a central resource for all things GPU, games, and development. "FSR 3.1.4 includes several fixes, such as improved upscaling quality, and features a signed, easily upgradable DLL that supports our FSR 4 driver upgrade feature," reads the blurb.

In the case of the former, the tweaks "reduce[d] upscaler ghosting in newly disocluded [sic] pixels compared with FSR 3.1.3." I was under the impression that the spelling is 'disoccluded', but no matter—it basically means pixels that were previously hidden (occluded) have now become visible (disoccluded) because something has moved.

Camera motion in busy scenes has been a bit of a nemesis for AMD's upscaler, resulting in ghosting and smearing as you whip, or even just slowly move, the mouse about in a game. Anything that can be done to reduce this is clearly a good thing, if you pardon the pun.

As for the 'easily upgradable DLL', that's all about making it easier to add FSR 4 to games that already support FSR 3, which is another good thing. Whether it means PC gamers will be able to drop in an FSR DLL of their choice, just as one can do with DLSS, isn't clear, but hopefully, this is the direction that AMD is moving towards.

By far the most important aspect of the 3.1.4 update is this statement: "Ready to support upcoming AMD FSR Redstone technologies with required camera parameters for FSR ML Frame Generation."

Redstone is an FSR 4 project that AMD is clearly hoping will result in the tech achieving parity with DLSS, because it uses machine learning (ML) to improve ray-traced lighting (via an ML-driven radiance cache and denoiser), along with superior upscaler and frame generation quality.

FSR 4 already uses AI for the latter two, so just think of Redstone as being a juiced-up version of the latest FidelityFX Super Resolution. And who doesn't want more juice with their FSR?

AMD announced Redstone back in May, though its scheduled completion date is still down as a very vague 'H2 2025'. Given that we're already in the second half of 2025, Redstone could appear tomorrow, next week, next month or New Year's Eve. As much as I'd like to see it out now, I hope AMD doesn't rush it and makes sure it's as good as it can be before rubberstamping it for developers to use.

So yeah, FSR 3.1.4 is a teeny tiny update, but underneath the scant details in the release notes, it's actually quite an important one.