Yesterday, Sony unveiled the PlayStation 5 AI-powered QSSR upscaler, a performance-focused version of the PlayStation 5 Pro PSSR upscaler that will reduce the gap between the base system and the mid-generation refresh, which is also the most powerful current-generation system. Following the launch of the upscaler in Ghost of Yōtei and Marvel’s Wolverine, the upscaler is likely going to see widespread adoption in already released games, judging from what Daniel Craig, Principal Engineer for Graphics R&D at SIE toldDigital Foundry.
“QSSR is fundamentally a drop-in replacement for titles that already support PSSR,” Craig explained. “That said, tuning game settings takes a bit more time, perhaps a few days. For example, teams may need to adjust streaming settings to ensure higher quality mips are resident.”
“Retrofits are relatively easy and low risk, but I am most excited about future titles which are authored with both QSSR and PSSR in mind,” Craig continued, essentially confirming that widespread adoption of the PlayStation 5‘s new upscaler is a real possibility, especially for the games released with PSSR support.
In addition to speaking with the Principal Engineer for Graphics R&D at SIE, Digital Foundry also took a first look at how the PlayStation 5‘s QSSR upscaler runs in the two supported games. With a 4K resolution target in Marvel’s Wolverine, the upscaler incurs a high cost compared to PSSR on PlayStation 5 Pro, resulting in an 8 to 10 FPS difference during demanding cutscenes. With a 1440p resolution target, there’s a difference of around 1.5ms to 1.8ms, delivering a similar 8 to 10 FPS difference, only that dynamic resolution scaling in 60Hz performance mode lessens the gap.
However, the Marvel’s Wolverine example may not be entirely indicative of the cost of QSSR. “Tuning Ghost of Yōtei’s performance mode uncapped with VRR saw QSSR running almost identically to its stock FSR 3 implementation,”Digital Foundry said. “It’s just one game and we’d need to confirm similar input and output resolutions, but assuming QSSR is as fast as FSR 3, this makes it a highly compelling alternative for PS5 game developers.”
Although there are still a few unknowns, it’s undeniable that QSSR is an exciting development for the base PlayStation 5. If the upscaler’s cost is similar to AMD FSR 3, which is already widely used, we could be looking at a significant image quality increase for future games running on the base system, an increase that many definitely need for their performance modes, where image quality takes a hit to reach the 60 FPS target that is nowadays required for a good gaming experience.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack.
After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi “Suda51” Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA’s president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3.
When he’s not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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