PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, or PSSR, is Sony’s machine-learning upscaling library for the PS5 Pro, and in 2026 it received its first major overhaul. The upgraded version began rolling out with a PS5 system software update on March 16, 2026, and it represents a different approach to both the neural network and the surrounding algorithm than the original PSSR that shipped with the console.
What PSSR actually is
Sony defines PSSR as an AI library that analyzes each frame pixel by pixel as it upscales game visuals. It is not a spatial sharpening pass and not a generic temporal filter; it is a trained neural network that reconstructs a higher-resolution output from a lower internal render, the same fundamental job that NVIDIA’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR upscaling perform on PC. On PS5 Pro, the custom ML silicon delivers 300 8-bit TOPS without sparsity, a figure lead system architect Mark Cerny has compared favorably to contemporary discrete GPUs.
The reason PSSR exists on a console is the same reason upscalers exist everywhere: rendering at native 4K is expensive, and reconstructing 4K from a lower internal resolution buys GPUGPU. Graphics Processing Unit — the chip that renders the game's visuals; the main driver of framerate and image quality. headroom that developers spend on ray tracingray tracing. A rendering technique that simulates how light bounces, for realistic shadows, reflections, and lighting — costly to compute., higher frame rates, or richer effects. Sony’s documentation notes PSSR has been adopted across a growing roster of PS5 Pro titles, with the launch lineup alone covering more than 50 Enhanced games and the supported set expanding through subsequent firmware updates.
The upgraded pipeline and Project Amethyst
The most important context for the 2026 upgrade is Project Amethyst, Sony’s co-development partnership with AMD. Cerny has confirmed that the algorithm and neural network used in the new PSSR stem from this partnership, and that the same core co-developed algorithm underpins AMD’s FSR Redstone Upscaling on PC. The two are not identical implementations: FSR uses 8-bit floating point while PSSR uses 8-bit integer, the MAC counts vary slightly, and the training data is similar but not exactly the same. Cerny’s assessment is that none of these differences appear to make much difference in results, making the refreshed PSSR and FSR an interesting real-world test of how closely two co-developed systems can match.
A subtle but consequential detail is how the upscaler is trained for consoles versus PC. Because console games target fixed frame rates such as 30, 60, or 120 fpsframerate. How many images (frames) the game shows per second; higher = smoother motion. 60 fps is a common target., the same model is used but trained on data specific to the target upscale ratio. For a 2:1 fixed upscale, the training data is just for that ratio, producing different parameters. The practical effect is that PSSR is tuned for the locked, predictable performance envelope consoles are built around, rather than the uncapped VRR-oriented behavior common on PC.
Enhanced-mode image quality versus FSR
The image quality story is where the upgraded PSSR earns its keep, and developer feedback collected by Sony is specific about what improves. Konami reports that in SILENT HILL f, fine details from swaying grass to ground shadows render with greater clarity. Square Enix, on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, says fine details such as character hair are naturally restored and that image processing is more stable due to less flickering and afterimage feeling. Remedy describes the new PSSR as allowing efficient stochastic sampling without sacrificing image stability, responding quickly to visibility changes so motion stays clear while temporal stability improves. Ninja Theory highlights the quality of particle effects.
The consistent themes across these accounts are temporal stability, clarity of fine high-frequency detail like hair and foliage, and reduced shimmering and flickering. These are exactly the failure modes that hurt first-generation ML upscalers most, and they are the areas where a pure spatial-temporal upscaler like FSR’s older non-ML versions traditionally struggled. The comparison to FSR is therefore not a simple win/loss; it is a question of which artifact class a given scene stresses. Where the upgraded PSSR pulls ahead is motion clarity and reconstruction of fine geometry; where FSR remains competitive is in the breadth of its availability across PC hardware and its mature integration in many engines.
Crucially, Cerny disclosed that the new PSSR is approximately 100 microseconds faster than the original, which is what made the system-level override feasible at all. A slower replacement would have risked frame drops in titles tuned to the original’s cost; a faster one means the override can only help or be neutral on performance, with frame drops becoming slightly rarer rather than more common.
The system-level override
This is the feature that reframes PSSR for the whole PS5 Pro library. After the March 2026 firmware update, a setting called “Enhance PSSR Image Quality” lets players force the new PSSR onto any PS5 Pro game that already supports PSSR. Sony is explicit that results vary by title but that many games see improvements in clarity and image stability, and that the setting can be turned off at any time if it produces unexpected visual effects.
The mechanism is a driver-level substitution. Cerny explained that the recent system software recognizes the whitelisted titles announced at rollout (such as Silent Hill 2) and substitutes the new PSSR at the developers’ request, based on their broad QA. Going forward, some titles will be patched to move to the new PSSR and simultaneously adjust input data such as mipmap bias or exposure calculation, which is the best strategy when game-side tuning is needed for ideal image quality. The override works because the new PSSR consumes the same inputs as the original, making it a drop-in replacement.
The honest caveat Sony itself raises is that the override is not universally a net positive. In a few titles, enabling Enhance produces wonderful overall improvement but also causes aliasing in specific scenes, for example instability in light sources smaller than a pixel. Cerny’s guidance is pragmatic: turn it on when 99 percent of a game is better, accept the occasional scene-level trade-off, and rely on community guidance for title-by-title recommendations. Sony’s current strategy is to fix the override’s parameters rather than continually update them, so that community guidance remains stable.
Where PSSR softens detail
No upscaler is free of failure modes, and the upgraded PSSR is no exception. The cases Sony and its partners acknowledge are revealing. The aliasing on sub-pixel light sources under the override is one concrete softening artifact. More generally, any ML upscaler trades native detail for reconstructed detail, and the places it softens are the places its training data is thinnest or where the input render is lowest: very high-frequency textures viewed at a steep angle, thin geometric detail like distant foliage or chain-link, and fast-moving translucent effects where temporal accumulation conflicts with motion.
The relationship to internal resolution matters here. A title that feeds PSSR a generous internal render, such as the 1440p-to-4K path Naughty Dog describes for The Last of Us Part II Remastered, gives the network plenty to work with. A title that pushes the input resolution very low to claw back performance gives PSSR less signal to reconstruct, and the softening becomes more visible. Cerny’s own example of an 864p-to-2160p upscale in Alan Wake 2 is a useful data point: that is a large upscale ratio, and it is exactly the scenario where even a strong ML upscaler has to invent detail rather than recover it. The upgraded PSSR handles it better than the original, but a 2.5x linear upscale is still a 2.5x linear upscale.
What it means for players
For PS5 Pro owners the takeaway is operational. Update the firmware, turn on “Enhance PSSR Image Quality” in settings, and try it on supported titles. The expected result is crisper fine detail, steadier motion, and less flicker, with performance that is equal to or marginally better than the original PSSR. The override is conservative by design: fixed parameters, community-tested, and toggleable. For titles that have been explicitly patched to the new PSSR, the result is typically stronger than the override alone because developers can tune mipmap bias and exposure alongside the swap.
The longer-term implication is that PS5 Pro’s upscaling is now part of a shared Sony-AMD technology lineage. AMD has indicated that its next FSR update will carry these same advancements to PC players, and Cerny has noted that an equivalent frame generation library should appear on PlayStation platforms in the future. PSSR is no longer a closed console curiosity; it is one deployment of a co-engineered upscaling family, and that is the context worth tracking.