Sony introduces QSSR, an AI upscaling feature for the base PS5

The Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR) technology brings some of the PSSR capabilities from the PS5 Pro to the base console and has already appeared in the games Marvel’s Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei.

How QSSR works

QSSR was developed as part of Project Amethyst, a joint project between Sony and AMD. The technology uses a simplified neural network and an algorithm optimized specifically for the PS5 to reconstruct images from lower resolutions with increased detail and better frame-to-frame stability.

The main difference from PSSR lies in the hardware capabilities of the consoles. PS5 Pro features specialized machine learning blocks and approximately 300 TOPS of computational performance for such tasks. The standard PS5 lacks these blocks, so QSSR primarily uses FP16 calculations instead of INT8 and utilizes general-purpose GPU resources.

Therefore, QSSR is not intended to fully replace PSSR. On the PS5 Pro, developers can generally target 4K output, while 1440p remains a more suitable target for the base PS5. At the same time, Sony promises improved fine detail and temporal image stability compared to traditional upscaling methods.

First tests

Digital Foundry tested QSSR in Marvel’s Wolverine. When reconstructing the image from an internal resolution of approximately 864p to 1440p, the technology required about 1,5-1,8 ms more time per frame than Insomniac’s proprietary upscaler. With an unlocked frame rate, this corresponded to a difference of approximately 8-10 FPS.

In standard performance mode, the game uses dynamic resolution, so it may lower the internal resolution while maintaining the target 60 FPS.

When outputting at 2160p, the QSSR load in the Wolverine test increased to approximately 4.4 ms per frame. Therefore, using the technology for reconstruction to 1440p looks significantly more practical on the hardware of the standard PS5.

Visually, Digital Foundry noted a more stable image, better reconstruction of fine and sub-pixel details, and fewer artifacts, especially in moving vegetation. In Marvel’s Wolverine, the difference was more noticeable than in Ghost of Yōtei, where the previous upscaler FSR 3 already provided sufficiently high image quality.

Which games support QSSR

The first games to feature QSSR are Marvel’s Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei. Both received the corresponding updates on October 1st. In Marvel’s Wolverine, patch version 1.002.000 enables QSSR on the standard PS5 by default.

Sony plans to provide the QSSR library to all PlayStation developers. For projects where PSSR is already implemented, the transition should be relatively straightforward, although developers will still need to adjust resolution, texture streaming, and other parameters to match the performance of the base PS5.

QSSR operates at the individual game level, so it will not automatically enhance the entire PS5 catalog without updates.