What Is AMD FSR Redstone And Why It Matters
AMD has finally rolled out its long promised machine learning powered update to FidelityFX Super Resolution, known internally as FSR Redstone. It arrives through the Adrenalin 25.12.1 driver and is designed specifically for RDNA 4 graphics cards.
Redstone is AMD’s shot at catching up with Nvidia DLSS and Intel XeSS in the world of AI driven upscaling and frame generation. It does not introduce multi frame generation yet, so it still trails DLSS 4 and XeSS MFG on features, but it is a major leap over earlier FSR versions in terms of image quality.
One confusing aspect is the naming. AMD has dropped the numbered branding like FSR 3 and FSR 4. Instead it now uses generic labels such as:
- AMD FSR Upscaling Analytical for older non AI versions
- AMD FSR Upscaling ML for the new AI based upscaler that used to be called FSR 4
- AMD FSR Frame Generation Analytical for FSR 3 frame gen
- AMD FSR Frame Generation ML for the new AI frame gen in Redstone
This means that in games and menus you will often just see AMD FSR Upscaling or AMD FSR Frame Generation without clear version numbers, which can be confusing for anyone trying to work out what they are actually running.
How FSR Redstone Works In Games
Redstone brings three main technologies under the FSR umbrella:
- FSR Upscaling ML the AI driven image upscaler
- FSR Frame Generation ML the new AI based frame insertion system
- FSR Ray Regeneration an AI denoiser and reconstruction tool for ray traced reflections
A fourth feature called FSR Radiance Cache is aimed at developers rather than end users and is not yet available in shipping games.
Right now you can only use Redstone’s AI frame generation and AI upscaling in a limited number of titles, around 31 at launch. Support will grow over time, but for the moment these features are enabled either through game updates or by forcing them via AMD’s Adrenalin software.
The test system used in the article consisted of:
- Ryzen 9 9900X CPU
- MSI MEG X870 Godlike motherboard
- 32 GB DDR5 6000 memory
- Asus Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU
To enable Redstone features today, you usually need to:
- Turn on FSR 3 or FSR 3.1 in the game’s graphics menu, then exit
- Open Adrenalin Software and flip the FSR Redstone overrides for that game
- Relaunch the game and use the FSR options as normal, letting the driver replace them with the ML versions
Some titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 already relabel the options as FSR 4 internally, but in practice you are using the new AI based tech when the driver override is active.
Real World Performance And Image Quality
The big question for gamers is simple: does Redstone actually improve visuals and frame rates in real games, and what is the cost in performance?
Black Myth: Wukong
At 4K with the Cinematic preset and Performance upscaling, the AI upscaler in Redstone delivers a clear quality upgrade over FSR 3. Texture detail remains much closer to native resolution, foliage like falling leaves stays sharp instead of smearing, and motion artifacts are reduced.
The new AI frame generation is harder to tell apart visually because the game already implemented FSR 3 frame gen well, but during fast camera turns the older analytical system tends to blur or drag objects around. Redstone’s ML frame gen handles these scenes more cleanly without a noticeable frame rate penalty compared to FSR 3.
Cyberpunk 2077
Running at 4K with RT Ultra, Redstone again takes a slightly bigger performance hit than the older FSR 3 setup, but the drop is modest. Most of that cost comes from the heavier AI upscaler, not the frame generator.
Visually, the ML model does a better job of reconstructing subtle details in fog, smoke and dust while preserving distant thin geometry like power lines. In practice the differences are fairly subtle during gameplay, but they are consistent and generally in favor of Redstone.
F1 25
This racing title shows one of the clearest wins for the new frame generation. With FSR 3, fast moving car shadows and reflections are badly distorted and glitchy especially around the player vehicle. Redstone’s AI frame gen largely fixes this, producing much cleaner shadows and reducing obvious artifacts, although some engine level issues with distant car shadows remain.
At 4K Ultra High without upscaling, the game sits around 40 fps with 1 percent lows near 29 fps. Turning on AI upscaling and frame generation via Redstone delivers a major frame rate boost with only a small extra overhead versus FSR 3.
Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced
In GTA 5 Enhanced at 4K with High RT, the image quality gap between FSR 3 and Redstone is relatively small. The ML path keeps power lines a bit more stable and foliage slightly sharper at speed but it is not a night and day upgrade.
This game shows the biggest performance drop with Redstone. Average frame rate falls by around 30 fps and the 1 percent lows by about 25 fps compared to FSR 3. Given how brutal the ray tracing workload is in this version of GTA 5, the GPU is clearly being pushed hard by the combination of RT and AI workloads.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and FSR Ray Regeneration
Black Ops 7 is currently the only game that supports FSR Ray Regeneration, AMD’s answer to DLSS Ray Reconstruction. It is designed to improve denoising and reconstruction for ray traced reflections, especially on shiny surfaces.
In side by side comparisons, the AI denoiser can improve the clarity and stability of reflections, although the effect is subtle and hard to focus on during intense combat. Frame generation can still introduce occasional odd frames, but these glitches are rare and almost impossible to notice at full speed. Crucially, Ray Regeneration appears to have very little performance impact in the built in benchmark.
FSR Radiance Cache And AMD’s Growing Pains
FSR Radiance Cache is the least visible but potentially most powerful part of Redstone. It is a developer side tool that samples the scene and trains a neural network to understand how light behaves. During runtime this trained network can provide high quality lighting information after only a couple of ray intersections, dramatically cutting the number of rays required for good global illumination.
The idea is to get near brute force ray traced lighting at far lower cost, improving performance. AMD has shown a brief demo in Warhammer 40,000 Darktide but without performance numbers it is hard to judge its real impact yet. It will also depend heavily on adoption by engine developers.
Despite the solid technology, AMD’s handling of Redstone has some notable issues:
- It arrived late compared to Nvidia and Intel, long after RDNA 4 launched
- The naming scheme without clear version numbers is confusing for gamers and devs
- Relying on Adrenalin overrides for core features can be intimidating for newcomers
Underneath those marketing and usability missteps, though, the actual tech is impressive. The AI upscaler is a big quality jump over older FSR versions and the AI frame generator significantly reduces artifacts while matching FSR 3 performance in most cases.
If you are running an RDNA 4 GPU, FSR Redstone is absolutely worth enabling wherever possible. It will not always beat Nvidia DLSS in every title, and it still lacks multi frame generation, but for AMD owners it finally delivers modern AI assisted upscaling and frame generation that can seriously boost 4K gaming performance without trashing image quality.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/graphics-cards/fsr-redstone-tested-amds-long-awaited-ai-powered-frame-gen-delivers-the-goods-but-its-very-late-to-market/
