So, Housemarque is doing something pretty cool for Returnal’s fourth anniversary. They’re giving the game a free upgrade for the PlayStation 5 Pro, promising some serious resolution improvements. Like, we’re talking up to 2.5x better on the Pro hardware. I mean, who doesn’t love a good resolution boost, right? The whole “up to 2.5x” thing makes me wonder if there’s some dynamic scaling going on, but hey, at least they’re addressing the image quality gripe some people had with the base PS5.
But wait, there’s more. Are there any other improvements with this upgrade? Like, have they fixed those pesky performance issues and those annoying traversal stutter problems? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Just to refresh your memory, the base PS5 has a fixed 1080p resolution that gets bumped up to 1440p and then upscaled to 4K using checkerboard rendering. It’s all very technical, but basically, it means the image quality isn’t as crisp as it could be. The PS5 Pro upgrade, on the other hand, boosts the resolution to a peak of 3072×1728, with dynamic scaling to adjust to the GPU load. Fancy stuff, right? The addition of dynamic resolution scaling is new to the Pro version and can affect the frame rate a bit. The lowest resolution recorded on the Pro is 2400×1350 during intense boss battles, but it can go even lower in later areas. On the flip side, hitting that sweet 1728p resolution is actually more like a 2.56x increase over the base PS5’s resolution. Not bad, Housemarque, not bad at all.
The improvements are noticeable when you compare the PS5 to the PS5 Pro. Sure, you might not always see a huge difference during the fast-paced action of Returnal, but if you stop to smell the roses, you’ll see the upgrade. Staircases and floor textures look smoother, moire patterns are reduced, and aliasing is less of an issue with those fancy effects.
But it’s not all rainbows and sunshine. The PS5 Pro still has some issues with image stability, especially when upscaling to 4K. The Pro version can have some raw edges and artifacts, but they’re not as noticeable thanks to the higher pixel density. And let’s not forget that not every scenario can handle that 2.56x resolution boost. The Pro only has a 1.45x increase in GPU power over the base model, so there are limits to what it can handle.
It would’ve been nice to see some other upgrades with the Pro version, like a 120Hz mode or ray tracing features from the PC version. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers, right? At least the Pro upgrade does what it promises to do. No fancy graphics toggles or presets, just a straightforward boost to the Pro’s GPU resources.
When it comes to performance testing, things get a bit tricky. The random nature of Returnal’s design makes it hard to do a direct comparison between the PS5 and the Pro. But from what we can tell, the Pro version runs smoother, especially in intense boss battles. The dynamic resolution scaling seems to help keep the frame rate stable at 60fps, even in the most demanding situations. There are still some traversal hitches and frame drops, but overall, the Pro version seems to handle things better than the base PS5.
All in all, the Pro upgrade for Returnal is a step in the right direction. It may not be the most ambitious use of the Pro hardware, but the resolution and performance boosts are definitely welcome. The game remains a standout shooter, and revisiting it with the Pro upgrade is a great way to experience one of the best games of this generation.
