QSSR: the base PS5 finally gets AI upscaling and stops being the forgotten sibling

For quite a while, anyone playing on a standard PS5 had to watch from the sidelines as the PS5 Pro showed off PSSR, its AI-powered image upscaling system. According to IGN España, that gap is starting to close: Sony has unveiled QSSR, an AI upscaling technology designed for the base console, which until now had been left out of the party because its GPU lacks the power of the Pro model.

This news matters more than it might seem. AI upscaling has become a central part of how graphics are rendered today, and leaving out the entry-level model, the most affordable in the family, meant leaving a lot of people with a second-tier experience. If QSSR delivers, the console you already own could gain sharpness or smoothness without you having to spend a cent. For competitive players and content creators, that isn't a cosmetic detail: it's performance headroom.

What you need to know

• QSSR is Sony's new AI upscaling technology aimed at the base PS5.
• It arrives as a response to PSSR, which until now was exclusive to the PS5 Pro.
• The standard PS5 had missed out on PSSR because its GPU is less powerful than the Pro model's.
• The announcement was made through the official PlayStation blog, as reported by IGN España.
• For now, questions remain open: supported games, rollout schedule and real-world performance compared to PSSR.

From PSSR to QSSR: what changes and why

The idea behind any AI upscaling is simple to explain and hard to execute: the game renders the image at a lower resolution and a trained model reconstructs a sharper version. This frees up GPU work, which can then be spent on keeping a more stable frame rate or on more demanding effects. That kind of reconstruction has a computational cost, and that was the problem: the original PS5's hardware couldn't handle PSSR the way it runs on the Pro.

Sony's solution wasn't to force the same technology onto a machine that can't support it, but to create its own variant. The name change alone suggests this isn't a simple port, but something tailored to the base console's limitations.

Who it affects

The direct beneficiaries are those who own a standard PS5 and have no plans to upgrade to the Pro. But there's also a takeaway for studios: it remains to be seen how much work it takes to integrate QSSR into each game and whether titles that already use PSSR will adopt it easily. That fine print is what will decide whether we're talking about a real improvement or a checkbox that only a handful of releases tick.

Our take

Here at the Underworld Lordz newsroom, we're celebrating this, no question about it. It was odd for a technology billed as essential to stay locked inside the most expensive model, and Sony remembering the base console is a good sign for the community. That said, it's worth tempering expectations: if PSSR needed a more powerful GPU, it stands to reason that QSSR will be a more restrained version. Don't expect your base PS5 to magically turn into a Pro.

For competitive players, the key question isn't how much the still image improves, but what happens in motion. Reconstruction systems can leave artifacts, ghosting or loss of detail in fast-paced scenes, exactly where a fight is decided. If QSSR helps sustain a stable frame rate without introducing visual noise or noticeable latency, it'll be great news. If it only polishes pretty screenshots, competitive players won't care. We'll test it as soon as we can, and we won't take the marketing at its word.

For content creators, things look brighter: a cleaner image on the base console means more presentable captures and streams without changing hardware. Our criticism is about the communication: announcing a new name without making clear from the outset which games support it or how it performs against PSSR only fuels confusion. We want data, not acronyms.

What do you think?

Do you own a base PS5 and does this convince you not to upgrade to the Pro, or do you think AI upscaling on a modest GPU will fall short in competitive matches? Drop by the team chat or our Discord and let us know: would you turn on QSSR in a close match, or would you rather not risk on-screen artifacts?