Sony's surprise PS5 graphics upgrade could make GTA 6 look better at launch

Sony's surprise release of new PS5 upscaling technology could give Rockstar another way to improve GTA 6's image quality, although support remains unconfirmed ahead of its November 19 launch.

Sony recently dropped Quick Spectral Super Resolution, or QSSR, which introduces AI upscaling to the standard PS5. Sony says the technology emerged from its Project Amethyst collaboration with AMD, using a streamlined neural network and an implementation tuned specifically for the base PS5. In its announcement, Sony confirmed that Marvel's Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei are the first games to receive support.

The tech experts over at Digital Foundry have published the above, detailing their hands-on experience with QSSR, and how upcoming titles such as Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 6 could benefit from the technology. Notably, the Extended Look was captured on a standard PS5, and according to DF's Oliver Mackenzie, that footage showcases a resolution of approximately 1440p with temporal anti-aliasing, followed by a conventional upscale to 4K, rather than an existing temporal upscaler such as FSR.

How does this impact GTA 6? In Digital Foundry's assessment of Wolverine, they found improvements in areas such as finer details, foliage, water, and reflections. However, there is a processing cost to running QSSR, which may be a big enough reason for Rockstar to not include the technology at launch, and perhaps implement it via an update at a later date. There is also the engineering challenge of correctly implementing QSSR into the GTA 6 rendering pipeline, which, depending on how long Rockstar has access to this technology, may not be feasible given how close GTA 6's launch is.

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How much processing overhead does QSSR add on a standard PS5, and what could that mean for GTA 6’s performance?See answerHide answer

No processing-overhead figure is given for QSSR on a standard PS5, so its effect on GTA 6's frame rate cannot be quantified. Digital Foundry's findings suggest the processing cost could be a reason for Rockstar to leave QSSR out at launch and potentially add it in a later update, but Rockstar has not confirmed support.

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Could Rockstar add QSSR to GTA 6 in a post-launch update if it misses the launch version?See answerHide answer

Yes, Rockstar could add QSSR to GTA 6 in a post-launch update, but that is only a possibility, not a confirmed plan. Rockstar has not announced QSSR support, and integrating it into the game's rendering pipeline may be challenging.

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What game updates or developer support are needed for PS5 titles to use QSSR?See answerHide answer

PS5 titles need developer support to integrate QSSR into their rendering pipelines; a console update alone is not described as enabling it for every game. Sony has confirmed support for Marvel's Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei. Rockstar has not announced QSSR support for GTA 6, though it could potentially add it in a later game update.

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What role did AMD and Project Amethyst play in developing QSSR?See answerHide answer

QSSR emerged from Sony's Project Amethyst collaboration with AMD. It uses a streamlined neural network tuned for the standard PS5. The separate story "PlayStation QA team may be the secret to Project Amethyst's quick turnaround" reports that Sony created a QA team at AMD's request to analyze the upscaling technology and provide feedback on PlayStation game visuals.

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Notably, Rockstar hasn't officially announced support for QSSR.