We’ve been scratching our heads ever since Sony announced and then followed through on the bonkers R19,500 price for the mid-gen refresh of the PlayStation 5 – the PS5 Pro. Sure, it’s technically more powerful than its base counterpart, but it was always a question of whether it was actually worth the substantial hike. In 2026, Sony may put an end to the debate with a major graphical update, helped along by AI. Because of course it is.
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em
It was clear that Sony leant heavily on what it calls “PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution” (PSSR), its proprietary upscaling tech meant to rival the likes of DLSS and FSR, to sell the Pro console. Not even two years later, Sony will ditch its efforts in favour of something a little more reputable from a heavy hitter in the industry: AMD. That’s according to PS5 and PS5 Pro lead architect Mark Cerny.
The new upscaler is supposedly a “drop-in replacement for the current PSSR” that developers should have no trouble implementing when it eventually arrives on the Pro console sometime in 2026. Don’t expect any upgrades to come to the regular PS5 as it lacks the necessary hardware to take advantage of the tech. If all goes to plan, PS5 Pro owners can expect a huge upgrade where visuals and framerates are concerned.
The writing has been on the wall for some time now. Back in 2023, Sony and AMD teamed up to work on ‘Project Amethyst”, which was announced officially late last year. The idea was to help push upscaling tech further than ever, with Sony reportedly being a big help in the development of FSR 4, AMD’s latest machine learning upscaler.
“This is not for proprietary technology,” Cerny said. “This is really trying to move the industry forward. Obviously we want to use these technologies on our consoles, but these technologies are available to any of AMD’s customers freely.”
“The algorithm they came up with could be implemented on current-generation hardware,” said Cerny. “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.”
It’s unclear whether Sony’s new upscaler will be an arm of FSR 4 or whether the partnership will breathe life into something technically new (though still heavily based on FSR 4). Cerny makes it clear that whatever comes to the PS5 Pro next year won’t be watered down, and will instead be the “full-fat version”.
