Your PS5 can now make games look sharper, thanks to Sony’s new QSSR tech

The standard PS5 gets Sony’s new QSSR upscaling feature, designed to improve image quality and stability without requiring Pro-level hardware.

Amid the memory crisis and GTA 6’s imminent launch, Sony took a step that genuinely improves the PS5 gaming experience at no extra cost. For context, the Japanese console maker announced QSSR for its standard model, a machine-based graphics upscaling feature.

QSSR adapts PSSR’s AI upscaling for standard PS5 hardware without requiring the Pro’s power. (Pexels)

Built on the foundation of PSSR, the PS5 Pro's upscaling feature, the standard PS5’s new feature is claimed to significantly enhance image quality and stability without taxing the internal hardware.

So far, the brand has revealed in a blog post that gamers can take advantage of QSSR in only two games, which shouldn’t be taken lightly. Here’s everything you need to know about the new AI-based upscaling feature on the standard PS5 and which games you can use it on.

More detail from the same PS5 hardware

In a blog post, Sony revealed that QSSR is essentially a stripped-down version of PSSR. For those uninitiated, the latter is an AI-based graphics upscaling feature that debuted with the PS5 Pro and is built on Project Amethyst, a graphics collaboration with AMD.

PSSR uses AI to analyse on-screen images pixel by pixel, then improves resolution with machine learning without affecting the game's smoothness. If you are playing a graphically intensive game at 1080p at 60 fps, the PS5 Pro’s feature will upscale it to 1440p with no impact on the frame rate. This lets the PS5 Pro render sharper foliage, hair, and other elements while reducing flickering, shimmering, and image breakup during movement.

Even when Sony wanted to, it couldn’t port the PSSR upscaling feature from the PS5 Pro to the standard PS5. The standard model lacks the computational power and machine-learning hardware found in its Pro version.

This prompted Sony to develop QSSR for the base PS5. The brand says the new upscaling feature combines a streamlined neural-network architecture with a hand-tuned implementation to reconstruct game images with greater detail and improved temporal stability.

While this sounds great in theory, the Japanese console maker emphasised that PSSR on the PS5 Pro will remain the gold standard for its upscaling technology.

QSSR expands beyond Sony’s own games

For now, Sony has announced that interested gamers can use QSSR in Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei after installing the latest patch. That said, the brand said it will offer this feature to more game developers, rather than limiting it to its own studios. This will let them strike the right balance between rendering resolution, performance, and image quality on ageing hardware.