To mark its fourth anniversary, developer Housemarque has announced a free PlayStation 5 Pro upgrade to Returnal, promising to give a superb PS5 game a resolution boost of up to 2.5x on Sony’s Pro hardware. The exact phrasing of “up to 2.5x” does suggest a form of dynamic scaling is in play, which I’ll get to in a minute – but it’s a welcome move that addresses one gripe with base PS5’s image quality. Beyond that, are there any other improvements to the original experience? Are the performance issues addressed and what about the slight traversal stutter issues?
As a refresher, base PS5 to this day uses a fixed 1080p base resolution, which – according to the developer – is temporally reconstructed to 1440p, and then upscaled to a final 4K output via checkerboard rendering. While the game is brilliantly executed in its core technology – with particles often filling the screen to dazzling effect – this unusual setup does cause some visual noise on the standard PS5. It’s a hardly a dealbreaker and gameplay is king after all, but high frequency detail appears rather grainy in the final resolve. It certainly falls short of what the PC version is capable of, even at a native 1440p via DLSS.
To cut to the chase, the PS5 Pro update gives us a boost to 3072×1728 at peak, with dynamic resolution scaling in place to adjust to GPU load. The introduction of DRS is new to the Pro version, replacing the static, fixed 1080p of the base PS5 – which does have a small bearing on frame-rate. The lowest figure on record on PS5 Pro meanwhile is 2400×1350, caught during intensive boss battles where the frequency of screen-filling effects is most apt to hammer the GPU. Lower figures might be possible of course, potentially in later areas. Even so, that maximum possible 1728p on Pro is a surprisingly frequent event across the first three biomes I’ve tested, and in fact, over-delivers on Housemarque’s promise of a 2.5x increase. Rather, this best case value is closer to a 2.56x increase over base PS5’s static 1920×1080 resolution, which is a nice bonus.
The result in comparing PS5 to PS5 Pro pans out as you’d expect. Admittedly, the rapid pace of Returnal’s action means that a resolution boost won’t always scream at you, but, supposing you want to take in the sights at your leisure, this a clear upgrade. Focusing on staircases, or detailed floor textures, the moire patterns present on base PS5’s are minimised. The flickering is reduced on hard edges, and notably, any sudden burst of effects, where the pixel structure appears in its raw form for a few frames, you’ll notice less aliasing.
Despite the upgrade, the PS5 Pro version still has some temporal instability, with a similar cross-hatch effect to base PS5 as it upscales to 4K – though the artefact is subtler on Pro due to its overall higher pixel density. It’s not perfectly clean in every frame: there are raw edges if you know where to look, but they’re much finer steps at 1728p. Secondly, a 2.56x increase is not sustainable in every scenario. PS5 Pro offers a 1.45x boost in GPU power over the base model after all – plus 45 per cent – which is misaligned with the demands of that res boost.
This is precisely where dynamic resolution scaling makes an impact: we’re extracting the highest quality frames where GPU headroom allows it, while at its lowest point, image quality is still better than base PS5. On hindsight, it’s a shame that the base PS5 isn’t retrofitted with DRS as well. This Pro patch does exactly what it says on the tin then. No other visual upgrades are in place: volumetrics, alpha effects, textures and shadows remain the same as before. Rather, it’s a simple, but direct way to route PS5 Pro’s higher GPU resources.
All of which brings us to the next point that, actually, there were alternative routes to using PS5 Pro. There are other enticing options that could have been explored, like a 120Hz mode – even if it necessitates a resolution drop to hold a steady 120. The other route could have been adding the PC version’s ray tracing features. Ray traced reflections and shadows aren’t essential – and indeed, each comes with its own limitations on PC – but would have been fascinating to see on Pro, even as an optional RT mode. Here it’s strangely not even been considered and so it stays a PC exclusive feature. Likewise, many of PC’s epic presets stay landlocked on PC – like the improved volumetrics resolution. What we’re left with on Pro is simply one single way to play, with no graphics toggle to speak of – but it delivers on what it set out to do.
Performance testing is tricky. The highly randomised nature of Returnal’s roguelike design means exact 1:1 tests between PS5 and Pro aren’t possible. To recap: base PS5 runs well at 60 frames per second, though there are certainly drops under the target. It’s uncommon, but under the right circumstances, frame-rates can dip. For example, the first boss battle in the initial Overgrown Ruins level drops into the mid-50s, and likewise, there’s a smaller degree of sub-60 drops during major battles in the Tower of Sisyphus. Another outlier is on respawning back at the ship: there’s often a brief, choppy passage of play – lurching to the 40s for spell – though this soon clears up on base PS5 as Selene stands upright. Finally, I did notice a highly unusual point at a staircase in the first biome – with seemingly nothing occurring ahead – dropping us to a constant 55fps. These are our real outlier moments to a generally solid 60fps experience, with only traversal stutters between areas – a few one frame blips – worth noting.
Jumping to PS5 Pro it’s possible to recreate at least some of these moments. The good news is that boss battles, like the one bookending the first biome, and at the Tower, are entirely cleared up at a stable 60fps on Pro. Between its higher GPU clock speed, and greater flexibility afforded by dynamic scaling, we’re able to lock tightly at 60fps now in both areas, which is great. Overall, the DRS scale between 1350p to 1728p appears well judged and targets PS5 Pro’s capabilities sensibly. It’s also good evidence that, while there may be drops in later, randomised configurations of a level, and with enough progress, PS5 Pro fully patched is theoretically more stable. The move away from a fixed 1080p on a base PS5 gives it more leeway to adapt to the maelstrom of effects that are possible from moment to moment. With that being said, there is a small catch.
Traversal hitches remain, and there is also a slightly higher frequency of hitches to 50ms on PS5 Pro – multiple dropped frames – just as an attack lands on the enemy. Perhaps PS5 Pro needs a split second to adjust its resolution to an unexpected spike in load, causing a greater spike on the frame time graph.
Speaking more generally on Pro performance, it’s worth noting that time may well reveal more significant drops. However, after several days playing PS5 Pro up to the third biome – and through the Tower area – I did not catch major drops otherwise, as yet. That’s not the final word: given the game’s randomised nature, more taxing areas are certainly very possible. Indeed, posters on Resetera are noticing frame-rate dips with the Pro patch installed with suggestions there that it perhaps ran better in a pre-patch state on Pro, using the base PS5’s rendering setup. That may well be the case bearing in mind the conservative resolution target of the legacy code which Pro should effortlessly power through. That aside, the outlook is positive based on the evidence of matching stress test areas: PS5 Pro is an improvement over the base model in holding 60fps, plus we’re getting a sharper image into the bargain too.
As out of the blue as the Pro Returnal patch is, fans will no doubt be delighted that the game is getting more attention from Housemarque. Resolution and performance boosts perhaps aren’t the most ambitious use of Pro hardware – but the extent of the increased pixel counts is surprising. Where there is a 2.56x boost to resolution, we have to wonder if dynamic resolution scaling alone accounts for the difference when the Pro itself only delivers 45 percent more graphics performance. Even so, the upgrade is impressive overall: the only minor catch is a higher occurrence of 50ms frame-time hitches just on striking an enemy, but the pros outweigh the cons in getting to a more stable 60 frames per second with a significant image quality upgrade. Returnal itself remains one of the best shooters ever made and with that in mind, the Pro upgrade is a great opportunity to revisit one of this generation’s all-time classics.
