The world of upscaling is on the brink of a new revolution: with the introduction of AMD's RDNA 4 architecture and the associated FSR 4, machine learning is reaching a new level. But what is particularly exciting is the collaboration between AMD and Sony as part of the so-called "Project Amethyst". Mark Cerny, the chief system architect of the PlayStation, speaks in a Interview with Digital Foundry of a milestone: FSR 4 is to represent the next evolutionary stage of PSSR for the PS5 Pro.
FSR 4: The leap into the future of upscaling
Last week, AMD officially presented its new RDNA 4-based GPUs, which offer significantly increased AI performance. A key highlight is FSR 4, a new ML-based upscaler that competes with Nvidia's DLSS. The quality of the scaling has been significantly improved, which is evident in initial tests. But perhaps the biggest surprise: AMD confirmed that FSR 4 is the result of a collaboration with Sony as part of Project Amethyst.
Mark Cerny is delighted: "The FSR 4 neural network and training recipe are the first results of our collaboration with AMD. The results speak for themselves: it is a hugely advanced approach that can surpass the sharpness and detail of PSSR." The declared aim is to provide a very similar technology for PS5 Pro - but not before 2026.
How good is FSR 4 compared to DLSS?
Initial comparisons with DLSS 3.7 and 4.0 show that FSR 4 makes a big leap forward compared to the previous FSR 3.1. Particularly interesting: In some areas, FSR 4 is almost on par with Nvidia's new, transformer-based DLSS 4. While there are still scenarios where DLSS 4 comes out on top, AMD's progress is notable. Digital Foundry described the results as "pleasingly competitive".
But when will the new upscaling feature come to the PS5 Pro? According to Cerny, the initial focus in 2025 will be on integrating PSSR into existing titles. At the same time, the team is already working on bringing the neural network from FSR 4 to the PS5 Pro. The aim is to create an implementation that processes the same inputs as FSR 4 and delivers essentially the same outputs - a challenge that will take time.
"Our goal is to provide FSR 4 or a very similar technology for PS5 Pro titles from 2026. But the implementation is complex as PS5 Pro and RDNA 4 have fundamentally different architectures"says Cerny.
Powerful enough?
One of the big questions: Can the hardware of the PS5 Pro implement FSR 4 efficiently? The new AMD GPUs, such as the RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT, rely on a powerful architecture with ML acceleration. Cerny is optimistic: "The PS5 Pro achieves 300 8-bit TOPS without sparsity - a value that can certainly compete with the new AMD GPUs."
Sparsity, a technique for increasing the efficiency of ML algorithms, is supported by RDNA 4but not from the PS5 Pro. Nvidia is already using this technology to increase the performance of DLSS. Nevertheless, Cerny does not believe that Sparsity is crucial for the upscaling network from FSR 4 to PS5 Pro.
The future: More ML integration for PlayStation?
The cooperation between AMD and Sony is designed for the long term. According to Cerny, the aim is not only to develop new upscalers in the short term, but also to create better ML hardware for consoles in the long term.
"Our short-term goal is to jointly develop neural network architectures for game graphics. In the long term, we want to create a more ideal hardware architecture for ML. The PS5 Pro was a tremendous learning experience for us, and AMD brings immense experience from RDNA development. It just makes sense to combine these strengths"says Cerny.
Ray tracing also appears to play a role in the cooperation. AMD's new Toyshop demo shows path tracing, which is supported by ML-based technologies. Cerny did not want to confirm directly whether this is part of the Amethyst initiative, but said meaningfully: "Stay tuned!"
With FSR 4 as the basis and the joint development of Amethyst with AMD, the PS5 Pro is facing an exciting further development. The vision is clear: more ML integration, better scaling, more efficient hardware. Although it will still be a few years before these technologies are fully integrated into the PlayStation world, it is becoming increasingly clear that Sony has only taken the first step on this path with PS5 Pro.
Whether FSR 4 on PS5 Pro actually represents the next evolutionary step for PSSR remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: upscaling and machine learning are the key to the future of graphics - on console and PC alike.
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