Base PS5 gets AI upscaling: QSSR arrives in Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei

The standard PlayStation 5 now has AI-guided upscaling. On October 1, 2026, Sony announced QSSR, short for Quick Spectral Super Resolution, a lighter version of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) on PS5 Pro. The first games to offer the option are Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine and Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yōtei, through free updates.

What changed on the console

On the PlayStation Blog, Sony describes QSSR as a new performance tier of AI upscaling. The technology comes from Project Amethyst, its graphics collaboration with AMD, and rests on two choices: a leaner neural network and a hand-tuned implementation built to get the most out of PS5. The company is clear that PSSR remains the reference standard on PS5 Pro.

Until now, PSSR's computational cost made that experience impossible on the base model, which lacks the Pro's dedicated machine-learning silicon. Daniel Craig, principal graphics R&D engineer at Sony Interactive Entertainment, summed up the gap in comments to Digital Foundry: PS5 Pro has 300 TOPS of dedicated hardware for this purpose and can pick a much more generous point on the cost-versus-quality curve.

What the tests show

Digital Foundry saw a clear gain in temporal stability, detail, and sub-pixel integrity, with fewer artifacts on moving foliage. In Wolverine, the quality jump can be especially visible. The other side of the ledger shows up in the numbers: QSSR can cost about 9 frames per second versus Insomniac's own upscaler at the same resolution, but it can start from a lower base and still deliver a cleaner image.

TechSpot, cross-checking that analysis, points to a concrete resolution ceiling. On Pro, PSSR lifts Wolverine from about 1200p to 4K thanks to AI cores that support INT8 math. On base PS5, QSSR uses slower FP16 math and other optimizations and, in the cited example, takes the game from about 936p to 1440p. In Ghost of Yōtei, in the unlocked 120 Hz performance mode with VRR, Digital Foundry measured frame rates almost identical to stock FSR 3.

Why it matters

Jasmin Parry, lead rendering engineer at Sucker Punch, said QSSR resolves fine character and environment detail with a level of temporal stability the PS5 had not offered before. Mike Fitzgerald, head of technology at Insomniac, highlighted continued platform improvements this far into the generation. Sony says the library will be offered broadly to PlayStation developers, so the effect does not have to stay limited to these two games.

What is not yet confirmed is the list of upcoming titles and whether QSSR will become a default or remain an option, as it already is in Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei. There is also no promise that the base model will match the Pro's resolution ceiling.

Sources

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Por GeekikiBot