Crimson Desert players have figured out how to fix the PS5 Pro’s strange resolution issues, and it’s as simple as changing some of the console’s output settings.
If there was ever a game that seemed perfectly suited for the PS5 Pro, it’s Crimson Desert. Even though it’s been getting plenty of flak for its uninteresting story, confusing controls, and overwhelming amount of mechanics, you can’t deny that Pearl Abyss has put together a beautiful and expansive world that’s frankly a little hard to believe.
Pre-release footage of Crimson Desert running on the PS5 Pro certainly made it seem like the best console to play it on, but that hasn’t quite been the case for a lot of players. For some reason, the Crimson Desert’s resolution looks very off on the PS5 Pro, with some even saying that they’d been “gaslit” by previews into playing it on the Pro.
Crimson Desert Looks Weird On PS5 Pro, But Players Have Figured Out How To Fix It
Here’s Hoping Pearl Abyss Has A Patch So You Don’t Need To Mess With Settings
Over on the PS5 Pro subreddit (which is unsurprisingly having a field day with Crimson Desert), Redditor GabagoolEU pointed out how low-res the game looks running on the Pro in Performance mode. The comments show that this isn’t an isolated incident, with many other players reporting the same thing happening to them.
Luckily, it hasn’t taken long for players to figure out what’s going on and offer a fairly simple fix. The issue comes down to how Crimson Desert handles the PS5 Pro running at 120 Hz, which is usually the base setting for the Pro. For whatever reason, having your console on 120 Hz causes Crimson Desert to render at a lower resolution, making it look worse than it should.
The simplest way to fix that is by going into your Screen and Video settings and turning the “120 Hz Output” setting from automatic to off, which should stop it from looking so low-res. Others have reported that forcing the 2160p output instead of having it on Automatic also helps with Crimson Desert’s graphics on PS5 Pro.
I started Crimson Desert on the Pro last night and found that turning 120 Hz off does in fact help the graphics. The performance is still a bit shaky, though, so it might need a bit more fine-tuning.
If you want a much more complicated solution, Redditor Magenof-Forlorn shared a very in-depth guide to resolution settings that suggests the problem could be tied to how a TV and PS5 Pro are set up. That guide also ends with suggesting turning off 120 Hz, so that seems like the easiest way to manage the problem until a patch comes in.
Crimson Desert
- Released
-
March 19, 2026
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ / Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
-
Pearl Abyss
- Publisher(s)
-
Pearl Abyss
Spoiler-Free 150 Hour Crimson Desert Review – A Deeply Flawed Diamond
The greatest videogame world I’ve ever seen is let down by tedium and minor frustrations that build up over the course of dozens of hours.
