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[onQ123]

Sony's Mark Cerny explains how AMD and Project Amethyst contributed to the PS5 Pro's impending 2026 upgrade

If you play games on a PlayStation 5 Pro, it sounds like odds are good you'll be seeing an upgrade next year.

Specifically, PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny has said the company is working on implementing an advanced graphics upscaling algorithm for PS5 Pro that should deliver better performance than its existing PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) upscaling tech.


According to a conversation I recently had with Cerny, the new tech "is a drop-in replacement for the current PSSR" that should be straightforward for developers to accommodate when it arrives on PS5 Pro consoles in 2026.

Of course, only the PS5 Pro is slated to get this upgrade, as the base PS5 doesn't have the hardware to handle PSSR.


This is potentially a big deal for PS5 Pro owners because upscaling algorithms like PSSR can deliver significant improvements in framerate and image quality.


These upscalers have become far more popular in the last few years, thanks in part to rapid advancement of the algorithms employed to improve graphics in real time.

"This is not for proprietary technology. This is really trying to move the industry forward."

Mark Cerny, PS5 & PS5 Pro Lead Architect

PS5 Pro is getting a big upgrade in 2026 — I asked Mark Cerny what’s coming, and why AMD’s future PC GPUs feel more 'PlayStation' than ever

Sony's Mark Cerny explains how AMD and Project Amethyst contributed to the PS5 Pro's impending 2026 upgrade

www.tomsguide.com

 

[RoboFu]

What ps5 pro games are having issues with frame rate and/or image quality right now?

 

[IFireflyl]

 

[Zuzu]

I hope it delivers

 

[Magic Carpet]

Hopefully they can replace the PSSR name with FSR name.

 

[Viruz]

"This is not for proprietary technology. This is really trying to move the industry forward."

Saint Cerny the Magnanimous

 

[Bieren]

Please call it PlayStation Improved Spectral Super Resolution.

 

[saintjules]

What ps5 pro games are having issues with frame rate and/or image quality right now?

I can't precisely recall but I know Alan Wake II was one of them. But at times during gameplay.

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

Let's begin hyping it up to look better than DLSS on an rtx5080.

 

[Topher]

Hopefully this will help promote FSR 4 adoption across the board

 

[lh032]

then show me

 

[Xbox 360 slim]

I think that warrants a price increase to the PS5 pro! 900 dollars starting out (disc drive not included, online play sold separately)...

 

[//DEVIL//]

Seriously, who cares? 2026.. when next gen consoles are 2027 90% locked.

i am not expecting the PlayStation 5 pro to even sell well at all at this current price tag. let alone someone buying it mid-2026, knowing full well that next-gen consoles are 2027.

Also, the best they can do is FSR4. However, the power of PS5 Pro and upscaling from low resolution to 4k isn't gonna look very pretty anyway.

Not to mention, you want the third-party and first-party devs to again patch their game AGAIN to replace PSSR with whatever new tech they are developing. how many games will really support it ?

Just lay the groundwork for PS6 and move on. we already accepted that.

 

[bitbydeath]

Hopefully they can replace the PSSR name with FSR name.

FSTR

 

[mckmas8808]

Can't wait for 2026!

 

[mckmas8808]

Seriously, who cares? 2026.. when next gen consoles are 2027 90% locked.

i am not expecting the PlayStation 5 pro to even sell well at all at this current price tag. let alone someone buying it mid-2026, knowing full well that next-gen consoles are 2027.

Also, the best they can do is FSR4. However, the power of PS5 Pro and upscaling from low resolution to 4k isn't gonna look very pretty anyway.

Not to mention, you want the third-party and first-party devs to again patch their game AGAIN to replace PSSR with whatever new tech they are developing. how many games will really support it ?

Just lay the groundwork for PS6 and move on. we already accepted that.

You my friend clearly have NO idea what you're talking about.

Why assume everyone will buy a PS6 in the Fall of 2027? What of the PS5 Pro is $500 in 2027? And the PS6 is $700?

 

[vaibhavpisal]

"Next year" its gonna be great.

Just download few extra gpu teraflops.

 

[Xbox 360 slim]

"Next year" its gonna be great.

Just download few extra gpu teraflops.

Im upscaling from 360p! DLSS6 is the truth! Shoutout my Hindi bros holding it down on UE6!

 

[mckmas8808]

I wonder if Sony 1st party games in 2026 will skip PSSR and just used FSR4.

 

[//DEVIL//]

You my friend clearly have NO idea what you're talking about.

Why assume everyone will buy a PS6 in the Fall of 2027? What of the PS5 Pro is $500 in 2027? And the PS6 is $700?

just common sense for most people. would you buy a PS5 pro when the PS6 is a year later, and you know are getting an actual next-gen console and exclusive games that can't be played on PS5 generation?

to each his own. But if I know PS6 is coming next year. i am not buying PS5 Pro today ( theoretically speaking ). I'll just make due with my current PS5, and if I don't have one, I'll just find a used PS5 console for cheap to hold me till the PS6.

Obviously, this is just my opinion of how I value my money. to each his own. I just personally don't see it as a smart move.

doesn't help that Sony themselves are not pouring the console with super awesome games that actually take advantage of the PS5 pro.

 

[Unknown?]

Hopefully they can replace the PSSR name with FSR name.

PSSR just reminds me of the old Soviet Union.

 

[ZehDon]

According to a conversation I recently had with Cerny, the new tech "is a drop-in replacement for the current PSSR" that should be straightforward for developers to accommodate when it arrives on PS5 Pro consoles in 2026.

I take it to mean this doesn't replace existing PSSR implementations automatically, so will require additional development for existing titles to actually use. Given how pathetic the PS5 Pro usage currently is, I take it to mean this will basically be ignored. At this point, most major developers are either finishing up their last current-gen game or already well into their next-gen game. Not sure we'll see much of this.

 

[Sgt. Pinback]

Seriously, who cares? 2026.. when next gen consoles are 2027 90% locked.

Was this 'locked' truth revealed to you in a vision?

 

[yurinka]

Hopefully they can replace the PSSR name with FSR name.

They'll call it PiSSeR.

 

[Rentahamster]

That sounds very optimistic. It'll be cool if they pull it off.

 

[GreatnessRD]

Congrats to Sony on upgrading Pisser.

 

[//DEVIL//]

Was this 'locked' truth revealed to you in a vision?

Nah. just multiple reports and rumors that were talked about in the past year or so. Same for Xbox ( didn't MS say next gen is gonna be in 2027 or something like that ? i could be 100% wrong ).

also. educated guess, i mean:
PS2: 2000 6 years
PS3: 2006 6 years
PS4: 2013 7 years
PS5: 2020 7 years
PS6: 2027 .... ?

 

[Gaiff]

The article is so much more interesting than what's in the OP.

Some interesting bits.

AMD, on the other hand, pushed Sony to set up a dedicated quality assurance team specifically focused on vetting whether each new iteration of an upscaling algorithm was actually better than what came before it.

"This was news to us," said Cerny. "We did not have this at SIE; it really hadn't occurred to us. And it turns out to be vital."

Cerny was also expecting Project Amethyst to be much slower.

That anecdote may help explain why this collaboration has reportedly made such quick progress. Cerny claims he expected Project Amethyst to take years to generate a significantly better upscaling algorithm, and was surprised when the team did it in roughly nine months.
"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."

And last, it's really basically FSR4 in all its glory.

While FSR and PSSR are two different algorithms, Cerny suggests that the version coming to PS5 Pro in 2026 is in no way weaker or less than AMD's FSR 4.

"It's not a cut-down [version] of the algorithm," he explained. "It's the full-fat version of the co-developed super resolution that we'll be releasing on PS5 Pro."

So, this should be a significant improvement.

 

[Crispy Gamer]

A few quotes from the article from Cerny:

While FSR and PSSR are two different algorithms, Cerny suggests that the version coming to PS5 Pro in 2026 is in no way weaker or less than AMD's FSR 4....

"Big chunks of RDNA 5, or whatever AMD ends up calling it, are coming out of engineering I am doing on the project," said Cerny. "And again, this is coming out of trying to move things forward.

 

[Sgt. Pinback]

Nah. just multiple reports and rumors that were talked about in the past year or so. Same for Xbox ( didn't MS say next gen is gonna be in 2027 or something like that ? i could be 100% wrong ).

also. educated guess, i mean:
PS2: 2000 6 years
PS3: 2006 6 years
PS4: 2013 7 years
PS5: 2020 7 years
PS6: 2027 .... ?

So, not a lock then. You're just pulling things out of your asshole.

 

[//DEVIL//]

So, not a lock then. You're just pulling things out of your asshole.

i said 90% lock. but it seems you have a shit of a brain to read the whole sentence it seems. But keep it up.

 

[roosnam1980]

will the developers patch it in the pro upgrades or not
that remains to be seen

 

[mckmas8808]

just common sense for most people. would you buy a PS5 pro when the PS6 is a year later, and you know are getting an actual next-gen console and exclusive games that can't be played on PS5 generation?

to each his own. But if I know PS6 is coming next year. i am not buying PS5 Pro today ( theoretically speaking ). I'll just make due with my current PS5, and if I don't have one, I'll just find a used PS5 console for cheap to hold me till the PS6.

Obviously, this is just my opinion of how I value my money. to each his own. I just personally don't see it as a smart move.

doesn't help that Sony themselves are not pouring the console with super awesome games that actually take advantage of the PS5 pro.

Plus don't forget that crossgen games will exist on PS5 and PS6 for at least the first two years.

So probably no exclusive PS6 games until 2029 or 2030.

 

[mckmas8808]

will the developers patch it in the pro upgrades or not
that remains to be seen

It helps that it's full FSR4 too. Easier for devs to use.

 

[//DEVIL//]

Plus don't forget that crossgen games will exist on PS5 and PS6 for at least the first two years.

So probably no exclusive PS6 games until 2029 or 2030.

i disagree with this. even if they follow the PS4 to PS5 formula, in its first year alone, Sony had Demon's Souls remake, Returnal, Ratchet and Clank in its first year which were PS5 exclusive and not playable on PS4.

Should be the same for PS5 to PS6 at least.

 

[Ceadeus]

You lucky people are getting Ratchet Rift Appart for the third time It's gonna feel so Playstation

 

[adamsapple]

Great, they might finally fix Silent Hill 2 on Pro next year

 

[onQ123]

The article is so much more interesting than what's in the OP.

Some interesting bits.



Cerny was also expecting Project Amethyst to be much slower.



And last, it's really basically FSR4 in all its glory.



So, this should be a significant improvement.

I was updating the OP but something went wrong with the quoting so I just said I'll let them click on the article

 

[Jesb]

Does the update drop the price.

 

[nowhat]

"Next year" its gonna be great.

As an Xbox evangelist, surely this feels comforting and familiar to you.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I'm having trouble deciding if it will be the ps5 super pro or the ps5 pro max…

Decisions decisions

 

[Ashamam]

I take it to mean this doesn't replace existing PSSR implementations automatically, so will require additional development for existing titles to actually use.

Its pretty much established that each game has its own PSSR version that is static unless updated by the developer.

 

[M.W.]

Playstation Upscaling Spectral Super Yeet

 

[Imtjnotu]

Cerny pushing incompetent AMD along still....

 

[vaibhavpisal]

As an Xbox evangelist, surely this feels comforting and familiar to you.

Its been a while now, almost forgotten this was applicable for other platform holders as well.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

What ps5 pro games are having issues with frame rate and/or image quality right now?

Isn't it more about pushing the tech rarher than 'fixing' possible current issues?

Although that automically means the latter is part of it.

 

[Loomy]

Seriously, who cares? 2026.. when next gen consoles are 2027 90% locked.

Release in PS5 Pro, test, iterate, apply a fully tested that developers are. familiar with to the next console. That's how it works.

 

[AGRacing]

2026? For an upscaler?

Put it in GTA6 … otherwise I don't even care at this point.

 

[Gitaroo]

what does it take until 2026? I hope all the RDNA4 redstone features will also get implemented

 

[MrTired]

Nah. just multiple reports and rumors that were talked about in the past year or so. Same for Xbox ( didn't MS say next gen is gonna be in 2027 or something like that ? i could be 100% wrong ).

also. educated guess, i mean:
PS2: 2000 6 years
PS3: 2006 6 years
PS4: 2013 7 years
PS5: 2020 7 years
PS6: 2027 .... ?

No Microsoft in court documents speculated PS6 was Holiday 2028.