Sony is allegedly working on a significant upgrade to its PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution technology, informally dubbed PSSR2, which aims to both improve visual quality and reduce the performance overhead associated with AI-based upscaling.
In his new YouTube video, content creator Moore’s Law Is Dead claims that Sony is currently working on training a higher image quality neural network that is lightweight, requiring less frametime to upscale. While the company has not officially branded it as PSSR2, internal documentation suggests the changes are substantial enough to warrant the label.
Currently, PSSR’s minimum internal resolution for 4K upscaling is 864p, which is already more conservative than Nvidia’s DLSS Ultra Performance mode that can scale up from as low as 720p. However, Sony has determined that image quality degrades noticeably when dipping below the 864p threshold. As per the source, with PSSR2, the goal is to maintain or even enhance visual fidelity while using a more lightweight neural network, allowing for faster upscaling with less impact on frame times.
One of the biggest challenges with the existing version of PSSR is its impact on frame rates. For instance, in God of War Ragnarok running on PlayStation 5 Pro, enabling PSSR modestly improved performance in demanding scenes but capped maximum frame rates, limiting gameplay to around 70–75 FPS when it could otherwise reach 80–90 FPS. Sony is looking to overcome this bottleneck with the newer version of its AI-based upscaling technology.
The updated PSSR algorithm will allegedly support 4K at 120Hz, 1440p at 120Hz, 1080p at 120Hz, and even 8K at 60Hz, depending on hardware limits and game optimization. The intention is to offer consistent, high refresh-rate options across a variety of resolutions for broader gameplay smoothness.
Additionally, the source claims that Sony is exploring a feature referred to as MFSR, which may serve as a higher-quality alternative to traditional temporal anti-aliasing (TAA). Even if users don’t enable PSSR for performance gains, this method may improve image quality in PS5 Pro-enhanced games by replacing TAA with Sony’s AI-enhanced reconstruction technique.
