With any luck — and the good graces of Sony’s Mark “Even” Cerny — this will hopefully be the last time I ever write about the PS5 Pro from a speculative standpoint. It’s widely reported that Sony’s long-rumored console could be revealed within the next week. At this point, I just want the Japanese giant to make the announcement to quiet down that impatient kid inside me.
Not that said inner child is all that hyped for the concept of PS5 Pro at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I like a mid-generation hardware upgrade as much as the next forward-looking gamer. I pre-ordered a PS4 Pro pretty much as soon as it was announced all the way back in September 2016, after all.
The difference this time out, though? The upgraded PS4 had a key selling point that could be easily marketed; one that I’m just not seeing with the rumored PS5 Pro... yet.
The fact the PS4 Pro was the first PlayStation on the market to support 4K gaming made it an incredibly easy sell to this OLED TV obsessive. Back in 2016, I owned an LG E6 OLED, which was a brilliant TV for its day. The trouble is, when I first bought it, I had no hardware to test out its 4K capabilities.
That all changed when the PS4 Pro entered my living room for the first time. I still have fond memories of booting up The Last of Us Remastered in 4K “Quality” mode and being floored at the sheer visual clarity of Joel and Ellie’s post-apocalyptic adventure.
If you asked me this second if the PS5 Pro is likely to have such a feature that’s going to draw me in as quickly as its predecessor, I’d be surprised. As much as I love graphics tech, “it has a better APU” isn’t going to suddenly make me tell Sony “shut up and take my money!”
The Pro leagues
At time of writing, there’s speculation out there that the PS5 Pro will get a huge GPU upgrade over the PS5. If a high-profile X user’s information is accurate, the Pro will deliver a graphics solution that’s roughly on par power-wise as AMD’s Radeon 7700 XT or Nvidia’s RTX 4060 Ti GPUs.
As much as I love graphics tech, 'it has a better APU' isn’t going to suddenly make me tell Sony 'shut up and take my money!'
That’s all fine and dandy, and certainly a big jump compared to the Radeon RX 5700-ish output of the PS5 and PS5 Slim. Normally such a potential boost would be enough for a graphics card enthusiast like me to hop on the hype choo-choo. The trouble is, when you’re accustomed to using one of the best gaming PCs, it’s increasingly hard to get excited about improved in-game resolutions or slightly speedier frame rates. For context, I own an RTX 4090, which I realize is a privilege.
I understand (and love) the inherent appeal of consoles. The “they just work” argument is entirely merited. And it’s one I can easily get behind, seeing as I have a bunch of screwdrivers constantly on standby should my gaming rig decide to go “Blue Screen of Death” on me at a moment’s notice.
Also, the best PS5 games still look damn good to me. I’m currently playing through Star Wars Outlaws, and not only is it my biggest gaming surprise of the year, it’s also really easy on the eyes in its “Favour Quality (40 fps)” mode.
On that frame rate front, with 60 fps mainly becoming the default standard this generation for both PS5 and Xbox Series X, the need for a console that can support more games at 120 fps doesn’t exactly feel essential. Even someone who obsesses over frame rates in the best PC games as much as I do will be the first to say the difference between 120 fps and 60 fps is nowhere near as wide in terms of how a game feels in your hands compared to the jump in quality 60 fps gives you over 30 fps.
Will I buy the PS5 Pro if (more likely “when”) it’s announced? My track record suggests I will, but right now I'm not convinced.
Hopefully, Sony’s reported “PSSR” super sampling can get me hyped if the feature comes to fruition — the idea of a console-level equivalent of Nvidia DLSS is admittedly mouth-watering. And if the company can deliver the Pro at under $550, it might convince me to pry my wallet open.
