Following months of waiting and relying heavily on rumors and leaks, players have finally received some solid news on the PlayStation 5 Pro. In a PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation, the lead, Mark Cerny, confirmed some details regarding the PS5 Pro. During this, he highlighted key details about the upgraded console, including its release date, price, specs, and more!
The presentation continued for nearly ten minutes, allowing players to get a good look at the console’s design and features. While the console won’t be an entire generational jump, it will still introduce vital enhancements to the PS5 gaming experience. Continuing the mission of the current PlayStation 5 and its Slim variant, prepare to feast your eyes on the PS5 Pro beast!
When Is The PS5 Pro Coming Out?
According to the PlayStation blog and PlayStation’s PS5 Pro Technical Presentation, the PS5 Pro release date is set to be November 7, 2024. However, players can pre-order the upcoming console from September 26 onwards from the official PlayStation Store. It’s arriving on time for the holidays, and who knows, maybe there will be some Black Friday discounts you can get.
It’s worth noting that this official release date is for both USA and UK players, so they can pre-order and get their hands on the upcoming system on the mentioned dates. Sony PS5 Pro has managed to rack up tons of attention from console enthusiasts and PlayStation players. Therefore, there isn’t much wait left before players can start exploring the new PS5 Pro.
Specs
Sony offered an in-depth look into the enhancements and features that will be featured in the all-new PlayStation Pro. It’s set to feature a GPU that will contain 67% more computing units than the graphics processing unit in the regular PlayStation 5 console. The system will also have 28% quicker memory, so players can expect a faster and smoother gameplay experience.
While the current PlayStation 5 can support ray tracing in certain games, the quality hasn’t been that great generally, especially when you compare it to a high-quality PC. On the other hand, the PlayStation 5 Pro offers highly advanced ray-tracing techniques. This is a powerful technique to reflect and refract light, allowing the rays to be cast at double or triple the speed of the PS5.
Upscaling
Sony has claimed that the PS5 will enable “45% faster rendering for gameplay” with the help of this technique. One other major change coming soon to the PlayStation 5 Pro is something called upscaling. It utilizes artificial intelligence in order to develop images in much more detail and lighting effects without requiring any raw performance. It’s shaping up to be a great system!
The brand-new PS5 Pro also features Game Boost, designed to stabilize or enhance the performance of over 8,500 backward-compatible PlayStation 4 games to become playable on the upcoming console. With the help of Enhanced Image Quality, the resolution of specific PS4 video games will significantly increase. Pro is also set to support both VRR and 8K gaming.
The PlayStation blog claims that the team at Sony “developed PS5 Pro with deeply engaged players and game creators in mind.” The PS5 Pro promises AI-Driven Unspaling, famously called the PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, which uses machine learning in such a way that it sharpens images and enhances their clarity since Sony promised an “extraordinary amount of detail.” The main goal of the system is to enhance gaming performance greatly.
Mark Cerny also explained that another crucial goal of the all-new system is to stop players from choosing between a “Performance” and “Fidelity” mode since this is quite common in the majority of the top PlayStation 5 video games. Instead of this, the PS5 Pro is set to offer players the best performance, ensuring an exciting and amazing experience for the console players.
PS5 Pro Rumors
For the last couple of months, the PlayStation gaming community has been trying its best to catch up on rumors and leaks to get some details regarding the PlayStation 5 Pro. These rumors were both about the PS5 Controller Pro, the console, and its features. In December 2023, a full list of the rumored console’s specs was leaked and circulating all over the internet.
It claimed that the PS5 Pro would introduce a CPU that’s exactly similar to the original PS5, but the Pro might feature a “High CPU Frequency Mode.” This would allow a 10% increase in the CPU’s performance, but it would result in a 1% decline in the GPU performance. Similarly, many other rumors have come out in the last few months, ranging from its design to its performance.
Price
Moving on to the news that sent many people down a spiral of sadness and disappointment regarding the upcoming console’s price tag. The PlayStation 5 Pro costs $699.99 USD, €799.99 EUR, and £699.99 GBP. This is $200 more than how much the original PS5 console during its launch in 2020. The cherry on top is that the system doesn’t even feature a disk drive.
However, Sony has confirmed that it’ll be sold separately, so players can purchase it if they want. The entire package includes a DualSense Wireless PS5 Pro controller, a 2TB SSD, and a pre-installed Astro’s Playroom copy. In addition to this, if you wish to make your PS5 Pro stand up vertically on a shelf, you’ll be required to spend an extra $25 for an individual vertical stand.
This means that compared to the regular PlayStation 5, players are looking at quite a heavy investment to get a much more powerful system. The PS5 Pro promises an enhanced and smoother gaming experience as well as quicker and more stable frame rates. The PS5 Pro GPU has increased considerably in size, so it seems like the system might be worth the money.
PS5 Pro Enhanced Games
In addition to the PS5 Pro design and features, Sony also released a brief list of video games that are scheduled to get free enhanced patches to test out the console and fully utilize the console’s graphical and performance features. While the list is short, players can’t wait to try it out. Following is a list of all of the games that’ll be introduced with a “PS5 Pro Enhanced” label:
- Alan Wake 2
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows
- Demon’s Souls
- Dragon’s Dogma II
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- Gran Turismo 7
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- The Crew Motorfest
- The First Descendant
- The Last of Us Part II Remastered
PS5 Pro vs PS5
It seems like the PlayStation 5 is a huge upgrade from the original PlayStation 5 console. It features 67% more Compute Units, 45% more rendering power, and 28% faster memory. Pro will enhance your game’s fidelity with higher framerates, owing to its advanced ray tracing techniques and AI upscaling. All this made possible through the PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution software.
In the same blog, Sony has also clearly outlined how the PS5 and PS5 Pro differ from each other. For example, the soon-to-launch console will introduce Game Boost, bringing over 8,500 video games from the PlayStation 4 back catalog. It also introduces WiFi 7, whereas the PS5 only features WiFi 6. The PS5 Pro wins against the PlayStation 5 when it comes to storage.
The original version came out with 825GB of space, whereas the PS5 Pro will receive a 2TB SSD once it officially releases in November. Since Sony hasn’t mentioned anything about the console’s memory or upgraded CPU features, it’s safe to assume that the PS5 Pro might use the same AMD Zen 2 system and 16GB top-speed RAM. PS5 Pro seems to be winning so far!
In addition to performance, the new console also went through some design changes. It received some grill all the way through the console’s middle to make it visually appealing. The blog claims that the “height is the same size as the original PS5, and the width is the same size as the current PS5 model.” This means PS5 Pro is set to be taller but also skinnier than PS5.
Will The PS5 Pro Be More Powerful Than PC?
Consoles have always had the upper hand in the argument of console vs PC in terms of price efficiency. The PS5 continued to support this trend with a price of $500. Because it’s impossible to make a PC that gets you the performance of the PS5 in that price range. However, with the PS5 Pro and its whopping $700 price tag, that might not be true anymore.
$700 is a lot for a console, and there is a clear difference between a console and building a PC. However, the PS5 Pro still holds the upper hand. The new updated GPU on the new console is similar to the desktop GPU AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT. It has an MSRP of $475. To pair with this GPU, you’ll also need an Intel 12th or 13th gen processor.
Getting this combo, along with the motherboard, memory, storage, and PSU, will put you above the $700 mark. We also need to consider the PS5 Pro’s updated ray-tracing performance, which is much better than the RX 7800 XT. Lastly, the PS5 Pro also has a 2 TB 5.5 GBPS SSD, which, if you try to replicate in your PC, you just won’t be able to do it under $700.
To summarize it all, the gap is still there between console and PC gaming. The PS5 Pro still gives you better value per dollar in terms of hardware. So, if you don’t mind paying a little for online playing privileges, you should go for the PS5 Pro.
Conclusion
That’s all there is to know about the eagerly awaited PlayStation system. Nearly after months of depending on rumors to get our daily fix of PlayStation 5 Pro news, we’ve finally gotten an official look and details regarding the upcoming powerful system. While there have been mixed feelings about it generally, its upgrades will enhance the gaming experience by a whole lot.
It’s great to know that players won’t have to choose between a “Performance” and “Fidelity” mode anymore. However, the $699 price tag has disappointed many players. Especially since it won’t include valuable things like a disc drive and a vertical stand. We’ll have to wait and see how the console works once it comes out in November!