Sony confirms AI frame generation for PlayStation as PSSR upscaling gets 100 microseconds faster

Sony confirms AI frame generation is coming to PlayStation, just not this year

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. Forward-looking: Sony has revealed that ML-based frame generation will be coming to "PlayStation platforms" in the future, though the exact timeframe remains unclear. The company also confirmed that, despite speculation surrounding a patent for ML-based upscaling, it will not be incorporated into the PSSR/FSR implementations anytime soon. Speaking to Digital Foundry about Project Amethyst, Mark Cerny confirmed that Sony is developing AI-powered frame generation for PlayStation, but noted that no new releases are planned this year. He also declined to reveal whether the feature will be rolled out to the PS5 and PS5 Pro or be exclusive to the PS6. Cerny further confirmed that, like PSSR, FSR frame generation is based on technology co-developed by Sony and AMD as part of Project Amethyst. He added that he is satisfied with the progress of the collaboration so far and looks forward to upgraded frame generation technology being rolled out to PlayStation consoles in the future. Machine learning - based frame generation uses AI to insert synthetically generated frames between natively rendered ones, boosting visual smoothness and enhancing the gameplay experience. The intermediate frames are created by analyzing motion vectors and pixel data from the native frames, effectively doubling or even tripling the FPS in supported titles. This allows demanding games with complex visual effects to run more smoothly at higher resolutions. Both Nvidia and AMD have recently updated their respective frame generation technologies for PC. Nvidia shipped DLSS 4.5 in January to a generally positive response from media and gamers alike, while AMD's FSR 4.1 received a more lukewarm reception following its rollout last week as part of the Radeon Adrenalin 26.3.1 WHQL driver update. It is worth noting that the PS5 already offers frame generation technology built on AMD's FSR 3, though it relies on interpolation between real frames rather than machine learning. While the new technology could enhance the gameplay experience in some titles, it is not a miracle fix for low native frame rates, as it still requires a decent input frame rate to generate new frames.

The Next PlayStation May Rely on AI More Than Any Console Before Before It

Get ready for "fake frames" on the PlayStation 6, or whatever Sony is cooking up next. The future of console gaming is going to be beholden to AI. Nowhere will that be more true than on the still-unannounced next-gen PlayStation. To boost graphics performance and frame rates, the supposed PS6 could make use of even more upscaling technology and the dreaded multi-frame generation, sometimes derisively called “fake frames.†Mark Cerny, PlayStation’s soft-spoken lead hardware architect, talked with Digital Foundry about the PS5 Pro’s latest upscaling update. The “Proâ€-level console’s new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) incorporates some of the same capabilities of AMD’s latest FidelityFX Super Resolution, FSR Redstone. In Gizmodo's tests, Sony’s upscaler enhances image quality in dramatic fashion for several big games, but it won't have as big of an impact in titles that weren’t reconfigured for the updated PSSR. Either way, the PS5 Pro is a showcase of what to expect from a next-gen consoleâ€"whether it's a PS6, PlayStation handheld, or whatever Cerny and gang are cooking up. PlayStation partnered with AMD to “co-develop†FSR Redstone. In response to questions about frame generation, Cerny mentioned that Sony is “intimately familiar with it†since it also worked on the latest multi-frame generation model found on AMD’s PC-only technology. “An equivalent frame generation library should be seen at some point on PlayStation platforms," Cerny added, practically all but confirming we’ll see the tech on future hardware. “All I can say is that we have no more releases planned for this year. And that I look forward to discussing this more in the future.†Upscalers like PSSR enable higher resolutions and frame rates by taking a game rendered at a lower resolution and then filling in pixels to make it appear as if it were rendered at a higher resolution. While FSR Redstone (previously FSR 4) is tied to AMD’s latest PC graphics cards, PSSR is using “the same core co-developed algorithm." Sony had to do extra work to get the model running for PlayStation’s older CPU and GPU architecture. Frame generation is a whole different beast. This is software that also runs on modern GPUs. AMD’s latest machine learning-based frame generation technology takes AI-generated frames and inserts them between rendered frames. The latest technology can increase frame rates dramatically. For example, a 4x frame generation model can insert three frames in between two rendered frames. Frame generation, sometimes referred to as frame interpolation, may push your game's frame rates to match close to a monitor’s total refresh rate. It also results in more graphical artifacts and ghosting, where users see aspects of images that shouldn’t exist in the game rendered completely by the device. Frame generation also increases latency, potentially making games feel floatier. Games need to maintain a frame rate closer to 60 fps before any interpolation if you want smoother gameplay and less artifacting. Frame generation is not a panacea for the natural limitations of console hardware. However, console gamers may benefit more from frame generation than your ultra-expensive gaming PC. Developers can tune these models to limit the potential drawbacks as much as possible. Console gamers are also more willing to accept subtle graphical flaws for ease and playability, at least more than their PC counterparts. Like Xbox’s “Project Helix,†the PS6 will likely use AMD’s next-generation Zen 6 CPU and RDNA 5 GPU microarchitecture. Even if these consoles are powerful by themselves, they’ll still need the extra upscaling help. The PlayStation 5 originally promised we’d play games at 4K with support for 120Hz refresh rates. It never actually reached those heights. The PS5 Pro has come closest to offering a true high-end experience in games like Resident Evil Requiem. We’ll just have to see if a new console can make "fake frames" mainstream.

PS5 Pro architect Mark Cerny says Sony's updated PSSR tech is 'something like 100 microseconds faster than the original'

* PlayStation console architect Mark Cerny says new PSSR tech is much faster than the original * Cerny says the new PSSR "is something like 100 microseconds faster" * He adds that the update allowed Sony to implement "Enhance PSSR Image Quality" option and "force-upgrade all PSSR-supported games" PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro console architect Mark Cerny has revealed that Sony's updated PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) AI upscaling technology is faster than its original incarnation. Earlier this month, Sony began rolling out the new version of PSSR for a wide range of PS5 Pro enhanced games, delivering "enhanced image stability, improved clarity in fine details, and more consistent performance across supported titles." Speaking in a recent interview with Digital Foundry, Cerny shared that the new tech is around "100 microseconds faster" than the original and allowed Sony to introduce an improved image quality option to "force-upgrade all PSSR-supported games." "I was a bit uncertain about whether there could be a user option to upgrade all PSSR-supported titles to the new PSSR the key issue being that for that option to make sense, the new PSSR would have to be faster than the original one," Cerny said. "We made that our target, and ultimately managed to achieve it - the new PSSR is something like 100 microseconds faster than the original. Which in turn allowed us to implement the 'Enhance PSSR Image Quality' option to force-upgrade all PSSR-supported games. If you use it, frame drops should become oh-so-slightly rarer." Sony released the upscaling tech first for the PS5 Pro version of Resident Evil Requiem, and the update is now available for other games like Silent Hill f, Monster Hunter Wilds, Dragon's Dogma 2, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Control, Alan Wake 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and more. "The upgraded PSSR represents another step in our commitment to evolving the PS5 Pro experience," Sony said at the time. "Moving forward, most new PS5 Pro titles will launch with support for this enhanced PSSR, ensuring players continue to see improvements in image quality and performance." Other games like Crimson Desert, Cyberpunk 2077, and Assassin's Creed Shadows are also expected to receive the same update soon. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button! And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.

Sony reveals that its new PSSR upscaling for the Playstation 5 Pro has the same 'core' as AMD's FSR Redstone but that doesn't necessarily mean older AMD PC graphics cards are set to get an FSR upgrade

Sony PlayStation lead system architect Mark Cerny has done an in-depth interview with Digital Foundry. The full discussion isn't out yet, but a few very interesting tidbits have been released regarding Sony's latest PSSR upscaling technology for the PlayStation 5 Pro, the related Project Amethyst collaboration with AMD, and how that all ties in with FSR upscaling on the PC. Indeed, one of the pressing unknowns that Digital Foundry wanted to clear up was the relationship between Sony's newly upgraded PSSR upscaling and FSR Redstone, the latter being the latest machine learning-based build of AMD's upscaling tech for the PC. "Just to clarify a few things about the collaboration with AMD, the new PSSR uses the same core co-developed algorithm as FSR Redstone's upscaling," Cerny told Digital Foundry. Cery also said that the PlayStation platform could consequently get frame generation in future. "FSR Frame Generation is also based on co-developed technology (or as my good friend Jack Huynh puts it, 'co-engineered technology'). I'm very happy with how that work is progressing, and an equivalent frame generation library should be seen at some point on PlayStation platforms," he said. But for the PC, the interesting bit is how the PS5 Pro handles AI-based upscaling. "FSR Redstone and the new PSSR have somewhat different implementations due to the underlying hardware, e.g. FSR Upscaling uses 8-bit floating point, and PSSR uses 8-bit integer," Cerny clarifies. "The MAC counts (i.e. the amount of math involved) also vary a bit, and training data is similar but not exactly the same. None of the above factors seem to make too much difference in results; as both SIE and AMD have just released their refreshed models, it will be an excellent test of how closely we can match our systems." The context here, of course, is that the PS5 Pro uses AMD graphics hardware. Typically, it's described as being a hybrid between RDNA 2 and RDNA 3, but with some RDNA 4-derived ray-tracing capabilities and some additional custom machine-learning capabilities on top. But as Cerny himself emphasises, when it comes to upscaling and particularly running ML-based upscaling, the PS5 Pro has a different matrix math implementation to RDNA 4, hence the need to run INT8 as opposed to FP8 for PSSR 2. Of course, anyone who has been following the whole FSR 4 / FSR Redstone saga closely will recall that AMD leaked an unofficial version of FSR 4, which included an INT8 codepath. That has allowed a community effort to provide support for FSR 4 for older RDNA 2 and RDNA 3 AMD graphics cards via the Optiscaler tool, the latest version of which now supports RDNA 2 without the need to run ancient drivers. Immediately, that begs the question of the relationship between Sony's INT8 PSSR 2 and the unofficial INT8 version of FSR 4 that leaked out and can be run on older AMD PC graphics cards. Now, one assumption that's tempting to make is that whatever Sony and AMD have cooked up to run on the PS5 Pro would be a good candidate for an INT8 ML-based upscaler for older AMD PC. GPUs. Heck, maybe that leaked INT8 version of FSR 4 only exists because Sony and AMD have been working on INT8 ML upscaling for the PlayStation? Sadly, none of that may really follow. As Nick explained back when the PS5 Pro's technical details leaked, it has some significantly upgraded INT8 hardware support compared to older RDNA generations. That means the PS5 Pro is rated at 300 TOPS for INT8 performance compared to a mere 75 TOPS for the Radeon RX 7800 XT. Even the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is only rated at 123 TOPS by AMD. Long story short, there's a huge gulf in INT8 performance between the PS5 Pro and pre-RDNA 4 AMD PC GPU generations. So, it does not seem at all safe to assume that anything Sony and AMD cook up to run on the PS5 Pro in terms of upscaling is a good candidate for those older PC graphics cards, sadly. That's a pity, because Digital Foundry has also done a detailed analysis of the latest upgraded version of PSSR with machine learning and found it to be dramatically improved from the original PSSR, the latter not using any machine-learning technology and being based on spatial and temporal algorithms. Still, hope remains that AMD might eventually deliver an official release of some version of FSR 4 or FSR Redstone for owners of older RDNA GPUs. Optiscaler shows it can work pretty well, and with all the billions AMD is making from its server CPUs and AI chips right now, it doesn't seem like a huge ask.