- A new leak shows that AMD’s Zen 6 APUs will use RDNA 3.5 -Architecture instead of RDNA 4
- RDNA 4 turns out to be exclusive to discreet GPUs only via gpuopen -drivers
- This means future handheld or laptops using Medusa Point Apus may not FSR 4
While we wait for AMD’s addition to its Strix Point Ryzen AI 300 -Series Processors – Like Ryzen Z2 Extreme for Handheld Games -PCs – Team is already planning its next generation of Mobile APUs, the code name ‘Medusa Point’. Unfortunately, there has been some disappointing news.
According to Kepler_L2 (covering tech rumors and leaks) on X, AMD’s upcoming Zen 6 APUs (especially Medusa Point -Snection) will not use RDNA 4 -Architecture -Based on UNEART -CODE in AMDS GPUOPEN -drivers -and will probably use RDNA 3.5 instead. This discovery was made via RDNA 4S unit -id ‘GFXLP12’, which is only for discreet GPUs according to a line in the code.
Essentially, this means that the next gene functions such as FSR 4 potentially will not be available on any devices using the next generation Zen 6 APUs-rest will be a huge disappointment for many who expect the new upscaling technology to come to hand-held or laptops. We do not yet know what the APUS is included in the Medusa Point setup, or whether any of its processors will play the lead role in future handheld games -PCs, but given the development of the handheld market right now, it would be a surprise if they did not.
Although no FSR 4 is not exactly a dealbreaker, it has been shown to provide unique image quality improvements – specifically within its performance state, in some sequences that even surpass NVIDIA’s DLSS 3 CNN model – and it would help replace FSR 3’s existing performance state, which significantly sacrifices the image quality for better performance.
This leaves me worried about the state of potential Medusa Point APU-driven handheld game PCs …
Again, I have to clarify that we still know very little about Medusa Point Apus, especially if they will be used for handheld games -PCs. But if you assume they will (as I am almost certainly sure of), no FSR 4 is a disappointment, to put it mildly.
I realize that AMD does not exclude the chance of FSR 4 coming to RDNA 3: Nvidia’s framework generation technology, only now could go to the RTX 3000 series GPUs, similar to FSR 4’s potential backport. However, I am convinced that even if it does, it will not be the full package, with the new frame-gen model that is potentially missing.
The good news is that the upcoming Medusa Point Processors can provide amazing performance results in games regardless -we’ve seen AMD’s main rival Intel achieve this recently, with MSI Claw 8 AI+ using Intel’s core Ultra 7 258V processor to give a big leap over the original Intel -driven claw, but there’s still games that are definitely requiring upscaling.
Hopefully, FSR 4 exclusivity on RDNA 4 GPUs can end soon (as this would even help the current handheld like Asus Rog Ally), but I doubt it. Let’s ask that I’m wrong.
