AMD Confirms AI-Powered FSR 4 for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Signaling Shift in PC Gaming

The future of PC gaming will be AI-driven - AMD confirms machine learning FSR 4 for 2025, launching in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

AMD has confirmed it's working closely with Activision to bring the FSR 4 upscaling tool to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in 2025 - further clarifying the purported shift to AI for FSR. This comes from Team Red's Vice President, Jack Huynh, in a video that unveils the new Ryzen 7 9800X3D (spoiler: the rumors and spec leaks we reported earlier this week were accurate). In addition to the new chip, Huynh confirmed AMD's plans to optimize FSR 3.1 further in Black Ops 6. Following this, the AMD VP mentioned a collaboration with Activision to bring the 'next generation of ML-based FSR' to the long-running shooter franchise next year. We're still waiting to hear more about how the newly AI-driven FSR 4 will work - especially versus DLSS and now PSSR, both of which notably use AI for resolution upscaling, while AMD has avoided the use of AI for FSR thus far. According to Huynh, handheld gaming PCs will enjoy a significant battery life improvement stemming from AI-based frame interpolation. While this could drastically improve power efficiency for handhelds, it's also potentially great news for desktop PC gamers who use mid-range GPUs. Fluid Motion Frames (AMD's frame-gen software) has already improved smoothness and reduced latency across multiple games, and with AMD fully focusing on machine learning for FSR 4, we can expect a performance leap in both FMF and the resolution upscaling tool itself. It's clear that frame generation and AI upscaling are becoming prominent factors in producing smooth gaming experiences on PC. Nvidia's DLSS has consistently outperformed AMD's FSR, which is more than likely one of the RTX 4000 series' pull factors for PC gamers (since the next-gen DLSS 3 is only available on RTX 4000 cards). With a new generation of upscaling tech on the horizon, this is a great opportunity for Team Red to compete in the GPU market - high-end GPUs are no longer its focus, so FSR 4 may be the savior needed to lock in strong but affordable performance for its mid-range and budget cards. If AMD's leaked CES 2025 lineup is accurate, we could see the brand put up a great fight within the GPU department but also deliver a complete landslide across multiple other next-gen hardware arenas... watch this space, folks.

AMD says it's already working hard on bringing AI-powered FSR 4 to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

TLDR: AMD hinted that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 might be the first game to feature its next-gen FSR, likely FSR 4, which will use AI for the first time. AMD is collaborating with Activision to enhance the game experience with FSR 3.1 and future AI-based FSR.* Based on the content by Darren Allan below. AMD has dropped a heavy hint that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 could be the first game to get its next-gen FSR (presumably FSR 4) that'll leverage AI for the first time. If Black Ops 6 isn't the first, the game is certainly getting this tech, as AMD's Jack Huynh, who heads up Team Red's Computing & Graphics group, made clear as part of the reveal of the new Ryzen 9800X3D on YouTube (check out the above clip). Huynh said that AMD is hooking up with Activision to deliver the "absolute best experience on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6" by implementing FSR 3.1 and game optimizations in its drivers, before adding: "We're also working very hard to enable the next generation ML-Based FSR on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6." So, it appears work is underway on what might be FSR 4 support already, which as we've heard incorporates AI (ML-based meaning machine learning, of course). Huynh previously revealed that AMD is bringing AI into the mix with its upscaling, despite Team Red taking a stance against the need for AI at all in upscalers in the past. AI will be used to provide a better-quality image, of course - which is where FSR has come up against a lot of flak, compared to NVIDIA DLSS (which uses AI) in the past. The question for future AMD GPUs - we're thinking about RDNA 4 early next year, of course - is whether they will have dedicated hardware for accelerating these AI processes (like NVIDIA's Tensor cores). Whatever the case, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is apparently already at the upscaling table to benefit from FSR 4 in the future.