FSR Diamond starts the next chapter of AMD's upscaling tech journey, combining next-gen features for Windows PC and Game Consoles. The technology has now been announced and will launch next year, so here's the full explainer of what FSR Diamond is, and how it compares to its predecessor, FSR Redstone.
FSR Diamond: AMD's Continued Journey To Accelerate & Innovate Next-Gen Gaming Experiences With Feature-Rich Technologies
AMD's FSR, or FidelityFX Super Resolution as it used to be called, is an upscaling technology that was first introduced in June 2021. The technology was meant to counter NVIDIA's DLSS and was designed with a very open nature in the beginning, offering support across both Radeon and GeForce GPUs. AMD went on to release newer versions of FSR, such as FSR 2 in May 2022, FSR 3 in September 2023, and finally, FSR 4 in December 2025. FSR 2, FSR 3, and FSR 4 also had various sub-versions, which added feature updates and optimizations.
While FSR was initially designed for Radeon GPUs, the company would go on to form closer relations with its partners at Microsoft and Sony, who were already using custom AMD SoCs to power their consoles. At first, AMD worked closely with Sony to develop its own upscaling solution for the PS5 Pro console called PSSR or PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution. The first version of this technology fell between FSR 2 and FSR 3, and after some time, Sony recently provided an enhanced version called PSSR 2.0, which is similar to AMD's FSR 4 in terms of image quality and fidelity.
The move raised some questions by the PC community since the Viola silicon used by PS5 Pro utilizes the older RDNA 3 architecture, and yet, it can leverage the same level of features as AMD's newest RDNA 4 GPUs. Furthermore, the leaked source code of AMD's FSR 4.1 enabled the new technology on RDNA 3 with INT8 support. So while the technology is officially limited to Radeon RX 9000 GPUs, it does seem to work on older architectures, and AMD can enable them if they want to, but it looks like there are other plans.
The plans were revealed by AMD's SVP & GM of Computing & Graphics, Jack Huynh, who announced the next chapter in FSR called FSR Diamond.
So What Is FSR Diamond?
Just like FSR Redstone ended up becoming FSR 4, FSR Diamond is the codename for the next version of the tech. We can say that FSR Diamond will end up becoming FSR 5 close to launch, but the gemstones' codenames sound much cooler, don't they?
- FSR Diamond = FSR 5?
- FSR Redstone = FSR 4
- Project Helix = Next-Gen Microsoft Xbox Console
- Project Amethyst = Next-Gen Sony PlayStation Console
There was another gemstone codename that you might have missed out on, that's Amethyst. This is the official codename for Sony's next-generation PlayStation project, and the feature updates here will also apply to Radeon GPUs. So working with Microsoft and Sony on their custom silicon helps AMD improve its own Radeon GPU lineup too by fast-tracking upscaling and innovative AI/ML advancements.
Here Are All The New Features Coming With FSR Diamond
Like each FSR version before it, AMD's FSR Diamond will include some major features. We know that AMD and its partners are going all in on ML/AI-based hardware acceleration moving forward, so here are the 4 biggest updates to expect:
- Built for next-gen neural rendering
- Next-gen ML-based upscaling
- New ML-based multi-frame generation
- Next-gen Ray Regeneration for RT & Path Tracing
Built for next-gen neural rendering: Starting with the four major features, first up, we have next-gen neural rendering support. FSR Diamond is going to be massively backed by next-gen ML/AI engines that will power future Radeon GPUs, the Project Helix console from Microsoft, and the Project Amethyst console from Sony.
These Neural Arrays, which AMD has highlighted before, are a collection of compute units, interconnected to share and process data to work together like a singular AI engine rather than each compute unit working alone. With Neural Arrays, AMD aims to deliver a major uplift in neural rendering, which will help future generations of FSR and PSR upscaling techniques, allowing better upscaled image quality and better scene rendering when using frame-gen algorithms.
Next-gen ML-based upscaling: AMD FSR Diamond and its PSSR equivalent will also offer improvements to upscaling quality by utilizing the same ML technologies. AMD has constantly been improving its upscaling quality with updates to the algorithm to reduce ghosting artifacts, gitter, frame intervals, and more. AMD was the last one to hop on board the ML-based upscaling bandwagon, with NVIDIA being the first with its DLSS tech, followed by Intel's XeSS. AMD has since gotten on par with ML-based upscalers from the likes of its competitors.
New ML-based multi-frame generation: Next up, AMD is planning to roll out its very own Multi-Frame generation solution for the first time. AMD FSR Redstone (FSR 4) currently features a 2x mode, which is the standard frame-generation method. As for the competition, NVIDIA has moved to 6x MFG mode while Intel offers 4x MFG mode. We can expect, at the very least, a 4x mode, and if the need arises, they can go a notch above and match DLSS's 6x mode. The new ML-based MFG will also help with frame consistency when dialing up the modes, and there is also the likelihood that consoles from Sony and Microsoft feature something similar to NVIDIA's dynamic MFG, where the console can lock in a given frame rate and dynamically adjust the MFG modes, offering frame smoothness for all.
Next-gen Ray Regeneration for RT & Path Tracing: Lastly, AMD will continue to work on improving its RT & Path Tracing capabilities with a next-generation ray regeneration update on FSR Diamond. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 was the first to feature the first gen ray-regeneration technology at launch in December 2025, offering better quality RT, & Path Tracing is going to become the spotlight of gaming innovations in the coming years.
For this purpose alone, AMD is also building its next-gen Radiance Cores, which will be a brand new core integrated within the next-gen RDNA GPU architecture utilized by future Radeon GPUs and consoles. The cores will offer dedicated ray traversal hardware, designed to deliver faster & higher-performance real-time raytracing and path tracing gaming.
AMD has also unveiled its Universal Compression solution for future RDNA GPUs. This compression algorithm is an efficiency-boosting hardware block that evaluates and compresses all available data within the GPU to dramatically reduce memory bandwidth use and deliver higher performance. The Memory compression algorithms, such as Universal Compression, not only reduce the need for higher system bandwidth but also help in loading textures and models faster.
What Hardware Will Support FSR Diamond?
As of right now, the two confirmed products that will support FSR Diamond or its feature set are the next-gen Project Amethyst console from Sony (PlayStation) and Project Helix from Microsoft (Xbox). AMD has been working with both Sony & Microsoft to implement these technologies for the next-generation game consoles, but it's also the SoC that plays a crucial role. The SoC itself will be based on AMD's future GPU architecture.
As pointed out by industry insiders, the AMD FSR Diamond technology will only be supported by RDNA 5. This means that older hardware, such as Radeon RX 9000 (based on RDNA 4), and PS5 Pro (based on AMD RDNA 3), will not support FSR Diamond or its entire feature set. There could be some updates from FSR Diamond that pass over to the older architectures, but the full feature set will be limited to newer graphics chips.
AMD FSR Technologies Feature Set:
| Feature | FSR Diamond (FSR 5) | FSR Redstone (FSR 4) | FSR 3 | FSR 2 | FSR 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spatial Upscaling | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Temporal Upscaling | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| ML-Based Upscaling | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Native AA Mode | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Next-Gen Neural Rendering | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Frame-Gen | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| ML-Based Frame Gen | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| ML-Based Multi-Frame gen | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| ML-Based Ray Regeneration | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Next-Gen ML Ray Regeneration For PT/RT | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Supported Hardware | RDNA 5: Radeon GPUs Project Helix (Microsoft) Project Amethyst (Sony) | RDNA 4: Radeon RX 9000 RDNA 3: Sony PS5 Pro | Radeon RX 5000 & Above | RX 500 & Above | RX 500 & Above |
When Will FSR Diamond Launch?
AMD FSR Diamond is expected to release in 2027, which is also going to be when we start to see the new Radeon Gaming GPUs and next-generation consoles roll out, or at least their devkits.
Microsoft has already stated that Project Helix, its next-gen Xbox, powered by FSR Diamond, will offer "an order of magnitude improvement" versus the current generation and a "Leap in raytracing", which aligns with what AMD and Sony have also said in past interviews. Like the next-gen PSSR for Sony's PS consoles, AMD FSR Diamond will be designed to be natively optimized for Project Helix and will be natively optimized and integrated into the GDK.
