PS5 users will now be able to benefit from AI upscaling to improve a game’s visual fidelity on the base console, as PlayStation has launched Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR), a new performance tier of AI upscaling that serves as a counterpart to the PS5 Pro’s PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR).
As announced via a new PlayStation blog post, QSSR builds on the foundations of PSSR to provide similar image quality improvements to the regular PS5 console and uses a more streamlined neural network architecture, as well as a hand-tuned implementation that maximises performance on the base console.
That being said, QSSR won’t be as complex as PSSR on the PS5 Pro, which analyses game images pixel by pixel and uses AI to upscale them with more detail and stability than conventional approaches. However, it will still bring notable improvements to the base console in terms of image detail and stability, and it’s always nice to see base console players being shown some love and receiving a taste of what AI upscaling has to offer.
QSSR will be gradually rolled out in games, with the first titles to utilise this feature being Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Yōtei and Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Wolverine, with both games receiving a patch that offers the feature as an additional graphics option on the base PS5.
While having the choice of AI upscaling is always a welcome addition, PSSR implementation on the PS5 Pro hasn’t always been flawless, with issues reported like shimmering, flickering, and ghosting, especially when trying to upscale base resolutions under 900p, as seen in titles like 2023’s Alan Wake 2 or 2024’s Silent Hill 2. PlayStation would eventually launch the PSSR 2.0 update to address such issues, but it remains to be seen if the new QSSR implementation for the base PS5 will fare any better, especially since games running on the standard console tend to run at lower resolutions.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
