Sony just removed one of the more obscure PS5 Pro power-user chores. System software 26.06-14.00.00 enables Enhance PSSR Image Quality by default, so compatible games can use the upgraded PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution model without you digging through video settings first.
Reporting from Engadget (Sept. 22, 2026) and matching system-update notes across the PlayStation press wire agree on the headline and the caveats. The enhanced upscaler—often nicknamed PSSR 2.0 in coverage, officially framed by Sony as upgraded/enhanced PSSR—arrived earlier in 2026 as an opt-in override. Until now, Pro owners who wanted the newer neural reconstruction on titles built around original PSSR had to flip the toggle themselves.
What actually changes on screen
PSSR lets Pro games render at a lower internal resolution and reconstruct a sharper output, trading some GPU cost for image quality. The enhanced model targets cleaner fine detail, stabler motion, and fewer of the shimmering/afterimage artifacts that showed up in early PSSR titles. Developers who have adopted it have called out improvements on hair, foliage, and text edges.
Important limits, straight from the wires:
- Games that never supported PSSR do not suddenly gain AI upscaling.
- Not every game with a PS5 Pro Enhanced badge uses PSSR—some rely on resolution modes, VRR, or traditional spatial upscalers instead.
- You still need to run a supported title in Pro or Quality mode for the pipeline to matter.
- If a game looks worse under the override, disable it under Settings → Screen and Video → Video Output → Enhance PSSR Image Quality.
Same update, more than graphics
The firmware is not graphics-only. PS5 and PS5 Pro owners also get an on-screen voice-chat speaker indicator (with placement options) and a Welcome Hub Community Activity widget that surfaces Trending Now multiplayer modes and a regional Top 10 from the last week. Social chrome around a Pro default that finally matches how most owners will actually play.
Sony has not published a dramatic before/after marketing reel for the default flip—just the practical change. For Pro owners who never found the old toggle, tonight’s update is the night enhanced PSSR stops being a tip and starts being the baseline.
Source: Engadget