AMD FSR 4.1 Performance Can Be Slower Than FSR 3.1 on RDNA 3, New Test Finds

Earlier this week, AMD finally released FSR 4.1 for Radeon RX 7000 GPUs, giving RDNA 3 owners access to the company’s latest AI-powered upscaling technology. While the rollout was largely welcomed, a latest testing suggests the upgrade comes with a tradeoff many gamers probably weren’t expecting.

According to a new report from ComputerBase, FSR 4.1 consistently offers lower performance than FSR 3.1 on RDNA 3 graphics cards, despite offering noticeably improved image quality.

Better visuals, lower frame rates

ComputerBase tested nine games across the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, RX 7800 XT and RX 7600, while also comparing results against the newer Radeon RX 9070 XT. The findings show that the performance penalty isn’t isolated to one GPU, but appears across AMD’s RDNA 3 lineup.

On the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, FSR 4.1 Quality mode was roughly 11% slower than FSR 3.1 Quality. Switching to Performance mode revealed shocking results, as testing showed around a 14.5% performance regression compared to FSR 3.1.

The RX 7800 XT and RX 7600 followed a similar pattern. Depending on the preset, FSR 4.1 trailed FSR 3.1 by roughly 7% to 9%, suggesting the overhead scales across multiple RDNA 3 products rather than affecting only flagship hardware.

AMD previously explained why this happens. Unlike RDNA 4 GPUs, which execute FSR 4.1 using dedicated FP8 AI accelerators, RDNA 3 relies on an INT8 version of the upscaling model because its hardware lacks native FP8 support. According to AMD, the goal was to preserve visual quality across both architectures even if older hardware had to sacrifice some performance.

That also explains why the Radeon RX 9070 XT remains more efficient when running FSR 4.1 despite producing similar native rendering performance to the RX 7900 XTX.

Support for RDNA 2 graphics cards is still planned for early 2027, although AMD has already warned that bringing FSR 4.1 to RX 6000 GPUs will be even more challenging because those cards lack dedicated AI accelerators altogether. Not to forget, AMD recently also warned Windows 10 users of FSR driver issue but later addressed it with a hotfix.