Horizon Forbidden Westone of the most visually stunning games on the PS5, has recently received a PS5 Pro patch that brings a surprising new feature: instead of the established PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), which in is used in many other PS5 Pro gamesGuerilla Games has developed its own upscaling technology. In recent tests, this "Guerilla Super Resolution" delivers one of the cleanest, best reconstructed image qualities ever seen on consoles.
Anyone who wants to know the history of Horizon-If you're familiar with PS4 and PS5 games, you'll know that Guerilla Games was already known for its use of checkerboard rendering and dynamic resolution. On the PS5, this technology was refined even further, but the new patch goes one step further and offers something that both improves image quality and enables smoother performance.
Horizon shines even without PS5 Pro technology
First of all, the initial situation: Horizon Forbidden West on the PS5 offers both performance and resolution modes. The PS5's performance mode, which was introduced in a summer 2022 patch, runs with checkbord rendering at 1800p and dynamic resolution scaling. While this solution did sacrifice some image quality, the game ran at a constant 60 fps, making for a much smoother experience.
With the new Performance Pro mode for the PS5 Pro, the frame rate remains at 60 fps, but with significantly improved clarity. Here, the resolution is increased to around 1440p, and the image quality benefits from better texture details, improved anti-aliasing effects and a significantly optimized sub-pixel display. This is particularly noticeable with transparencies, such as those that occur with foliage or water effects. Image stability has also been improved, resulting in fewer artifacts and making the overall visual experience even smoother.
Differences to the PS5 version
But how does the new Performance Pro mode compare to the PS5's classic resolution mode? This is what Digital Foundry with surprising results that once again do not cast a good light on the actual PS5 Proi technology. Ultimately, the differences are minimized, but there remains a noticeable difference in picture quality. The old resolution mode often offered native 4K, which allowed for higher sharpness and better reflections on the screen. The Performance Pro mode, on the other hand, scores with better stability and improved anti-aliasing, which is particularly advantageous in many scenes.
The PS5 Pro also offers a "Resolution Pro mode", which retains the native 4K and a frame rate of 30 fps, but also benefits from the new anti-aliasing technology. But here comes an interesting dig at the PS5 Pro technology: Guerrilla Games itself emphasizes that 30 fps in a game as fluid and dynamic as Horizon Forbidden West is not an attractive option. As the technical director of Guerilla Games remarked during a PS5 Pro preview event: "Friends don't let friends play at 30 Hz." A clear indication that 60 fps is the preferred choice.
Perfect performance on the PS5 Pro
The Performance Pro mode for the PS5 Pro is almost perfect in practice - even during intense battles, the game rarely loses a single frame. The 30 fps mode runs almost without any problems, apart from the usual small frame drops during camera cuts. If you want to get even more performance out of the PS5 Pro, you can activate 120 Hz VRR support, which brings the game up to 70 fps in some scenes - even if the frame rate occasionally drops below 60 fps. This additional mode shows that the PS5 Pro really does have potential, but also that the developers are still working specifically on optimization.
The "120 Hz Balanced Pro Mode", which mediates between the "Resolution Pro" and "Performance Pro" modes, may seem somewhat superfluous on the PS5 Pro, but could be of interest to players looking for a compromise between fidelity and performance. But for most, the 60 fps Performance Pro mode remains the clear recommendation.
In summary, Guerilla Games shows with Horizon Forbidden West and its PS5 Pro patch that the developers are not only willing to break with proven technologies such as PSSR, but are also breaking new ground to get the best out of the PS5 Pro. Unfortunately, there is currently no clear statement on how Sony intends to position PSSR technology in light of these results. That it only works well for a third of all games? After all, developers are suggesting that the time of PSSR is yet to come.
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