Sony finally confirms the existence of the PS5 Pro by lifting the veil on the technical sheet of this more powerful PS5. The price is unsurprisingly much higher than the classic PS5 console.
It was during a technical presentation lasting more than 9 minutes that Mark Cerny, architect of the PS5, finally lifted the veil on the PlayStation 5 Pro. This more powerful version of the console released in 2020 has been the subject of numerous leaks and rumors since last year.
The new features include a technical sheet that strengthens its game with a much more powerful GPU part, faster memory, more efficient ray tracing and the arrival of a new upscaling technology, PSSR.
A revised and improved technical sheet
As was the case for the PS4 Pro, this PS5 Pro is an update focused on the console’s performance in games. We are obviously still on an AMD architecture, but brought up to date, with an emphasis on raw graphics power.
The console also gains support for Wi-Fi 7, compared to just Wi-Fi 6 for the 2020 PlayStation 5.
The performance promised by Sony
According to Mark Cerny, the goal is to offer a frequency of 60 images per second even in Fidelity mode, to benefit from 4K image quality without being stuck at 30 images per second.
It is on the graphics part that Sony has focused with a GPU which almost doubles its number of Compute Units (+67%) for an announced rendering 45% faster.
With this new GPU, the PS5 Pro can ensure better performance, better stability in games, and above all almost tripled performance on the ray tracing part . Mark Cerny thus took the example of games like Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart , Hogwart’s Legacy or Spider-Man 2 for their more realistic ray tracing rendering .
Other games like The Last of Us: Part II or Horizon Forbidden West will also benefit from the power of the PS5 Pro with volumetric effects, but also even more precise specular details (hair, foliage).
PSSR, intelligent upscaling for your games
It was also in this presentation that Mark Cerny finally detailed how his PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) technology works.
This is an upscaling and image reconstruction algorithm that can boost the performance of compatible PS5 games. In other words, it’s Sony’s answer to Nvidia’s DLSS, which is well-known to PC gamers.
The PSSR first renders graphics at low resolution before scaling them to your monitor or TV.
350 euros more than the classic PS5 in France
The PS5 Pro will be available on November 7, 2024 at a price of 799 euros . In this version, the console includes 2 TB of storage, but no disc reader , which must be purchased separately (for around 120 euros at Boulanger ).
That’s 350 euros more than Sony’s asking price for its PlayStation 5 Digital Edition , which also lacks a disc drive, or 250 euros more than the regular PlayStation 5 with a disc drive.
For comparison, for the price of a PlayStation 5 Pro, you can therefore afford a PlayStation 5 Digital Edition with a Steam Deck as an extra.
The bill is very steep, especially for a console that targets dematerialized gaming. Will players be willing to pay such a premium for a better frame rate and improved image quality?