The new upscaler now starts automatically, but only for games that already support PSSR.
One of the PS5 Pro’s graphical improvements is much more visible thanks to Sony’s latest PlayStation 5 system update, as system software 26.06-14.00.00 allows it. Improve the quality of PSSR images by default. Games based on the original PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution will now take advantage of Sony’s new upscaler without the owner needing to know a fairly obscure toggle.
There is, however, an important limitation: games that do not already support PSSR are not affected. The update doesn’t suddenly add AI scaling to everything in the PlayStation library, and not every game with a “PS5 Pro Enhanced” badge uses PSSR to begin with.
The upgraded PSSR and its system-level replacement arrived in March. Sony calls it “enhanced” or “improved” PSSR rather than PSSR 2.0, and the newer version takes a different approach to both the neural network and the overall algorithm. Until now, PS5 Pro owners who wanted to apply the improved model to games built around the original PSSR technology had to enable the setting themselves.
PSSR 2.0 is mainly about cleaning up the first version
PSSR is Sony’s machine learning upscaler for PS5 Pro. It allows games to be rendered at a lower resolution and then upgraded to a higher output resolution, allowing developers to achieve better visuals without the full performance cost of rendering natively at that higher resolution.
The initial version was not always elegant. Our PS5 Pro review noted that some games had shimmering textures and distortion around thin text, which can be hard to ignore once you spot them.
According to Sony, the improved version offers fine detail clarity, image reconstruction and stability in motion. Developers who used it noted less flickering and afterimages, as well as more refined details like hair and foliage. This technology is the result of Project Amethyst, Sony’s graphics research with AMD, which also contributed to the machine learning of AMD’s graphics on PC.
Games that support the newer version will use it by default, but you’re not trapped in the newer version for older games that weren’t designed to support it. If you encounter unexpected visual effects, go to Settings > Screen & Video > Video Output > Improve PSSR Picture Quality and disable replacement to keep PSSR 1 games using their original technology. Make sure you are running games in Pro Or Quality mode to take advantage of the improvements.
Update does more than change PSSR default
Sony hasn’t explained why it took about six months to enable this default setting, nor has it claimed that every PSSR title will be better under all circumstances.
Meanwhile, PS5 Pro owners aren’t getting all the attention. The same update introduces an on-screen voice chat indicator to show the name of the person speaking, as well as an option to select where this indicator will appear.
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