I think it’s fair to say that The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is perhaps not the highest priority when it comes to receiving a PS5 Pro upgrade. Packing a reasonable 1440p60 and 4K30 performance split on base PS5 consoles, the game was already delivering a good visual experience on Sony’s 2020 hardware – but there is a compromise between image fluidity and image clarity. Part 2’s PS5 Pro outing seeks to eliminate that gap, aiming to deliver a 4K-like visual experience at a full-fat 60fps frame-rate target by using Sony’s new machine learning PSSR upscaling solution. How does PSSR fare in our first extended look at the technology? Is this a good replacement for native 4K, or does it fall short of that lofty target?
Developer Naughty Dog is refreshingly open about the basic rendering setup in this update. The new “Pro” mode delivers a 4K final image with PSSR upsampling from a 1440p internal resolution at 60fps. That means we’re looking at a new rendering option that superficially seems similar to the old Performance mode, with the same internal rendering resolution and frame-rate target, so most image quality differences here should come down to that new reconstruction method.
In side-by-sides, the PSSR upscale is delivering a lot of extra image detail relative to the old 1440p render. The difference can be surprisingly stark at times, like with the fine textures and water droplets on Abby’s backpack, which are rendered with much more detail on Pro. Part 2 has some very nice art assets, and PSSR exposes a lot of texture detail that’s obscured on the base machine. It also does a good job of avoiding moiré patterns on fine texture detail, which is very good for an upsampling solution. Texture art at oblique angles also resolves more clearly, though I believe anisotropic filtering settings are unchanged.
Geometric edges also look quite a bit sharper and better-defined than on the base console. The PS5 looked fine, but had a slightly soft-focus look on a 4K set, with edge detail deadened by a more moderate rendering resolution combined with TAA. The Pro delivers a much stronger result here, without the blurred edges characteristic of regular upscalers. Perhaps the most obvious edge though comes down to the way the game’s alpha-tested foliage resolves. The game’s old foliage had a slightly rough appearance at range, and tended to look coarser in general, even at a closer distance to the camera. PSSR is doing a better job of resolving these elements, and it looks like the art may have been tweaked to help accommodate this as well.