After various rumors and leaks, the PlayStation 5 Pro is finally official — complete with a new GPU, $700 price point, and no built-in disc drive. But is this almost it? Why is this new console 40 percent more expensive than the existing PS5 you can buy today for $500? Both went on sale during the holidays, not long after the Pro’s November 7 launch date.
What are the differences between the PS5 and PS5 Pro that make it (depending on who you ask) a worthwhile upgrade or an extra expense?
Spec and performance differences
The PS5 Pro has three major performance improvements over the standard PS5, according to Sony’s technical presentation announcement, hosted by PS5 lead architect, Mark Cerny. It has a new, more powerful GPU for more compute power and faster rendering; advanced ray tracing for improved in-game reflections and more immersive lighting; and a new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaler to keep frame rates high without sacrificing resolution and image quality.
The GPU is definitely the star of the show, as Sony says it promises 67 percent more compute units and 28 percent faster memory resulting in 45 percent faster rendering. But the CPU speed and storage on the PS5 Pro are unchanged, so while it should deliver 4K resolution and maintain 60 fps or more, the console may not load or boot up games faster.
The biggest change for existing PS5 owners here is that gaming on a PS5 Pro will no longer require choosing between Performance and Fidelity mode (the decision many current games force users to make for either -frame rate smoothness prioritized o crisper visuals). But Sony may just shift those post goals with the PS5 Pro, as the upcoming console also supports 8K gaming. It’s possible that Performance and Fidelity modes are still with us if playing games at 8K means sacrificing frame rate again — which it certainly will. The difference with that is that most people don’t care, because who owns an 8K TV these days?
As for ray tracing, that’s a feature that’s been supported on the PS5 since launch. But the PS5 Pro advanced Ray tracing promises to make it even better, with more dynamic reflections and light refractions. Generally, games with good lighting and lots of reflection should look a bit better (rejoice, Gran Turismo 7 fans). Right now, ray tracing on the current PS5 is pretty lackluster compared to what’s possible on PCs with high-end GPUs (which, to be fair, cost more than a PS5 Pro on their own). But that has more to do with the games themselves than the console. Many titles are not optimized for ray tracing on the console, although there are some PS5 standouts such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 with excellent ray tracing performance. The PS5 Pro should only make them better without compromising for the sake of frame rates.
PSSR AI-driven upscaler is the most technical software trick of the PS5 Pro features. It’s similar to Nvidia’s popular DLSS feature on PCs, and is a post-processing asset that helps achieve higher frame rates at high resolutions. The standard PS5 uses more conventional anti-aliasing, while the PS5 Pro will use machine learning to measure things based on what’s actively rendered on your screen. It’s one of those things that works in the background to fix small details.
Another way the PS5 Pro should be better than the current PS5 is its support for Wi-Fi 7 (the PS5 had Wi-Fi 6, and didn’t even get to 6E when the Slim came out). That might help download big games to the Pro’s 2TB internal SSD at faster speeds, but only if your home network supports Wi-Fi 7 — which most people don’t yet because of the cost involved . It’s worth noting that this feature won’t help with Remote Play on the PlayStation Portal, as Sony’s one-trick pony handheld for console streaming is limited to Wi-Fi. 5.
Physical hardware differences (what we know so far)
Outside of the new GPU and the remixed cooling system it will require, the biggest physical differences with the PS5 Pro are its design and the absence of a disc drive. The Pro will be tall and long like the original PS5, but with the thinness of the revised Slim model. It has a new design element with fins on the sides that cut into its removable plates (for which Sony will sell customizable replacements later). Personally, I think it’s still pretty ugly, and I’m afraid that Sony’s refusal to display the front of the console in horizontal orientation means that there’s another weird trick planned to let it rest on its side. Slim used silly looking little legs like a pizza saver to keep it balanced. I don’t want the more expensive Pro to do that either.
The lack of a disc drive can be solved by buying the same $79.99 modular drive that Sony already sells for the PS5 slim. So instead of having the option for buying a PS5 Pro with or without a disc drive (the practice that Sony started with the very first PS5 at launch), you’ll just be left high and dry to get your own. It’s fair to assume that a “pro” console needs all the bells and whistles, including physical media that some diehards may prefer, but this could be just the beginning of a digital-only future for the next generation. of consoles. At least the M.2 slot is retained on the Pro, for adding faster storage.
Another bit of dynamic I/O on the PS5 consoles are the USB ports, which on the PS5 Pro continue the slow march towards almost full USB-C. Here’s a simple breakdown of the USB ports on all three PlayStation 5 consoles since launch:
- PlayStation 5 (original): One USB-C and one USB-A on the front / Two USB-A on the back
- PS5 (slim): Two USB-C front / Two USB-A rear
- PS5 Pro: Two USB-C front / One USB-C and one USB-A rear
So you still get four USB ports in total on the PS5 Pro (thankfully) and most of them are USB-C. We don’t know how fast each of them is on the Pro, but considering both the original PS5 and the slim have three SuperSpeed 10Gbps ports and one slower port, it’s probably a safe bet the Pro will follow suit.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the controllers. The PS5 Pro will ship with the same old white DualSense controller, complete with its potentiometer-based analog sticks that can develop drift over time. The Pro was a great opportunity for the DualSense to switch to drift-free Hall effect sticks, but no such luck.
Who is the PlayStation 5 Pro for?
This is the second console generation with a mid-cycle “Pro” model release, and while the PS4 Pro seems to have been generally well-received in 2016, let’s not forget that it launched at the original PS4 price of $400 plus of a cheaper slim model. The market is very different now, with the slim PS5 offering no price cut (apart from the occasional bundled game) and the PS5 Pro reaching a steep $700 (or $780 with add-on disc drive).
The PS5 Pro seems to be mostly for PlayStation superfans who can just buy it at almost any price. But there are other people who are looking for something they can just turn on and play — without messing with drivers or dealing with the configurations and costs of a gaming PC. For those people, the PS5 Pro sounds like a great choice, even if the cost might put them off at first.
