PS5 Pro Achieves Notable Performance Gains, Claims Developer; PSSR is the Most Impressive Feature

01.11.2024

With the PS5 Pro’s global launch set for November 7, excitement is building around its potential as possibly the only console refresh of this generation. As developers get their hands on the hardware, insights into its performance are surfacing. Recently, Tymon Smektala, *Dying Light*’s Franchise Director, highlighted the PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) feature, suggesting it could be even more impactful than other upgrades in the PS5 Pro.

In a Q&A, Junhwan Kim, Engine Programmer at Nexon, echoed this praise for PSSR, calling it the most impressive aspect of the new console. Kim emphasized that PSSR’s advanced AI-driven upscaling addresses some of the drawbacks seen in other upscaling techniques, such as FSR, which can suffer from issues like pixel ghosting and jittering on the base PS5 model. With PSSR, these limitations are minimized, allowing for clearer, more stable visuals.

The PS5 Pro, launching at a price of $699/£699/€799, boasts three primary upgrades: enhanced GPU performance, advanced ray-tracing capabilities, and the new PSSR AI upscaling. For Nexon’s upcoming game, *The First Descendant*, these improvements allowed Kim and his team to push the console’s visual capabilities further, particularly with ray tracing. Players can expect enhancements like ray-traced ambient occlusion, more detailed reflections, and other advanced lighting effects, bringing greater depth and realism to the game’s graphics.

While Kim acknowledges that matching the graphical quality of high-end PCs is a challenge, he explains that the PS5 Pro has enabled his team to deliver exceptional visuals on console. The inclusion of PSSR alongside FSR frame generation on the PS5 Pro provides a smoother, higher-resolution experience compared to the base model, further enhancing gameplay immersion.

Ultimately, Kim believes PSSR holds up impressively when compared to other top upscalers, including NVIDIA DLSS and Intel XeSS. According to him, each upscaling technology has its own strengths, but PSSR on the PS5 Pro successfully brings console image quality closer to that of high-end PCs, marking a significant step forward in visual fidelity for console gaming.