Helldivers 2 finally has support for upscalers—but it’s hardly a cause for celebration. The patch’s development was controversial, and the result was, to put it mildly, unpolished. Update 6.2.5, titled “Machinery of Oppression,” was originally scheduled for release on May 27th. But Arrowhead Games announced a delay at the last minute, citing an “unexpected technical bug beyond the studio’s control” at platform partners Valve, Sony, and Microsoft. No specific date was announced at the time. Then the game went quiet.
The patch was developed in collaboration with Nixxes Software, the same team known for high-quality PC ports of PlayStation exclusives. And finally, the update was released. It was immediately met with a wave of negativity.
What was actually added? NVIDIA DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 3.1.5 (upgradable to FSR 4.0.3 on compatible hardware), Intel XeSS 3.0, NVIDIA Reflex, and AMD Anti-Lag 2. On PS5 and Xbox Series X, the resolution in Performance mode has been raised to 1440p, VRR has been added on PS5 and PS5 Pro, along with Variable Rate Shading and Dynamic Resolution Scaling—all available features. The PS5 Pro received a separate PSSR update, but players are disappointed: it’s only version 1.0. A bug preventing characters from manually climbing over low obstacles has also been fixed—the automated system was annoying everyone.
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Machinery of Oppression Optimization Issues in Helldivers 2
Arrowhead Games has finally released update 6.2.5, aptly titled “Machinery of Oppression.” The release was a tough one for the studio. The update was originally expected for May 27th, but due to unexpected bugs on the platforms (Valve, Sony, and Microsoft), the launch was postponed indefinitely. Nixxes Software (yes, the same masters of great PlayStation PC ports) was brought in to work on optimization. The result looks great on paper. In practice, gamers received one of the most problematic updates in the history of the shooter. Apparently, the developers rushed the process considerably.
Causes of image blur and a drop in graphic quality
The main feature of the update is the implementation of three top-tier image reconstruction technologies. But don’t celebrate too soon. Reddit regulars quickly sounded the alarm. User TheUniqueSpammer clearly demonstrated that any attempt to lower the render resolution below native turns the image into a blurry mess. Turning on the Balanced preset in NVIDIA DLSS 4.5? You get terrible blur artifacts that make shooting at robots physically painful. A similar problem plagues fans of the “red” and “blue” cards. Upscaling seems to work and boosts frame rates fairly, but the game is visually falling apart.
Peculiarities of PSSR Upscaling on the PS5 Pro
It’s ironic that the only platform to avoid this disaster was the PS5 Pro. Its PSSR implementation, version 1.0 (though many were expecting a more recent build), suddenly worked like a charm: the blurriness disappeared, and flickering was noticeably reduced. The base PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles now support VRR, Variable Rate Shading, and dynamic resolution. Performance mode has also been boosted to a true 1440p. Incidentally, automatic overcoming of small obstacles has finally been fixed on all consoles and PC. Helldivers can now manually climb over cover, which is a real nerve-wracker in heated battles.
Technical tests and comparison of DLSS FSR and XeSS 30
From a technical standpoint, the patch makes Helldivers 2 a unique testing ground. Three competitors collide in a single menu. This hardware operates according to completely different patterns:
Frame generation and neural networks in NVIDIA DLSS 45
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NVIDIA DLSS 4.5: Green has switched to transformer neural networks. This is a massive leap—fine details like smoke from Stratagems or armor elements on the planet Helmir no longer disintegrate into pixels during sharp camera movements. For owners of RTX 20xx graphics cards and later, this is a significant bonus. The top-end RTX 40xx series now features Multi Frame Gen, capable of rendering up to three fake frames. Performance gains reach up to 4x. However, if the base frame rate drops below 60 fps, prepare for eerie “ghosts” around your equipment. Integrated NVIDIA Reflex technology is essential here to reduce control latency.
Testing AMD FSR 403 Algorithms on RDNA 3
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AMD FSR 4.0.3 and 3.1.5: This one is more complicated. FSR 4.0.3 is a fully-fledged neural network (ML) algorithm that delivers quality on par with its main competitor. However, this feat only works on the RDNA 3 architecture (RX 7000 cards) and the upcoming RDNA 4 (RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT). Using an RX 6000 or cards from other vendors? Get the base AMD FSR 3.1.5 with standard spatial upscaling. Essentially, it’s light smoothing without the generation miracles. Both versions support frame generation via interpolation, and AMD Anti-Lag 2 is included.
XMX matrix efficiency in Intel XeSS technology
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Intel XeSS 3.0: The algorithm also relies on machine learning. If you have Arc series cards (for example, Arc B580 or A770), the technology utilizes the XMX hardware units. Inference speed and quality are comparable to AMD’s top-end solution. On third-party graphics cards, the technology switches to DP4a instructions: it’s slower and more clunky, but still better than spatial methods. The hardware frame generator only works on Intel solutions; on others, it mercilessly loads the CPU.
Arrowhead Games is keeping quiet for now. The situation is frankly tense. The community is still fuming over the controversial 6.2.2 exosuit rebalance. If the developers don’t quickly roll out a hotfix, the studio will simply lose credibility.
Reddit Community Reaction and Hotfix Demands
And here’s where things get interesting. Users quickly identified the problem. “All upscalers are broken right now—if you want them to actually improve performance, any setting lower than native is unusable,” TheUniqueSpammer wrote on Reddit, attaching screenshots. They show that in DLSS Balanced mode, the image is incredibly blurry. Similar complaints are being leveled at FSR and XeSS.
The only exception is the PlayStation 5 Pro. The implementation there is suddenly correct. Pro players note that flickering and blurriness have noticeably decreased.
Arrowhead is still silent. The situation is grim. Helldivers 2 is already growing frustrated in the community after a series of controversial decisions (we wrote about patch 6.2.2 with exosuits and balance, which infuriated many). The update delay plus broken upscalers is just another nail in the coffin of player patience. Therefore, the studio needs to release a hotfix very quickly, otherwise trust will fall completely.
