- A new leak shows that AMD's Zen 6 APUs will use RDNA 3.5 architecture instead of RDNA 4
- RDNA 4 is shown to be exclusive to discrete GPUs only via GPUOpen Drivers
- This means future handhelds or laptops using Medusa Point APUs may not have FSR 4
While we await AMD's addition to its Strix Point Ryzen AI 300 series processors - like the Ryzen Z2 Extreme for handheld gaming PCs - Team Red is already planning its next generation of mobile APUs, codenamed ‘Medusa Point’. Unfortunately, there’s been some disappointing news.
According to Kepler_L2 (who covers tech rumors and leaks) on X, AMD's upcoming Zen 6 APUs (notably the Medusa Point lineup) won't use RDNA 4 architecture - based on unearthed code in AMD’s GPUOpen Drivers - and instead, will likely use RDNA 3.5. This discovery was made via RDNA 4's device ID 'Gfxlp12', which is for discrete GPUs only according to one line of the code.
Essentially, this means that next-gen features like FSR 4 potentially won't be available on any devices that use next-gen Zen 6 APUs - which will be a huge disappointment for many expecting the new upscaling tech to come to handhelds or laptops. We don't yet know what APUs are included in the Medusa Point lineup or whether any of its processors will star in future handheld gaming PCs, but given the pace of development in the handheld market right now, it would be a surprise if they didn’t.
While no FSR 4 isn't exactly a dealbreaker, it's been shown to provide exceptional image quality enhancements - specifically within its performance mode, in some sequences even outdoing Nvidia's DLSS 3 CNN model - and it would help replace FSR 3's existing performance mode, which significantly sacrifices image quality for better performance.
This leaves me worried about the state of potential Medusa Point APU-powered handheld gaming PCs…
I must clarify again that we still know very little about Medusa Point APUs, particularly whether they’ll be used for handheld gaming PCs. But assuming that they will (which I'm almost certainly sure of), no FSR 4 is a disappointment, to say the least.
I'm aware that AMD isn't ruling out the chance of FSR 4 coming to RDNA 3: Nvidia's Frame Generation tech could only now be making its way to RTX 3000 series GPUs, similar to FSR 4’s potential backport. However, I'm convinced that even if it does, it won't be the full package, with the new frame-gen model potentially missing.
The good news is that the upcoming Medusa Point processors may yield fantastic performance results in games regardless - we've seen AMD’s chief rival Intel achieve this recently, with the MSI Claw 8 AI+ using Intel's Core Ultra 7 258V processor to provide a huge jump over the original Intel-powered Claw, but there are still games that definitely require upscaling.
Hopefully, FSR 4 exclusivity on RDNA 4 GPUs can end soon (as this would even help current handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally), but I doubt it. Let's pray that I'm wrong.
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