AI Upscaling Comes to PS5: What Is QSSR and Which Games Will Use It First?

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced a new AI-based upscaling solution for the standard PS5 on 1 October 2026. Quick Spectral Super Resolution, or QSSR, is described as a new layer of the PS5 Pro’s PSSR approach that can operate at a lower computational cost.

What is QSSR?

According to Sony's statement, the QSSR was born out of AI graphics work conducted with AMD under Project Amethyst. The goal is to be able to work within the hardware limits of the standard PS5 while producing more detailed and stable images than traditional scaling methods.

The PSSR system in the PS5 Pro analyzes the image at the pixel level to raise it to higher quality, while the QSSR aims to move the similar approach to PS5 with a lower computing budget.

In which games will it be used first?

Sony announced that Marvel's Wolverine and Ghost of Y ⁇ tei would be the first games to use QSSR. This shows that the technology will not only remain a laboratory demo, but will soon be used in real games.

The most important issue for developers is that such upscaling solutions change the balance between performance and image quality. When the game can be processed at lower internal resolution and moved to higher resolution with AI, it is possible that the GPU budget can be allocated to other effects.

Why is the standard PS5 now?

Due to the computing requirements of the PSSR, it was not possible to move directly to the standard PS5. The main innovation of the QSSR is here. Sony states that the new approach offers a lighter performance layer, which allows it to operate on basic PS5 hardware.

This may become more important later in the console generation. Developers can gain additional performance space for more complex scenes, lighting or effects while maintaining visual quality.

What should the player expect?

AI upscaling alone does not automatically improve every game. The result depends on the developer's integration, the rendering resolution used, the stability in moving scenes, and the visual structure of the game.

Therefore, the real success of QSSR will be visible through independent image quality and performance testing of the first supported games. What is certain for now is that Sony is starting to expand its AI-based image processing technology from being a single PS5 Pro feature and also to the standard PS5.