On a handheld and a thin laptop, AMD's newest upscaling software has arrived promising a free leap in picture quality, and a reviewer testing it over a week has found that the old habit of choosing a balance between sharpness and speed no longer fits. The lesson is less about a single setting than about a shift in what the machine is doing: where the software once stretched pixels cheaply, it now reconstructs them with heavier intelligence, asking players to trade their familiar presets for a new understanding of what quality costs. The contest with Intel's rival chips remains unresolved, as s
Tom's Guide Tests AMD FSR 4 on ROG Xbox Ally X20: Performance Mode Beats Balanced, But Frame Gains Are Elusive
A direct preset-to-preset comparison doesn't add up.
Mark
So the headline is that the new upscaler can be slower than the old one?
Mimi
At the same preset, yes. The reviewer ran FSR 3 and FSR 4 side by side on identical settings and often saw fewer frames with FSR 4.
Mark
Why would a newer version cost performance?
Mimi
FSR 4 is a machine-learning model rather than a simple spatial algorithm, so it needs more compute to reconstruct the image.
Luke
That's the reviewer's explanation. The piece doesn't show measurements of the overhead, so treat it as a reasonable account, not a demonstrated one.
Mark
And the fix is to move down to Performance?
Mimi
Right. FSR 4 at Performance is described as looking better than FSR 3 at Balanced, with examples like fur in Spider-Man: Miles Morales and hair in Cyberpunk 2077.
Luke
Those are visual judgments from one tester. And the text says the numbers jump at Performance but gives no figures, so how big the frame gain is remains unknown.
Mark
Does the Intel comparison settle anything?
Mimi
No. The reviewer says AMD is catching up, with Intel ahead on handheld GPU strength and multi-frame generation, though Intel's Arc G3 Extreme costs more.
Luke
Right, and no head-to-head tests are presented, so that's an opinion rather than a result.
Der Puls
- A familiar setting that once guaranteed more frames is now producing fewer of them on AMD handhelds and laptops.
- Players who expected a free upgrade are finding the heavier AI-based scaling pulls against their frame rates at identical presets.
- Testers are navigating a new path: drop from Balanced to Performance and let the sharper reconstruction carry the image.
- The verdict is landing on a rethought approach, with the question of how Intel's XeSS 3 and Panther Lake will compare still hanging open.
On a handheld and a thin laptop, AMD's newest upscaling software has arrived promising a free leap in picture quality, and a reviewer testing it over a week has found that the old habit of choosing a balance between sharpness and speed no longer fits. The lesson is less about a single setting than about a shift in what the machine is doing: where the software once stretched pixels cheaply, it now reconstructs them with heavier intelligence, asking players to trade their familiar presets for a new understanding of what quality costs. The contest with Intel's rival chips remains unresolved, as such contests tend to be.
A Tom's Guide reviewer spent a week putting AMD's FSR 4 through its paces on the ROG Xbox Ally X20 and an ASUS TUF Gaming A14, with the new drivers installed and benchmarks run on each machine. The setup takes some patience: the driver has to be installed from the Preview Updates tab, and the FSR tile must be enabled in Armory Crate before launching a game, because the switch cannot be flipped mid-session.
The expectation was simple. FSR 4 is AMD's answer to DLSS, a new generation of scaling that should sharpen images and lift frame rates together. But in side-by-side tests at matching settings, FSR 4 often delivered fewer frames than FSR 3 at Balanced. The reviewer's explanation is that FSR 4 is no longer a simple spatial trick but a heavier machine-learning model, and it costs compute to rebuild each frame.
The payoff arrives when you change presets rather than keep the old one. FSR 4 at Performance produced images that looked sharper than FSR 3 at Balanced. In Cyberpunk 2077 an NPC's hair resolves more cleanly, in Spider-Man: Miles Morales individual strands on a jacket collar stand out instead of clumping, and in Forza Horizon 6 wet asphalt reflects more crisply. The reviewer also reports higher frame rates at Performance, though specific figures are not given.
The verdict is that FSR 4 is the largest free upgrade these machines have seen in a long time, but only for players willing to rethink their settings. Against Intel, the reviewer sees a catch-up effort: Intel still has stronger handheld GPU silicon and multi-frame generation, even if the Arc G3 Extreme costs more. How that rivalry unfolds is left open, and readers are invited to share their results.
The test bench in this story is a handheld: the ROG Xbox Ally X20, along with an ASUS TUF Gaming A14 laptop. Over the course of a week, a Tom's Guide reviewer updated both machines with AMD's new drivers and ran benchmarks to see what FSR 4 actually does on integrated silicon.
AMD has now brought FSR 4, its next-generation upscaling, to Z Extreme handhelds and Strix Halo laptops. It is pitched as AMD's answer to Nvidia's DLSS, a free software upgrade that sharpens the picture and adds frames. The reviewer's finding cuts against that expectation: anyone who assumes a new generation of AI scaling will send frame rates climbing is likely to be disappointed.
Getting it running on the Xbox Ally X20 takes a few steps. In Armory Crate, open the Update Center, go to the Preview Updates tab, and install the new AMD Radeon graphics driver, dated October 23 or newer. After a restart, press the Armory Crate button to open the Command Center, tap the Edit icon, and add the AMD FSR Upscaling tile, then activate it. The setting cannot be switched on mid-game. The tile must be on before you launch, and you then pick the FSR option in the game's own display menu. Strix Halo laptop owners only need the latest AMD Adrenalin drivers.
The reviewer's long-standing advice had been to leave FSR on the Balanced preset. But in one-to-one comparisons of FSR 3 and FSR 4 at identical settings, FSR 4 did not deliver more frames, and frequently lost them. The explanation offered is that FSR 4 is no longer a simple spatial algorithm. It is a heavier, more complex machine-learning model that needs more overhead and compute to analyze and reconstruct each image. In the reviewer's words, a direct preset-to-preset comparison does not add up.
The gain shows up when you change presets. According to the testing, FSR 4 in Performance mode gives a notable picture-quality improvement over FSR 3 in Balanced. With FSR 3, dropping to Performance meant a blurry, pixelated image, especially in motion. FSR 4 rebuilds images sharply enough that Performance is no longer much of a compromise.
The reviewer points to specific games. In Dying Light: The Beast, foliage and stonework come through with more clarity at the lower internal resolution. In Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the fur on the jacket collar is softer and clumpier under FSR 3, while individual hairs are more sharply defined with FSR 4. In Cyberpunk 2077, an NPC, especially the hair, is rendered more sharply. Forza Horizon 6 shows crisper reflections on wet asphalt, and Pragmata has cleaner edges on computer screens and a robotic suit. The reviewer adds that frame rates rise too at Performance, though the article's text gives no specific figures.
The verdict is that FSR 4 is the biggest free upgrade AMD handhelds and laptops have received in a long time, but only if you rethink your settings. It is not a one-to-one replacement for Balanced. A confident move to Performance is said to yield both better image quality and higher frame rates.
The piece closes by looking at Intel, which has pushed hard on gaming with Panther Lake chips and XeSS 3. Is FSR 4 enough to answer? The reviewer says sort of. It is a catch-up effort, and Intel still leads in places, with stronger handheld GPU silicon and multi-frame generation, though the Arc G3 Extreme is pricier. How that contest plays out is left open, and the reviewer invites readers to share their own results.
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FSR 4 is the biggest free upgrade AMD handhelds and laptops have received in a long time, but only if you change how you set it up.— Tom's Guide reviewer (paraphrased)
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