The PS5 Pro has officially been announced, so here’s the comparison with its predecessor that you have been so eagerly awaiting.
The successor to PlayStation’s next-gen console has been spoken about for a while. In fact, we’ve seen it tucked away in the background – literally – for the past few weeks. It was spotted hidden underneath a blanket in a Hideo Kojima photo and, most recently, spotted in a celebration promo post from the official PlayStation X/Twiter account.
At this year’s PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation, Mark Cerny revealed the vamped up model to a mixed reception. The specs look good, but the price is abysmal.
How do the specs compare between the PS5 and PS5 Pro?
The PS5 Pro climbs over the PS5’s technical capacity in a few ways, though the focal point is the distinct upgrade to the graphics card and ray tracing. To note, there’s a 67 percent increase in compute units, 28 percent faster RAM, and a ‘larger GPU’ – whatever that last bit means.
While the processor hasn’t seen a change in model, it will see a slight increase in frequency up to 3.85GHz from 3.5GHz. You’d expect this to infer an increase in power draw, though the console will modulate frequency depending on usage, meaning you’ll rarely need to increase the initial clock.
The memory bandwidth speed also sees an increase up to 576GB/s, a 28 percent increase over the original model’s 448GB/s.
| Specification | PS5 Pro | PS5 |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | AMD Integrated Zen 2 boosted to 3.85GHz | AMD Integrated Zen 2 |
| Graphics Card | RDNA 2 GPU | RDNA 2 GPU |
| Compute Units | 60 | 36 |
| VRAM | 16 | 16GB GDDR6 |
| Storage | 2TB SSD | 1TB SSD |
| Frame Rate | Up to 120fps | Up to 120fps |
| Disk Drive | Zilch | Actually has one |
| RAM | 13.7GB | 13.7GB |
The inclusion of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution is welcome, though it’s effectively just FSR repackaged. This is going to utilise AI upscaling to vastly enhance image resolution without driving a stake through the heart of the console.
Is the price increase worth it for the PS5 Pro?
The PS5 Pro’s price has been the biggest shock so far. Despite the welcome upgrade to the graphics processor, the console is going to cost nearly 40 percent more than the original at launch, $699. This price has already been ridiculed by prospective buyers, most of whom would be rather picking up the £$399 version of the base console, far better value for money.
So, no. The price increase of the PS5 Pro is far from worth it. We’d suggest thinking twice before pre-ordering it ahead of the actual launch in November.
The neatest thing about the PS5 Pro’s arrival is the improved games we’re going to be seeing. With enhanced ray tracing capabilities and the extra little smidge of graphics processing, developers are going to be able to test out the console’s upper limits without as much sacrifice.
There’s been a few, not many, games that have struggle with the PS5’s capabilities. The First Descendant and Final Fantasy 16, for example. With the PS5 Pro’s enhanced graphics card, these games will finally play out how the developers had originally intended. We also know that developers have been working with the Pro for a while now, so we can expect new games to launch in the coming weeks.
It’s important to note that we haven’t yet tested the PS5 Pro, so any judgements we make are solely based on the information we have access to.