PlayStation 5 Pro Review
The PlayStation 5 Pro seems like it should be more exciting than it actually is. It’s without question the most powerful console you can buy right now, and the enhanced games I’ve been able to play ahead of launch do look great and run much more smoothly than the standard PlayStation 5 can handle thanks to some upgraded hardware and impressive upscaling tech. But it’s also completely unsurprising that the faster PS5 is, well, faster – and it’s also more expensive. Considering that the original PS5 can still provide enough power to run games competently, spending $700 means you have to really want the best of the best from your games to make the Pro a worthy investment.
Considering its price, you’ll be disappointed to find that the PS5 Pro does not come with every possible bell and whistle. It does pack in a standard DualSense, but there’s no vertical stand included, and if you’re the type who has a library of physical games, be ready to shell out an extra $80 for a Blu-ray disc drive to install yourself. If you feel like Sony is trying to nickel and dime you on top of the $700 price tag, I’m not going to argue against you.
Physically, it’s a pretty sleek console (relative to the enormous launch PS5) and it largely takes after the design principles of the slim model. The only major difference is that it’s taller (when vertical), which is accounted for by the fins in the middle that create a cross-section on the console. It helps make room for the more robust internal components to breathe, but doesn’t add much bulk to the existing slim design. It’s also not noticeably louder than the original PS5, so you don’t need to worry about it sounding like a jet engine when your games get intense. As far as thermals go, the PS5 Pro runs roughly the same temperature as the base PS5 under load, hovering around 35 to 40 degrees celsius from the rear exhaust based on our thermal imaging tests.
PlayStation 5 Pro – Technical Details
It’s a bit striking how little has changed from the original PS5 on the spec sheet. The Pro comes with a 2TB NVMe SSD, which is twice as large but the same speed as the original super-fast storage drive. That addresses one of the main complaints about the launch PS5, which is that 1TB goes very quickly when you’re installing games that take upwards of 100GBs at a time. (For context, an extra 1TB in the form of an aftermarket SSD would run you around $100 if you want the same storage for a base PS5, which sweetens the deal when looking at the price difference between the PS5 and PS5 Pro.)
The big upgrade, though, is in the GPU rated at 16.7 TFLOPs which is a sizeable jump on paper from the 10.3 TFLOPs of the original: Sony says the Pro packs 67% more compute units and onboard memory that’s 28% faster, resulting in up to 45% better performance. Without context, those numbers don’t really mean much, but the details in my testing prove that they amount to a lot more than empty marketing promises.
The important feature that these upgraded specs support, specifically, is PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). Much like Nvidia’s DLSS, this is Sony and AMD’s AI-driven upscaling technology that uses machine learning to construct images that can appear with a quality close to full 4K resolution without having to stress the system’s hardware to generate that detail through raw processing power. Granted, it won’t be exactly the same as native 4K since it’s scaling from a lower base resolution, but it doesn’t have to since you’re not going to be putting it side-by-side with the real thing, and the vast majority of people aren’t going to be able to tell the difference in most cases – especially while they’re enjoying the higher frame rates and visual effects this technique affords.
It’s nice to see that Sony is moving away from chasing raw computing power as the end-all-be-all of console tech, and as upscaling continues to advance, so too will its implementation in games. As you’ll see in our performance breakdown, PSSR is one of the major keys in creating parity between performance and quality options. It also opens the door for games to explore ray tracing techniques to a greater extent, although mileage will vary based on every game’s PS5 Pro-specific updates, where developers will choose to prioritize different aspects of their respective games. So, the PS5 Pro is a bit more complex than simply having one uncompromised Pro-enhanced mode.
PlayStation 5 Pro – Gaming Performance
The PS5 Pro’s tech gives developers room to be experimental in pushing boundaries, especially with ray tracing, because it packs enough power to hit higher frame rates without sacrificing as much graphical fidelity. There’s still some level of compromise to be made, though, so if you were hoping that the Pro would take all of the FOMO stress out of selecting between 60fps performance or 30fps fidelity modes, there’s some bad news: in some games, now there are even more modes to choose from. Alternatively, if you love having more control over how your games run, that’s great news! In my experience, though, the visual gap between these modes is much smaller than it is on PS5, often making the Pro’s performance-centric modes the clear choice.
Let’s start with a marquee PlayStation first-party game, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. On PS5 Pro, you get to choose between “Fidelity Pro” and “Performance Pro” modes. The latter offers visual quality that’s identical to the base PS5’s Fidelity mode, with all the original ray tracing features intact while maintaining a smooth 60fps – effectively the best of both worlds when compared to the PS5’s modes. However, with the Fidelity Pro option, Insomniac cranked the knobs even further, putting features like ray-traced ambient occlusion, key light shadows, and further-improved reflections on the table – but all those upgrades come at the cost of again being chained down to 30fps. You can tweak some of these settings to squeeze out a few extra frames, but I wasn’t able to reach anything near 60fps even when turning everything down a notch.
Horizon Forbidden West showcases another interesting implementation of PS5 Pro enhancements. Like on the base PS5, it has three options – “Favor Graphics,” “Balanced,” and “Favor Performance.” Again, the performance-based mode is the way to go since it hits a stable 60fps while, in some respects, looking even better than the base PS5’s graphics-priority mode. You get finer details in foliage, better lighting, and a better resolution rendering technique. Especially for a game like Horizon Forbidden West, those extra frames make the gameplay experience so much better and you can still enjoy the lush vistas with that added clarity and detail. The PS5 Pro’s graphics priority option, on the other hand, caps the game at 30fps but pushes the boundaries with a higher base resolution and further enhanced effects, yet I don’t find the trade-off worth it since it’s tough to distinguish with the fantastic Pro performance mode. The curious part is the “Balanced” option, which goes for 40fps and strikes a middle ground with visual quality, but honestly, it’s not worth the cut in frame rate for marginal visual gains.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered takes a different angle as well. It retains the same exact two options available from the base PS5: graphics or performance priority – since you can unlock the frame rate, you’ll have room to get something out of the system’s 120Hz capabilities if your display supports the high refresh rate. But there’s a new “Pro” option that uses PSSR to take a 1440p resolution to output 4K while retaining other visual qualities of the PS5’s graphics mode and still hitting a consistent 60fps. It was already a visually impressive remaster on PS5, but the boost in performance while having all of its graphical details sing is nice.
Of all the games that have gotten PS5 Pro updates ahead of launch, Alan Wake 2 is certainly the most interesting one. Remedy decided to go all-in on ray tracing with its Quality mode and it’s absolutely stunning, with robust reflections and lighting giving its world a much more striking look, especially in the way it feeds into its atmosphere. The Pro enhancements stretch the limits of what PSSR is capable of, however. In graphics mode, it uses a base resolution of 1224p and runs at 30fps to make room for all the ray tracing techniques. You won’t get those big ray-traced features in Performance mode, but it will target 60fps with an image quality akin to the Quality mode on the base PS5. It has to use a fairly low base resolution of 864p to get there, though – it’s still a great-looking game in this mode, although it definitely results in a blurrier image. Regardless, I find that the Pro update for Alan Wake 2 shows a noticeable improvement over what you get from the base PS5, even if there are still compromises to be made.
When there’s a new powerful console, there’s always a racing game to flex the hardware. Taking speedy race cars down the track in EA Sports F1 24 provides a pretty clear example of what ray tracing can do. When looking at the Pro-enhanced quality mode and the base PS5’s quality mode, it’s easy to pick up on the improvements in reflections and lighting, especially on rain-soaked tracks – and the Pro is able to do this by using PSSR to still target 60fps.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an example of where the PS5 Pro can bring a game out of the depths of weak technical performance to a much more playable state. By using PSSR, the Pro is able to put out noticeably higher and more consistent frame rates than the base console can whether you choose to prioritize performance or graphics which enables ray tracing too – though not without noticeable drops in busy areas. It’s a powerful console, but it’s not magic.
On the other hand, something like Final Fantasy XVI is an example of how a game without Pro-enhancements – or at least an uncapped framerate option to just let the extra power work – isn’t going to benefit in a tangible way without an update, since it’s bound by the limitations that were built for its graphics modes. It’s still capped at 30fps, while the Performance mode still targets 60fps with lesser visual quality.
PlayStation 5 Pro – Is It Worth It?
That was a ton of technical information, and highlights just a handful of games that are utilizing the new console’s power. But despite all those enhancements, the question still stands: is it actually worth buying a PS5 Pro? Frustratingly, the answer is always going to be “It depends on you.” As someone who has been a sucker for upgrading to new generations of high-end graphics cards to push my PC to its limits, the PS5 Pro scratches that old itch because I do notice and appreciate the differences it provides. The visual quality that the Pro-enhanced performance modes have thus far look fantastic, and it’s all the more enticing because hitting 60fps gives a smooth gameplay experience that’s tough to come back from. I’ve also found performance modes on the base PS5 to be lackluster in some cases, and since the Pro has shown the potential in addressing that shortcoming, I find that the new console can be a worthy investment.
There are a few games out there now that make a Pro a more enticing prospect. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s performance mode on base PS5 feels too compromising to me since in-engine cutscenes with panning shots of expansive landscapes and close-ups on characters during pivotal moments looked muddled at 60fps. Thus, I bit the bullet and managed with 30fps gameplay so that I could get the visual experience that uplifted its storytelling qualities. It worked well enough for that sort of game, but I’d much rather have been playing at 60fps. With the Pro-enhancement patch, Rebirth has a new “Versatility” mode that merges both the high quality graphics setting with 60fps performance into a singular mode so there’s no choice paralysis. And it delivers the exact type of experience I wanted.
PS5 Pro Buying Guide
Looking to pick up a PS5 Pro? You can check out our guide on where to buy a PS5 Pro, Blu-ray disc drive, and vertical stand for details.
You can also check out our top PS5 accessory picks by category below:
That said, I know and can fully understand people who don’t care quite as much about having state-of-the-art systems to play their favorite games – so long as they meet a reasonable balance between performance and fidelity, which the original PS5 only rarely has a problem pulling off with existing games. And for a lot of people, playing at 30fps isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker, and if you’re happy with that level of performance you might well be happier with a few hundred dollars still in your bank account.
And the Pro is a hard sell for anybody who expects a whole new experience when they unbox a brand-new console. The PS5 Pro doesn’t fundamentally transform how games are played, it just makes them look prettier and run smoother, and if you’re happy with how your games look and play on a base PS5 then it’s absolutely not worth paying a premium to upgrade.
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