Sony has confirmed “FSR4” update for PlayStation 5 Pro next year
Mark Cerny talks to Tom’s Guide.
Jack Huyhn (AMD) and Mark Cerny (Sony), Source: Jack Huynh
A new hardware has now been confirmed to support FSR 4, and it’s not a Radeon 7000 GPU. The PlayStation 5 Pro, released earlier this year, is a mid-generation refresh featuring an upgraded SoC with support for AI inference through upgraded hardware.
Sony is planning a major update for the PS5 Pro in 2026 that will replace its current AI upscaling solution, PSSR, with a new algorithm co-developed with AMD. According to PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny, the new version is a direct drop-in replacement for the original PSSR, making integration easier for developers while improving both performance and image quality.
This update is part of the ongoing collaboration between Sony and AMD under Project Amethyst, a joint effort launched in 2023. The project focuses on building custom machine learning models and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for graphics enhancement. The same research that resulted in AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 on PC is now being adapted for use in the PS5 Pro, extending the benefits of that work to console hardware.
The algorithm they came up with could be implemented on current-generation hardware, so the co-developed algorithm has already been released by AMD as part of FSR 4 on PC. And we’re in the process of implementing it on PS5 and it will release next year on PS5 Pro.
— Mark Cerny, PS5 lead architect
PlayStation 5 Pro supports machine learning through custom RNDA, Source: Sony
Cerny confirmed that the algorithm being introduced to PS5 Pro is not a reduced or modified version of FSR 4 but the full version co-developed with AMD. This new tech allows for more efficient rendering by lowering the base resolution and then (what’s new compared to previous FSR implementations) enhancing it through AI, improving frame rates without compromising visual fidelity. The original PSSR already enabled 4K-like visuals from lower resolutions, but the new implementation should further reduce rendering costs, benefiting demanding titles.
Unfortunately, just like how the Radeon 7000 series is unlikely to receive FSR 4 support, the original PlayStation 5 also won’t be compatible with the new PSSR upscaling technology. This is due to the absence of a custom RDNA GPU design with dedicated hardware for machine learning tasks, which is essential for running the updated algorithm. The PS5 Pro, by contrast, was built with these capabilities in mind.
