Unreal Engine 5 is proving to be the kryptonite of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s mid-gen console, the PS5 Pro.
The upgraded PS5 was intended to be Sony Interactive Entertainment’s answer to the mid-gen power gap created by modern PC hardware, with the aim of offering players more stable frame rates, higher visual fidelity, and sharper image quality via the AI-based PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) technology. However, as more titles hit the market, the PS5 Pro is struggling to deliver the kind of transformative experience many were hoping for, and Unreal Engine 5 may be the underlying culprit.
Take the example of Silent Hill f, a horror title that consolidates its graphics options into a single 60 fps mode on PS5 Pro with PSSR engaged. According to Digital Foundry, the mid-gen PS5 delivers a noisy, artifact-ridden image that struggles with grass, debris, and Lumen global illumination. The resolution hovers just above 1080p, and despite the intention of offering a worthwhile upgrade, image quality looks closer to the PS5’s performance mode. The Frame rate holds at 60 fps for the most part, though Unreal Engine’s asset streaming stutters do tend to occur every now and then.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater fares no better, arguably exposing PSSR’s current limitations. Digital Foundry found that while the upscaling tech does improve motion stability, smoothing out flickering grass and occlusion artifacts, it also resolves to a noticeably lower pixel count than the base PS5’s performance mode, often dropping to 756p before upscaling. Worse still, PS5 Pro performs worse than the base PS5 in several jungle sections, with frame rate dips into the 50s and even the 40s, below the console’s VRR window. Players are essentially locked into PSSR with no option to lower settings or revert to the base PS5’s upscaling technique.
Even those Unreal Engine 5 games with relatively better Pro implementations, such as Borderlands 4 and Cronos: The New Dawn, come with their own caveats. Borderlands 4 boosts resolution and improves texture filtering and grass LODs on PS5 Pro, but most settings remain unchanged, and performance is still held back by a troubling memory leak and Unreal Engine’s familiar asset streaming hitches. Cronos: The New Dawn delivers a worthwhile boost in image quality, with PS5 Pro pushing up to 46 % more pixels than base PS5 in certain areas, but performance dips into the 40s during demanding instances, below the console’s VRR window.
The common thread here is Unreal Engine 5’s demanding nature, which has proven challenging for even high-end PCs, let alone fixed console hardware. Couple this with PSSR’s issues, from temporal instability to added shimmer when upscaling scenery with Lumen global illumination applied, and the PS5 Pro ends up feeling like it’s fighting the engine more than leveraging its potential.
Recent rumors suggest that Sony Interactive Entertainment’s promised major PSSR update will see the light of day in the first quarter of 2026. It’s said to incorporate AMD FSR 4-like improvements with better temporal stability and smarter image reconstruction. As such, there’s hope that PS5 Pro owners will finally get the sharp, stable image that was originally touted by the console maker in the PS5 Pro’s marketing.
