Microsoft Brings AMD FSR Upscaling 4 to Xbox Developers

Microsoft Game Development announced on November 4, 2026, that AMD FSR Upscaling 4 is available to Xbox developers, bringing machine-learning-based upscaling to Xbox Series X|S consoles. The release pairs console-specific optimizations with a new Microsoft GDK sample and measured GPU costs for the technology’s Full and Lite models.

Microsoft’s Xbox team worked with AMD to adapt the upscaler for the consoles’ RDNA 2-based GPUs. Microsoft describes the optimization work as a way to improve image quality while balancing GPU performance, making machine-learning upscaling practical on existing Xbox hardware.

The GDK sample demonstrates integration across Xbox Series X|S and Windows through AMD’s unified FSR SDK. It implements FSR Upscaling 4 version 4.1.2, requires Microsoft Game Development Kit October 2025 or later, and provides Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC build targets. Both variants use INT8 models: Full is the default, while Lite is a highly optimized version less than half the size of the original INT8 model and intended for lower-class hardware.

How the Reconstruction Sample Works

FSR Upscaling 4 analyzes temporal and spatial information across multiple frames to reconstruct a higher-resolution image from a lower-resolution, jittered input. The sample allocates display-resolution resources once, renders the scene into a smaller viewport and then upscales it. Its default example targets 3840 × 2160 output from a 2560 × 1440 render using Quality mode’s 1.5× per-dimension scaling.

The integration supplies color, depth and two-dimensional screen-space motion vectors at render resolution, with the upscaled color written at presentation resolution. Scene inputs other than motion vectors receive sub-pixel camera jitter. Motion vectors instead use unjittered matrices so that they describe actual scene motion, while optional RCAS sharpening can be applied during the upscaling dispatch.

Five presets cover different scaling choices: NativeAA, Quality, Balanced, Performance and Ultra Performance, with per-dimension factors ranging from 1.0× to 3.0×. NativeAA performs anti-aliasing without upscaling. The other modes progressively increase the difference between render and output resolutions, giving developers several points at which to examine reconstruction quality and rendering cost.

Despite Lite’s smaller model, the sample’s Xbox Series X|S memory query reports the same 304.03 MB for both variants at the default configuration, excluding swapchain overhead. Resolution-sized intermediate resources drive that identical total, so the choice between Full and Lite changes performance rather than the sample’s upscaler memory allocation.

Xbox Sample Tests Show Lower GPU Costs for Lite

Microsoft’s sample measurements provide separate upscaler-pass times by console, model and output resolution:

In Microsoft’s measurements, Lite records the lower time in every matched console-and-resolution comparison, and each variant costs more at its higher listed output resolution. These are upscaler-dispatch times, not whole-frame costs, and the figures are subject to change. The useful comparison is therefore between model and resolution choices within the sample, alongside a separate assessment of visual quality.

On Xbox, the sample can cycle among FSR4 Full, FSR4 Lite and FSR3 at runtime. FSR3 is the analytical, non-machine-learning option; if no FSR3 provider is available, the sample falls back to FSR4 Full. Developers can also change rendering resolutions and quality settings, toggle sharpening and inspect on-screen metrics to compare visual quality with GPU performance.

The Xbox release follows AMD’s October 20, 2026 expansion of FSR Upscaling 4.1 to Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards, Ryzen AI Max systems, laptops powered by Ryzen AI 9 processors and gaming handhelds using select Ryzen Z2 processors. Xbox Series X|S support was still listed as coming soon in that announcement; Microsoft’s new sample and measurements now provide the console-specific developer materials.

For development teams, the practical change is a supported Xbox integration path accompanied by console-specific test data. Full, Lite and FSR3 can be compared under the same sample controls, allowing each project to judge image quality alongside the GPU time it can assign to reconstruction.