AMD dropped FSR 4 earlier this year with the launch of the RX 9000 series graphics cards, and we're here yet again with one massive driver update. Codenamed Redstone, this colossal update implements machine learning frame and ray generation technologies. Although we already saw FSR upscaling with FSR 4, AMD just opened up access to these other features for all gamers with compatible graphics cards.

Redstone adds neural radiance caching, ray generation, and AI-driven frame generation. Though we've already seen analytical-based attempts from AMD, this is the real deal and incorporates some fairly powerful algorithms and networks to make everything happen. These are some heavy-hitting features to strike back at Nvidia's prowess with its own DLSS offering and bring its Radeon GPUs on a level playing field to better compete against established RTX counterparts.

What is all this jargon?

FSR just got a whole lot smarter

The FSR Radiance Cache is something Nvidia has had for a short while with its RTX 50-series GPUs and happens to be one of the cornerstones of neural rendering, which is why we've yet to see machine learning for frame and ray gen from AMD. Now that supported Radeon GPUs have this significant feature for games with path tracing, these cards can now maintain a small cache of rays for the AI model instead of tracing each ray for every pixel.

As expected, this is huge for performance. Through predicting light behavior, neural radiance cache lowers the required render time while maintaining visual fidelity, offering gamers efficiency without sacrificing quality. At least, that's AMD's hope. We weren't yet able to test out these new features with our own Radeon RX 9000 series GPUs, though it's something we plan to rectify in the coming days. This is due to logistics on our end, which haven't been able to facilitate much in the way of hardware testing.

FSR Frame Generation is precisely as you'd expect — and know from Nvidia. It's smooth, fluid gameplay when enough real frames are available for some fake frames to be generated by a neural network. This AI is trained on some of the most demanding scenarios in modern games, and we've seen how much of a boost it can provide to frame rates. Although not quite black magic and requiring a decent number of frames to work with, it's something that can have a positive impact on mid-range systems.

Like Nvidia, AMD recommends games to be running at a minimum of 60 FPS before applying Frame Generation. AMD's FSR Ray Regeneration is simply another name for Nvidia's ray reconstruction within DLSS. This is tasked with creating more realistic lighting and reflections. Again, like Frame Generation within FSR, this is all driven through a neural-based network, taking low samples-per-pixel and removing noise, making them viable for upscaling and interpolation.

Is my GPU supported?

Good question! Depending on which RDNA Radeon GPU you have from AMD determines which features are available. RDNA 4 GPUs are the Radeon RX 9000 series. RDNA 1 through 3.5 are everything released before this generation. If you have an older GPU, this driver update won't magically improve your experience tenfold. But for RDNA 4 owners, you're going to see some positive results, so long as your initial frame rates at your selected resolution are stable enough for sampling.

Giving Adrenalin a shot of ... adrenaline?

Almost reaching the feature parity

AMD included some much-needed gifts for Radeon GPU owners ahead of the festive holidays, and while some are existing features, this is quite the improvement, bringing Adrenalin closer to Nvidia DLSS 4 in terms of feature parity, though we have noticed the absence of Multi Frame Generation (MFG). Nvidia forces one to use its entire suite of tools, whereas I much prefer AMD's modular approach, which was noted in my RX 9070 XT review with FSR 4.

Interestingly, though not surprisingly, Nvidia is pushing hard on AI, but not on the GPU front. I'm talking big AI, a la LLMs like ChatGPT. Nvidia should start to be worried on the consumer front as AMD is certainly making headway with its FSR driver improvements. Redstone is a fantastic step forward for the company as it continues playing catch-up, having only recently gone all-in with neural network-based tools. As it did with Ryzen and Intel, AMD has the scope to really hit a home run and take the market by storm.

Right, I'm off to unpack the testbenches and set everything up so we can get some driver testing done over the weekend. I'll likely return with some results and thoughts, which you can read up on in due course. Or, you can go right ahead and download the latest drivers from AMD and give these new FSR features a try on your Radeon RX 9000 series GPU.