Genre: Action-Adventure
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: December 7, 2023
PS Studios Game? No
PSVR2 Compatible? No
Metacritic Score: 72
PSSR? Yes
RT? Yes
RT Types: Ray traced reflections and global illumination
Highest Resolution: 1800p to 4K PSSR/FSR3
Highest FPS: 60fps
quality pro: 900p-1152p DRS to 4K PSSR/FSR at a mostly stable 60fps.
quality: Sharper than quality pro (1512p-1800p DRS to 4K PSSR/FSR) but at a locked 30fps.
balanced: Visual quality downgraded compared to quality but now at a locked 40fps.
performance: Lowest visual quality. 720p-936p DRS to 4K PSSR/FSR at a nearly locked 60fps.
Disclaimer: In order to use PSSR2 in Avatar, you must activate the 'Enhance PSSR Image Quality' toggle in the PS5 system settings. As Avatar isn't whitelisted by Sony and therefore still uses PSSR1 by default, this page's analysis still displays PSSR1 metrics. Fortunately, Digital Foundry reviewed Avatar with PSSR2 toggled on and confirm it fixes the issues mentioned below with a more stable, sharper image and no more PSSR1 film grain-like noise/lighting issues (especially in foliage). PSSR2 is therefore recommended over PSSR1/FSR3 for Avatar.
All modes can use either PSSR or FSR3 for upscaling to 4K. PSSR has better motion clarity, but is more noisy/unstable and looks softer in stills (check disclaimer to easily fix these PSSR issues with PSSR2). PSSR works best with the quality 30fps mode due to its highest internal DRS. Quality, balanced and performance are all the legacy modes from base PS5 (FSR only), but will run at the higher DRS bounds (1800p for quality etc) more often, with a more stable framerate, due to Pro's extra power.