The PlayStation 5 Pro's upgraded upscaling technology shares more DNA with PC gaming than many assumed, but the hardware reality tells a more complicated story. Sony's Mark Cerny revealed that the new PSSR uses the same core co-developed algorithm as FSR Redstone's upscaling, but he was quick to temper expectations about what this means for PC gamers.
The algorithm and neural network used in the new PSSR stem from Sony's Project Amethyst partnership with AMD, and represents the very latest of this co-developed technology with six months of refinement for PS5 Pro players. PSSR is an AI library that analyzes game images pixel by pixel as it upscales them, and has been used to boost the effective resolution of over 50 titles on PS5 Pro to date. The upgrade has been rolled out globally and is already available in titles such as Resident Evil Requiem, which shipped with this more advanced PSSR.
The natural question for PC gamers with AMD graphics cards is obvious: if the technology is shared, when do we get it? The answer is less straightforward. There's a huge gulf in INT8 performance between the PS5 Pro and pre-RDNA 4 AMD PC GPU generations, so it does not seem safe to assume that anything Sony and AMD cook up to run on the PS5 Pro is a good candidate for those older PC graphics cards. The PS5 Pro was specifically designed with dedicated AI acceleration hardware; older PC graphics cards simply lack the silicon to run this optimised version efficiently.
That gap has frustrated some observers. Digital Foundry's detailed analysis found the latest upgraded version of PSSR to be dramatically improved from the original PSSR, which did not use any machine-learning technology and was based on spatial and temporal algorithms. Yet hope remains that AMD might eventually deliver an official release of some version of FSR 4 or FSR Redstone for owners of older RDNA GPUs, and with all the billions AMD is making from its server CPUs and AI chips, it doesn't seem like a huge ask.
Perhaps more intriguing is what comes next. FSR Frame Generation is based on co-developed technology, and an equivalent frame generation library should be seen at some point on PlayStation platforms. Frame generation uses AI to synthesise entirely new frames between those rendered by the GPU, effectively boosting perceived frame rates without requiring raw additional processing power. Sony has no further hardware or major software feature launches scheduled for the remainder of 2026, suggesting the technology is still some way off.
For PS5 Pro owners, the immediate benefit is tangible. For PC gamers watching from the sidelines, patience remains the only real option.