PS5 Pro will implement AMD's FSR 4 next year – here's what it means for PlayStation fans
FSR 4 will be the "next evolution of PSSR"
💪 PS5 Pro will implement AMD's FSR 4 next year, aiming to enhance game performance and image quality
👉 FSR 4 will be the next evolution of PSSR, Sony's proprietary upscaler
👏 PSSR has improved some games but not all, while FSR 4 offers significant improvements over previous versions
🤝 The Amethyst collaboration between Sony and AMD will bring FSR 4 to PS5 Pro, potentially improving ray tracing performance as well
One of the standout features of the PS5 Pro, aside from its more powerful hardware, is PSSR, or PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution. Sony's proprietary machine-learning upscaler allows PS5 Pro games to run at higher frame rates and achieve perceivably higher resolutions, despite running at a lower resolution internally.
However, PSSR hasn't been a magic bullet for every title. Some PS5 Pro enhanced games have benefited greatly from PSSR, offering 4K-like quality without native resolution performance implications. While others exhibit distracting issues or offer an imperceptible benefit.
Still, the tech was superior to AMD's FSR 2 and FSR 3. But PlayStation's lead system architect Mark Cerny has said that Sony will now offer something similar to AMD FSR 4 on PS5 Pro.
Even though the technology is in its infancy, FSR 4 has proven to be a dramatic improvement over previous iterations of AMD's upscaler. As we’ve seen in several AMD FSR 4 games, it’s able to stand toe-to-toe with Nvidia's excellent DLSS 3, and even trades blows with DLSS 4. The tech is only available on the new Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT graphics cards.
Clearly, the technology has impressed Cerny enough that he wants to see it on PlayStation 5 Pro – and it's part of Sony and AMD's recently announced Amethyst collaboration.
Speaking to Digital Foundry, Cerny said: "Our target is to have something very similar to FSR 4's upscaler available on PS5 Pro for 2026 titles as the next evolution of PSSR.
"The neural network (and training recipe) in FSR 4's upscaler are the first results of the Amethyst collaboration," Cerny added. "And results are excellent, it's a more advanced approach that can exceed the crispness of PSSR. I’m very proud of the work of the joint team!"
As Cerny points out, FSR 4 (or a version of AMD's tech) will take some time to come to PS5 Pro. In the meantime, future games will continue to integrate PSSR. Despite the PS5 Pro's specs being dwarfed by the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, Cerny believes PS5 Pro's ML hardware will run FSR 4 without too much re-engineering.
Cerny also hinted that the collaboration between AMD and Sony could result in improvements in ray tracing performance. Ray tracing has previously been a thorn in AMD's side compared to Nvidia, and it’s an area where consoles still struggle.
"All I can say is stay tuned! There’s a lot of opportunity with our Amethyst collaboration, and we know that ray tracing is a huge part of the graphics future."
Up next: AMD Radeon RX 9070 review: Also a $549 graphics card, faster than Nvidia RTX 5070
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.