Returnal’s PS5 Pro Patch Hits Hard—Sharper Visuals, Smoother Loops

Well, surprise—Returnal just got a serious visual upgrade, and the PS5 Pro is eating good. To celebrate its four-year anniversary (yes, it’s been that long), Housemarque dropped a brand-new patch that brings better resolution and more stable performance to one of the most brutally beautiful games on PlayStation.

No new enemies, no fancy DLC—just raw power, fine-tuned for a console that can finally keep up.

Crisper Visuals, Smoother Mayhem

So what exactly are we working with here? Digital Foundry took a deep dive, and Returnal on PS5 Pro is now hitting a peak of 3072×1728 resolution. That’s well above the 2.5x boost they initially teased, and the results speak for themselves.

Even with all the particle chaos, alien lighting, and bullet hell madness, the game now maintains a clearer image, almost across the board. If you thought Atropos looked intense before—this upgrade cranks the sharpness and detail up without sacrificing frame rate.

Framerate: Mostly Rock Solid

Performance-wise, this patch gets the job done. Boss fights and effect-heavy sequences now hold closer to a stable 60FPS, which is a big win considering how wild things get. Sure, there are still some minor traversal stutters and occasional frame-time blips, but overall it’s a smoother, more responsive loop—and that matters in a game where one hit can cost you everything.

What You Aren’t Getting

Before you get too excited, no—this update doesn’t bring over ray tracing, fancier shadows, or any of the flashy stuff from the PC port. This patch is strictly a resolution and stability pass, not a full visual overhaul. But honestly? It doesn’t need to be.

Returnal already looked stunning. Now it just runs sharper and smoother.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve been waiting for a reason to jump back into Returnal, or you’ve been eyeing it from the backlog with your shiny new PS5 Pro, this is it. The game’s never looked better, never played cleaner, and it’s a great excuse to die over and over again in 4K.

Atropos is calling. Again.