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Accompanying Eurogamer Article:

Last week, AMD released its new wave of graphics hardware, developed around the new RDNA 4 architecture. Machine learning performance is dramatically increased, opening the door to FSR 4 - a brand-new ML-based upscaler that delivers excellent quality, comparable to Nvidia's DLSS. Just after launch, AMD revealed that it was co-developed in association with Sony as part of its Project Amethyst initiative and in an interview with Digital Foundry, PlayStation lead system architect Mark Cerny says that "our target is to have something very similar to FSR 4's upscaler available on PS5 Pro for 2026 titles as the next evolution of PSSR."

"The neural network (and training recipe) in FSR 4's upscaler are the first results of the Amethyst collaboration," Cerny told us. "And results are excellent, it's a more advanced approach that can exceed the crispness of PSSR. I’m very proud of the work of the joint team!"

You can assess the quality of FSR 4 yourself via the embedded video below, where Digital Foundry stacks up the new upscaler against the non-ML FSR 3.1, along with DLSS 3.7 and DLSS 4.0. While we have more in-depth coverage to come, our take on the new technology is that it represents a huge leap over FSR 3.1, delivering quality wins over DLSS 3.7. While there are elements where the new transformer-based DLSS 4 model wins out, we were delighted to see that FSR 4 is surprisingly competitive against Nvidia's latest.

However, it is going to take some time to see the new technology migrate across to PlayStation 5 Pro. "Our focus for 2025 is working with developers to integrate PSSR into their titles; in parallel, though, we have already started to implement the new neural network on PS5 Pro. Our target is to have something very similar to FSR 4's upscaler available on PS5 Pro for 2026 titles as the next evolution of PSSR; it should take the same inputs and produce essentially the same outputs. Doing that implementation is rather ambitious and time consuming, which is why you haven't already seen this new upscaler on PS5 Pro."

The raw hardware specifications of the new RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT are considerably higher than PS5 Pro - we are talking about higher mid-range hardware here in a market that encompasses anything from $200 to $2000 GPUs. Meanwhile, our tests did suggest that FSR 4 does have a significant computational cost, but even so, Cerny believes that PS5 Pro's ML hardware is up to the task of running FSR 4 without significant re-architecting.

"That is what we are targeting, and we believe we can achieve it," he says. "The peak performance number for PS5 Pro is 300 8-bit TOPS without sparsity, which compares very well to the recently released AMD GPUs. We don't believe sparsity is useful for this particular upscaling algorithm."

Sparsity is a feature of ML hardware not supported in Pro, but is supported in RDNA 4. It refers to a technique where a significant portion of the data or computations in a neural network are intentionally reduced or skipped to improve efficiency. Our understanding is that Nvidia used sparsity to increase DLSS performance in the RTX 30-series 'Ampere' generation.

"RDNA 4 and the hardware in PS5 Pro are completely separate designs, which is why I speak in terms of 'reimplementation' on PS5 Pro when I talk about the new upscaling network used in FSR 4. I’m definitely looking forward to a future with co-developed hardware features for machine learning that will dramatically increase the interoperability."

Based on prior interviews, the Amethyst project is understood to be an extensive venture - one that looks set to extend beyond the lifespan of PS5 Pro, presumably into the next generation console era. It looks like we should expect more convergence in design, as opposed to the Pro's custom ML solution, designed by Sony itself.

"There are really two goals, one shorter term and one longer term," explains Cerny. "The shorter-term goal is to co-develop neural network architectures and training strategies for game graphics. We're stronger together than apart, so it makes a lot of sense to combine some of our resources when tackling these problems. And because we began this collaboration in earnest in late 2023 (when PSSR development was wrapping up), I'm happy to say that there have already been results.

"The longer-term goal is to work together to create a more ideal hardware architecture for machine learning, something capable of processing the neural networks needed for game graphics at high speed. PS5 Pro was a wonderful learning experience for us here at SIE, and of course AMD has an incredible amount of knowledge from its multi-generation RDNA roadmap. Again, it just makes sense to combine those expertises.

"Now to be clear, this technology has uses beyond PlayStation, and it's about supporting broad work in machine learning across a variety of devices – the biggest win is when developers can freely move their code from device to device."

Traditionally, AMD's GPUOpen has been the initiative by which the company has shared its innovations and it'll be interesting to see how this approach transitions into the era of machine learning and the extent to which we'll see FSR 4 and its successors migrate to other devices. AMD's Jack Huynh has already talked about FSR 4 and frame generation being used to dramatically increase battery life on mobile devices, for example. But for Sony, Project Amethyst is all about working with AMD on common goals, while at the same time acknowledging that each party may have different uses for and different variants of the technologies created.

"FSR 4 and this next evolution of PSSR are a paradigm for our future, going forward we expect to have our own implementations of each of the algorithms developed through the collaboration," says Cerny. "And there may be slight tweaks to them in our world, as technical targets for console game development and PC game development tend to be slightly different. For example – as I said in the PS5 Pro technical video in December – 60 frames per second gaming is very important in the console world, but the PC world doesn't quite think about frame-rate the same way."

And it looks like PS5 Pro's key enhancements - ML and ray tracing - may also be a focus for Amethyst. With the RDNA 4 reveal, AMD showcased a toyshop demo using a range of techniques - path tracing backed by neural rendering technologies, including a denoising feature that seems to represent AMD's take on Nvidia's ray reconstruction. At the basic level, think of this as an upscaler for RT. Is this a part of Amethyst?

"All I can say is stay tuned! There’s a lot of opportunity with our Amethyst collaboration, and we know that ray tracing is a huge part of the graphics future."

Mark Cerny: FSR 4 for PS5 Pro is the "next evolution of PSSR"

Last week, AMD released its new wave of graphics hardware, developed around the new RDNA 4 architecture. Machine learni…

www.eurogamer.net

 

[Gaiff]

The peak performance number for PS5 Pro is 300 8-bit TOPS without sparsity, which compares very well to the recently released AMD GPUs. We don't believe sparsity is useful for this particular upscaling algorithm."

From Cerny.

 

[yogaflame]

Wow. PSSR ML for Ps5 pro, is really growing at a fast pace. Cant wait too see , how FSR 4 will be implemented to PSSR ML for Ps5 pro.

 

[jm89]

Wow this will be a huge selling point for the pro

 

[Lions Gate]

 

[owandeseis]

Wonder if this has something to do with that FSR4-lite that was announced for the AMD 7000 series?

 

[Gonzito]

That sounds good but the issue is that many games will be stuck with the old PSSR. If they can update them all then great but if they dont then it's definitely disappointing. That's why I love pc, I dont depend on the developer to update the latest features, you can just do it yourself by easily modding games

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[viveks86]

300 TOPS without sparsity. That's awesome! Nice to see that they are confident enough to port it to Pro hardware. Looks like longer term, PSSR would simply be Playstation's port of FSR, which is good, so devs aren't confused with redundant options.

 

[adamsapple]

Wonder if this has something to do with that FSR4-lite that was announced for the AMD 7000 series?

Probably, he's not saying that it's the FSR4 upscaler as is. It'll be a different implementation of it.

Our target is to have something very similar to FSR 4's upscaler available on PS5 Pro for 2026 titles as the next evolution of PSSR

 

[GymWolf]

Tldr?

We get fsr4 on pro? When?

 

[Nankatsu]

So this basically means that AMD could enable FSR4 on older GPU models if they wanted too.

 

[Mr Moose]

From Cerny.

What does that mean?

 

[Punished Miku]

What does that mean?

Sparsity awaits

 

[analog_future]

PSSR1 is dead. Long live PSSR2!

 

[cormack12]

Fucking hell, I'm going to be adding new consoles to.my backlog at this rate

 

[Mr Moose]

Sparsity awaits

 

[Gonzito]

Tldr?

We get fsr4 on pro? When?

It's not FSR4 papi but a better version of PSSR, like maybe 2.0 or something like that

 

[mitch1971]

That's why I love pc, I dont depend on anyone to get the latests features

So, you write the code yourself?

 

[GymWolf]

It's not FSR4 papi but a better version of PSSR, like maybe 2.0 or something like that

So not quite as good as fsr4?

 

[mrMUR_96]

So this basically means that AMD could enable FSR4 on older GPU models if they wanted too.

They've already said it's theoretically possible and are looking into it, but it will take more time and effort and will run worse/look worse than the rdna4 version, similar to the fallback method for xess

 

[Zacfoldor]

Console has been well worth it so far, I'm game for any free upgrades in the future!

 

[rofif]

Isn’t pssr already essentially like dlss/fsr4?
It is ml up scaling

 

[Gonzito]

So, you write the code yourself?

You have taken my words too literally. There are modding communities and people working for free on pc and they are usually very quick. If I want the latest version of DLSS I just have to swap files with a program and its very easy. On consoles you have to wait for the developer to do this and in some instances they don't do it which ultimately leads to being stuck with a worse version of a game

But yeah I sense you just want to mock me for the comment so I dont know if a dialogue approach is even possible with you

 

[Three]

What does that mean?

It means the TOPS performance of 300 is dense TOPS performance for PS5 Pro and not an inflated Sparse TOPS performance being given.

Sparse vs. Dense TOPS. What are they, what’s the difference, and what does it mean to me?

This article was originally published on January 24, 2022. Editor’s Note: This content is contributed by Rehan Tahir, Sr. Product LIne Manger for Versal AI Edge ACAPs at Xilinx Up until very recently, any mention of TOPS always referred to dense TOPS. However, with the recent push to support...

community.amd.com

Thr Pro can easily support FSR4. I don't even know what differences there are between PSSR and FSR4 but I suspect there isn't much already. They seem very similar to me. There hasn't been a good comparison really and none comparing RR features.

 

[ChiefDada]

Bojji in shambles rn.

 

[Shtof]

The gift that keeps on giving.

 

[Fake]

So this basically means that AMD could enable FSR4 on older GPU models if they wanted too.

For me this is a win.

 

[MatrixReloaded101]

What does that mean? Will the pro get a new update?

 

[yogaflame]

With this news, I think DS2, which already looks and run beautifully on ps5 base, will look even better and run even better on Ps5 pro. And it looks like 80% chance GTA 6 can run 4k at 60 fps with RT for Ps5 pro soon. 2026 games for Ps5 pro will be incredible especially from first and second party.

Shift up, Bend, ND, Sta Monica, and Blue point studios show us your stuff next year.

 

[mckmas8808]

You have taken my words too literally. There are modding communities and people working for free on pc and they are usually very quick. If I want the latest version of DLSS I just have to swap files with a program and its very easy. On consoles you have to wait for the developer to do this and in some instances they don't do it which ultimately leads to being stuck with a worse version of a game

But yeah I sense you just want to mock me for the comment so I dont know if a dialogue approach is even possible with you

That's nice and all, but some of us like consoles for the very reason you don't like them.

 

[yogaflame]

PSSR1 is dead. Long live PSSR2!

PSSR 2.0 coming up

What does that mean? Will the pro get a new update?

Yes. From what I understand from DF interview with Cerny and in Eurogamer article.

 

[Gaiff]

It means the TOPS performance of 300 is dense TOPS performance for PS5 Pro and not an inflated Sparse TOPS performance being given.

Sparse vs. Dense TOPS. What are they, what’s the difference, and what does it mean to me?

This article was originally published on January 24, 2022. Editor’s Note: This content is contributed by Rehan Tahir, Sr. Product LIne Manger for Versal AI Edge ACAPs at Xilinx Up until very recently, any mention of TOPS always referred to dense TOPS. However, with the recent push to support...

community.amd.com

Thr Pro can easily support FSR4. I don't even know what differences there are between PSSR and FSR4 but I suspect there isn't much already. They seem very similar to me. There hasn't been a good comparison really and none comparing RR features.

Cerny says FSR4 is more advanced and can exceed the crispiness of PSSR. He also hopes to have something similar by next year.

FSR4 is pretty much better than PSSR.

 

[Seomel]

The problem with all this is still devs need do work on implementation, adjusting etc. look at dragons dogma, jedi, sh2 and some other botched releases. When pssr works its great, but its useless if devs wont implement it right or at all

 

[viveks86]

So not quite as good as fsr4?

Will likely be as good. My understanding is that via Project Amethyst, AMD and Sony are sharing the training models and data sets. Sony would need to make their own implementation of the inference algorithm that can work with Pro's frankenstein RDNA. In terms of performance, it looks like Pro has sufficient grunt as the model doesn't seem to need sparsity, which means raw AI performance is actually pretty close to AMD's 9070.

 

[Gonzito]

That's nice and all, but some of us like consoles for the very reason you don't like them.

And that's fine, we dont need to fight over that like children. I am just pointing out that if they don't update all games with PSSR it would be unfortunate for the users because so far PSSR hasn't been that great in some games, we have many examples of that

 

[Fake]

What does that mean? Will the pro get a new update?

If I read correctly, by the DF weekly show, PSSR will get the same functions as FSR4 in 2026 titles.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

2026? Ouch.

 

[TheRaidenPT]

That's some excellent news and Project Amethyst is something absolutely good for PC Gamers and Console gamers alike (I own a 7900XTX and a Pro). Glad to hear about this.

Cerny is a great guy, would love to have a chat with him over a coffee or tea

 

[onQ123]

That sounds good but the issue is that many games will be stuck with the old PSSR. If they can update them all then great but if they dont then it's definitely disappointing. That's why I love pc, I dont depend on the developer to update the latest features, you can just do it yourself by easily modding games

You basically waited on the same people as the PS5 Pro owners to get FSR 4

 

[Punished Miku]

Cerny is a great guy, would love to have a chat with him over a coffee or tea

Or a bath

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

The article is not about FSR4 on PS5 Pro per-se, but about new PSSR iteration built with FSR4 gains in mind.

 

[mckmas8808]

The problem with all this is still devs need do work on implementation, adjusting etc. look at dragons dogma, jedi, sh2 and some other botched releases. When pssr works its great, but its useless if devs wont implement it right or at all

This was also the case with DLSS 2 games also.

 

[Horseganador]

It is clear that PS5 pro and PSSR will improve and evolve over the months as Cerny says, reaching the quality of FSR4 even though some said it was not possible.

 

[cormack12]

This video has more ads than my Xbox dashboard

 

[mckmas8808]

2026? Ouch.

That's less than a year from now. How is that an ouch?

 

[MaKTaiL]

That sounds good but the issue is that many games will be stuck with the old PSSR. If they can update them all then great but if they dont then it's definitely disappointing. That's why I love pc, I dont depend on the developer to update the latest features, you can just do it yourself by easily modding games

I blame Mark Cerny for not thinking about system wide libraries. Sony always goes for dev first approach which is very bad IMO. Anything new always requires game updates. 60fps patches would be streamlined if they could force it system wide for example. Same goes for PSSR version updates.

 

[yogaflame]

The problem with all this is still devs need do work on implementation, adjusting etc. look at dragons dogma, jedi, sh2 and some other botched releases. When pssr works its great, but its useless if devs wont implement it right or at all

SH2 is a very good and beautiful game in my base Ps5. Sadly the Ps5 pro patch is not good from what I heard and saw. SH2 remake really needs a proper Ps5 pro patch. This news gives hope that it will have a proper ps5 pro patch in the near future.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

"PS5 Pro isn't needed. It's not as big of a jump as PS4 to PS4 Pro. Cash grab."

 

[Gonzito]

You basically waited on the same people as the PS5 Pro owners to get FSR 4

What do you mean? On pc we were always able to add the latest version of DLSS to any games by simply swapping files

I dont understand what you mean?