As we know, there are three popular upscaling technologies:
- DLSS
- XeSS
- FSR
For many years, Nvidia and Intel had a huge advantage over AMD because they used INT8 (8-bit) operations which were twice as fast as the FP16 (16-bit) operations used by AMD. This allowed them to create twice as complex rules in their upscaling technology. Technically, AMD hardware also supported INT8 operations on PC (RDNA2, RDNA3) and Xbox but they decided not to use it. AMD never explained why, but many people suspect that AMD wanted a single technology that worked on PC, Xbox, and PS5 and PlayStation didn't support INT8.
The situation changed in 2025 when AMD released FSR 4 for Radeon 9000 cards. AMD used 8-bit precision so image quality was much better than in previous versions of FSR. They used 8-bit floating-point instructions from RDNA4 but it was clear to everyone that this code could be easily translated to INT8. We did not have to wait long. The scenario was confirmed by AMD itself which accidentally leaked a beta version of FSR4 INT8 a few months later.
FSR4 INT8 was pretty good. It was tested by Digital Foundry and everyone expected it to be released on both PC and Xbox as part of FSR Redstone at the end of 2025. But this didn't happen. For some strange reason AMD acted as if FSR4 INT8 didn't exist. Multiple big websites like Digital Foundry and GamersNexus asked AMD about FSR4 INT8 but AMD always declined to comment.
Until now. I just found that Mark Cerny (Playstion architect) confirmed that PSSR 2 released earlier this month is indeed FSR 4.1 INT8
This means the INT8 code that leaked a few months ago was a beta version of PSSR 2. AMD just used a PC to convert FSR4 from FP8 to INT8 and someone accidentally leaked it. Playstation 5 Pro doesn't support FP8 but it support INT8. This could explain why AMD didn't release that code officially on PC and Xbox and so many times denied that this code exist. So the chances that AMD will release FSR 4 INT8 on PC and Xbox are basically zero
source: https://x.com/cerny/status/2034751680290705451