Thursday, January 23rd 2025
AMD is Taking Time with Radeon RX 9000 to Optimize Software and FSR 4
When AMD announced its upcoming Radeon RX 9000 series of GPUs based on RDNA 4 IP, we expected the general availability to follow soon after the CES announcement. However, it turns out that AMD has scheduled its Radeon RX 9000 series availability for March, as the company is allegedly optimizing the software stack and its FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR 4) for a butter smooth user experience. In a response on X to Hardware Unboxed, AMD's David McAfee shared, "I really appreciate the excitement for RDNA 4. We are focused on ensuring we deliver a great set of products with Radeon 9000 series. We are taking a little extra time to optimize the software stack for maximum performance and enable more FSR 4 titles. We also have a wide range of partners launching Radeon 9000 series cards, and while some have started building initial inventory at retailers, you should expect many more partner cards available at launch."
AMD is taking its RDNA 4 launch more cautiously than before, as it now faces a significant problem with NVIDIA and its waste portfolio of software optimization and AI-enhanced visualization tools. The FSR 4 introduces a new machine learning (ML) based upscaling component to handle Super Resolution. This will be paired with Frame Generation and an updated Anti-Lag 2 to make up the FSR 4 feature set. Optimizing this is the number one priority, and AMD plans to get more games on FSR 4 so gamers experience out-of-the-box support.
Source:
David McAfee
AMD is taking its RDNA 4 launch more cautiously than before, as it now faces a significant problem with NVIDIA and its waste portfolio of software optimization and AI-enhanced visualization tools. The FSR 4 introduces a new machine learning (ML) based upscaling component to handle Super Resolution. This will be paired with Frame Generation and an updated Anti-Lag 2 to make up the FSR 4 feature set. Optimizing this is the number one priority, and AMD plans to get more games on FSR 4 so gamers experience out-of-the-box support.
185 Comments on AMD is Taking Time with Radeon RX 9000 to Optimize Software and FSR 4
It certainly does one thing: instill the idea that FSR4 while in the works, is still not really ready, which again is a repeat of the past that some fools tend to call 'fine wine' when its in fact just AMD finishing its products years post release. Forget beta. You just don't know what it is until they say they're done, and then you can still be left with something that doesn't deliver like the competing tech does. This is the story of FSR in a nutshell so far.
Personally, I always try my best to recommend products that match the person's needs that I'm recommending for, and not my personal taste.I see that on a few people, but on the forum as a whole... nah.
Being old school, i hate any “feature” that will lock me to a vendor and will gladly take an inferior option if it means that its an option open to everyone.
That was something that old reviewers and smart consumers would warn you about and would act upon.
Today? Well, you can see for yourself the nice monopoly and its benefits that we are enjoying.
And 5090 and 5080 performance will absolutely shape consumer expectations as to the lower cards in the stack. If you consistently deliver market-leading performance, consumers come to associate your brand as a whole with market-leading performance, even if the lower-tier SKUs don't necessarily offer said performance. Again, psychology.
I don't believe DLSS and FSR techs to be neither the waste "real frame" enjoyers think they are or the panacea NVidia tries to market.
And if the input res is high enough, its a superior form of AA and enables RT; so there is also a place for it in the high end.
I can still personally not prefer it, and I still don't. But I'm not blind to its pros.
Come on man.
The rest is simply “cheating”, in my book.
That said, it reminds me when Imagination Tech introduced tiles with their PowerVR chips.
Before that, polygons were drawn completely regardless if they were visible to the player, which would take away from the available performance of the gpu, but with that technique, only the visible polygons were drawn, hence providing a boost.
The downside? Everyone needed to pay them for the patent, but we the consumers, all benefits from it without being locked into one vendor.
I just don't get how and why it is seen as the holy grail of modern gaming by many. It's a crutch for weaker GPUs, and for people getting their feet wet in 4K. That's it.Ah, ok. No comment.
Again, I don't personally prefer it over lowering settings in a smart way, but I can see why people do, and have seen instances where indeed it is preferable to lowering individual settings. Cyberpunk on my GTX 1080 was a neat example of that; I already WAS lowering settings, but it still wasn't enough, and upscale (FSR, so indeed very sub par, especially in that game!) still allowed me to have a pretty decent experience playing it. 50 FPS. And yes, it all looked like it was rendered at lower input res, certainly. But the fact you can keep a lot of effects in the image and you can still run high textures, helped me a lot more than I would have been helped with running the game on Low.
if yes, did it make the visuals better?
Lastly, thats why I prefer fsr since its open for everyone and I’m willing to trade a bit of visual quality just for “the greater good”.
And the kicker is, Nvidia isn't wrong because they pull this forward and innovate on it. Because they lead, they get to dictate how the paradigm works. AMD never takes that risk/chance, and a big reason they do not do this is because they feel they can't = lack of relevant competence in the company.
We have very little info on the 9060 models yet, but presumably they'll outsell the 9070 models and need FSR4 even more.