Sony recently set the internet ablaze with the announcement that the PlayStation 5 Pro is indeed a thing that is happening and its launch is imminent. Mark Cerny, renowned video game designer, developer, and lead on several consoles, including the PS4 and 5, popped on a livestream to walk us through the salient talking points of the new console.
But more importantly, he put us on notice to start saving our coins for the $700 Pro series console. Yes, you read that right, the PS5 Pro starts at $700. That’s $200 more than the OG PS5 when it launched back in 2020. Apparently, Sony isn’t in the mood to take a loss on the PS5 Pro, as its predecessor, the PS4 Pro launched at the same price as the PS4. But times and markets change and like rapper Fat Joe says, “yesterday’s price is not today’s price.” So what makes the PS5 Pro worth the 40% price hike and who exactly is this thing for?
PS5 Pro: Design
New console, new look
There difference in consoles is apparent when you look at the PS5 and PS5 Pro. Yes, the latter looks every bit the futuristic architectural marvel that its predecessor does. But there are a few design differences. First, you’ve got the trio of glossy black stripes running along the sides and rear of the console, breaking up the monotony of the white matte plastic cover. Hopefully, PlayStation has some plans for some swappable covers as I’d love to see this thing decked out in PlayStation Blue or maybe a neon pink.
Color schemes aside, the other big design change might signal the age of an era of gaming that a lot of us have seen coming. Just like the PS5 Slim, the Pro doesn’t come with a physical disk drive. And yes, I am completely aware that you can buy the drive separately to the tune of $80, bringing the grand total of this venture to $780 or $849 if you live in New York City. But man, it just seems like sort of a rip to not include the disk drive in the initial offering. You can price gouge us on the various game bundles Sony, but don’t penny and dime us like this.
Even though I don’t have a physical copy of a PS5 game to my name, my OG PS5 has the disk drive, because just in case. Who am I kidding? Game studios haven’t sent a physical copy of a game since the middle portion of the PS4’s lifecycle. But as I look my collection of games spanning back to a little beyond the PS1 and into the Nintendo GameCube, there’s a nostalgia factor that I can’t deny. The ability to physically hold my game seems so insignificant, but knowing I can’t do that with the PS5 or the Xbox Series X or even my PC title, it all feels a little sad.
But as wax nostalgic on physical disks’ swansong, I also remember the New Mexico landfill where Atari buried copies of its stinker of a cash grab, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” with some other technological bric-a-brac turned pollution. It’s then I think I’m turning into the proverbial old woman who screams at clouds and am ready to let the disk drive fade peacefully into history’s annals. Especially since, even with the disk, you’ll still have to download an inordinate amount of data before you can start gaming.
That stated. Unless you’re really passionate about physical copies or just want it for nostalgia’s sake, I’d forgo the disk drive. That money could be better spent on an actual game.
PS5 Pro: Specs
More storage, better performance
During his presentation, Cerny threw a couple of important specs and percentages at us regarding the PS5 Pro’s superiority over its ancestor. Cerny declared that the Pro’s GPU will have 67% more compute units (CU) than the PS5 GPU. CNET puts the Pro’s CU at 60 which, if true, slightly edges out the Xbox Series X’s 56 CUs. The memory will be about 28% faster, with approximately 45% faster rendering. What does all that mean? For gamers, it means that your console will finally have the ability to run games at 4K resolution at 60 frames per second –– something the PC Master Race will tell you is old hat. But on certain games, the frame rate can hit 120 fps.
And while 4K / 60 fps is all well and good, Sony’s built a bit of future-proofing into the PS5 Pro, allowing the console to play games in 8K. Hopefully, that’s a sign that 8K TVs will start becoming more available and affordable sooner than later. But in lieu of 8K gaming, the Pro will bring advanced ray tracing to console gaming. Coupled with the faster rendering, this means that pretty games will get prettier, with sharper details, more precise reflections and lighting effects. During Cerny’s presentation, we saw a few examples of this in side-by-side shots of “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart” and “Horizon Forbidden West.” Although I’m curious to see this up close.
However, what PS5 gamers will appreciate is not having to choose between frame rates and image quality. Currently, most PS5 titles make gamers choose between Fidelity and Performance modes, effectively tossing out either smooth, consistent frame rates or gorgeous water and lighting effects. All of that goes buh bye with the PS5 Pro. Instead, the Pro will combine the two modes at least for 4K. While there’s no word on how this will work in an 8K situation, I can’t imagine achieving the higher resolution won’t be even more taxing than 4K. And boom! Here comes Performance and Fidelity modes, part deux.
Finally more storage. The Pro will ship with 2TB of onboard storage, doubling the console’s usual 1TB. However, Cerny made no mention of what kind of SSD, the Pro will use. That means there’s no way currently to determine if gamers will have faster game loading speeds or if it will be business as usual. The Pro will have the same 16GB of unified memory as the PS5, only the RAM speed in the Pro will be slightly faster.
Something Cerny was decidedly mum about is the CPU. That leads me to assume, that the Pro will have the same 3.5-GHz Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 processor as its predecessor. Which is fine, but a clock speed boost, never hurt anybody.
PS5 Pro: Software Magic
Sony’s taking a page out of Nvidia’s playbook
I talked briefly about ray tracing and how the PS5 Pro is supposed to do a better job of bringing the technology that allows for those damn-near photo-realistic vistas we’ve come to expect from games. Although AMD has its version of ray tracing, but so far, it hasn’t really been on a par with Nvidia’s technology. And that’s double for console compared to PC. But a bigger GPU will help bring some of that ray tracing goodness to the Pro as seen during the presentation.
Speaking of Team Green, Sony is taking a few moves from Nvidia with its new PSSR (PlayStation Spacial Super Resolution) technology. Designed for upscaling resolution, PSSR uses an AI algorithm to fill in missing pixels without sacrificing performance. It’s very similar to Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) or even AMD’s FSR (Fidelity Super Resolution) which on PC games has produced higher frame rates on even the most taxing games without introducing any image stuttering. It’s definitely a better method than the PS5’s checkerboard upscaling that more often than not introduced a hit to fidelity.
But again, I can’t wait to see this in action. Because while I don’t believe for a second the Pro can match PC performance, I’ll take any bump to performance and visuals that I can take.
PS5 Pro: Who’s it for?
It’s not for everybody
So just who is the PlayStation 5 Pro’s target audience. Honestly, it’s not for most of us. Especially those of us who already have a PS5 or even a PS5 Slim in the home. As it stands, both iterations of the console are more than adequate at running games and making them look spectacular. I currently have my PS5 hooked up to my Sony Bravia XR-65A80L and my jaw still drops on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. And the Slim looks just as good hooked up to my Alienware 55 OLED Gaming Monitor.
I say all this, knowing that I’m going to give Sony nearly $800 of my hard-earned cash. Why? It’s simple, I’m a collector and as long as Sony and Microsoft has done it, I’ve purchased each iteration of the console’s lifecycle. Is it financially prudent? Absolutely not, but I consider myself somewhat of a collector and although it’s a stop gap until the PS6, I’ll take it.
But for everyone else, unless you’ve yet to snag a PS5 in any of its iterations, or you want your console games to look as good as possible, the PS5 Pro is not for you. But for the power hungry collectors out there, November 7 is coming, start saving your coins now.
