FSR 4 now runs on Steam Deck and delivers massive image quality boost in supported games

Thanks to AMD accidentally leaking the source code of FSR 4, users have succeeded in getting FSR 4 working on hardware that doesn’t support the tech. FidelityFX Super Resolution 4, or FSR 4, is AMD’s latest crack at giving Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS, a run for its money. Unlike previous iterations, FSR 4 is an ML-based solution that has proven to be a major improvement over FSR 3/2, and it can now keep up with Nvidia’s best.

Officially, FSR 4 is only supported on the RX 9000 RDNA 4 GPUs, which means that folks running perfectly capable RDNA 3 or RDNA 2 cards can’t take advantage of the image upscaler. This also includes handheld consoles like the Steam Deck and the Asus ROG Ally, both of which run Ryzen APUs with RDNA 2 and RDNA 3 iGPUs, respectively.

However, if you own a Steam Deck, you can give FSR 4 a shot by just downloading and replacing a few “.dll” files in supported games. Deck Wizard on YouTube has uploaded a guide on how to run FSR 4 on the Steam Deck (Available on Amazon). From downloading the required FSR 4 files to integrating within supported games like Cyberpunk 2077, the process is super simple and takes just a few minutes.

The video, which is linked below, shows FSR 4 running in Cyberpunk 2077 and Marvel’s Spider-Man. The image quality improvement enabled by FSR 4 is massive, but the performance takes a visible hit. This is to be expected as FSR 4 requires specialized hardware to run properly. Since the Steam Deck’s custom AMD APU has an RDNA 2 iGPU, FSR 4 puts an additional burden on the already weak iGPU.

That said, the beauty of PC gaming is that gamers always find a way. So, we could see some performance enhancements in the future. Moreover, it’d be interesting to see how FSR 4 behaves on more powerful handheld consoles like the Asus ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go S (Available on Amazon for $649.99).