AMD will bring FSR 4 to handhelds by the end of 2026

It’s already possible to get AMD’s framerate-enhancing FSR 4 boost on handhelds as old as the Steam Deck — but in June, AMD reserved the right to disappoint handheld gamers by not officially bringing FSR 4 to older handhelds. But AMD consumer chip boss Jack Huynh now says he will bring the tech to some handhelds by the end of the year.

Which handhelds? It’s still not clear if it will come to existing handhelds, or if you’ll need a new one to get it — because it comes alongside news that AMD is releasing a new FSR4-capable chip.

“We will expand the machine learning AI-based FSR4 technology, which was first introduced to existing external graphics cards, to the entire product line including APUs, gaming laptops, and handheld devices by the end of this year,” Huynh told Korean publication The Elec (via Google Translate). “We plan to respond in two directions: launching existing APUs and new product lines.”

The Elec says that means both a new APU, and a lightweight FSR4 model for APUs, are coming by year’s end. (Previously, AMD had only promised FSR4 for desktop graphics cards, not APUs bound for laptops and handhelds.) But The Elec doesn’t seem to say if that lightweight FSR4 model is coming to handhelds specifically. Perhaps it’ll require AMD’s leaked upcoming Ryzen Z3 and/or “Gainsborough” handheld chips.

Back when AMD threw a little cold water on the idea of FSR 4 for existing handhelds, exec David McAfee told Tom’s Guide that “we want to make sure the experience and the quality is right” and that AMD would need “a sufficient amount of compute within that product” for FSR 4 to make sense. Perhaps some older laptop chips will qualify, while some older handheld chips don’t.

Valve has said it is working with AMD to bring FSR 4 to the Steam Machine’s console-grade AMD APU, but it hasn’t yet committed to the same for the Steam Deck handhelds.

AMD didn’t immediately respond to a request to clarify Huynh’s statement.