Sony Brings QSSR AI Upscaling to the Standard PS5

Sony described QSSR in a blog post as a “new performance tier of AI upscaling.” The company said it stems from its Project Amethyst work with AMD. The technology is separate from PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, the AI upscaling feature that has been available on the PS5 Pro since that console launched two years ago. Sony said PSSR “remains the gold standard.”

The PS5 does not have dedicated machine learning silicon, and early hands-on testing by Digital Foundry suggested QSSR is not as fast as PSSR. The Verge reported that players should expect closer to an upscaled 1440p resolution on the standard PS5, compared with upscaled 4K on the PS5 Pro. “On PS5 Pro, developers almost uniformly output to 4K and adjust render resolution beneath it,” Sony principal graphics R&D engineer Daniel Craig told Digital Foundry. “On PS5, teams have to be more flexible, tuning not just render resolution, but also their intermediate and final presentation targets depending on the graphics mode.”

Craig also told Digital Foundry that QSSR is “fundamentally a drop-in replacement for titles that already support PSSR” after only a few days of tuning, The Verge reported, making it likelier that PS5 developers will adopt it. Sony said the feature will be “offered broadly to all PlayStation developers.” Engadget reported that Sony attributed the ability to offer AI upscaling on PS5 to “a streamlined neural network architecture” and “a hand-tuned implementation that maximizes performance.”

Sony said QSSR delivers “notable improvements” to image detail and stability. Mike Fitzgerald, head of technology at Wolverine developer Insomniac Games, said the technology “adds more pixel-level clarity and stability to our environments, bringing out extra detail amidst the busy streets of Madripoor, the dense alleyways of Shinjuku and many other areas across Logan’s epic journey.”

For Ghost of Yōtei, the QSSR patch coincides with the release of Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition, which includes a story expansion and a roguelike mode. Engadget reported that existing owners can upgrade for $15.