This will sound embarrassingly boastful (so apologies), but my current gaming PC could run rings around the rumored PS5 Pro. To be honest, my rig packs such a devastating GPU/CPU combo, it could probably beat the crap out of the eventual PS6.
The above paragraph no doubt makes me sound like one of those unbearable high-end PC snobs, and for that, I once again apologize. Even though my rig houses the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 and AMD’s incredible Ryzen 7 7800X3D gaming-focused CPU, I spend as much free time playing my Nintendo Switch OLED and Steam DeckE OLED on their pristine 720p screens as I do on a rig that can comfortably run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K/120 fps without breaking a sweat.
The point being? Whether you play at lower resolutions or in Ultra HD, there are so many great gaming devices out there in 2023 that you'll have a blast whether you go down the console, handheld or high-end PC route.
Going back to that first option, though, that’s probably the one platform some gamers are thirsting for more from. Especially on the PlayStation side of the equation.
The PS5 Slim and PS Portal may only just have launched, but the real hardware many hardcore PlayStation fans are pining for is the PS5 Pro.
Microsoft is so tied to its commitment of delivering Xbox Game Pass experiences across multiple devices, manufacturing cutting edge consoles no longer seems like a huge priority for the House that Bill Built. Flip to Sony, though, and that’s certainly doesn't appear to be the case.
The PS5 Slim and surprisingly successful PlayStation Portal may only just have launched, but the real piece of kit many hardcore PlayStation fans are really pining for is the PS5 Pro. And speaking frankly as someone who loves playing titles on one of the best gaming PCs in the world, I think we need the rumored PS5 Pro. Yesterday.
It's time to go Pro
For some added context, the PS4 Pro launched roughly three years after the OG PS4. When it comes to this console generation, the rumored PS5 Pro is already late to the party compared to how quickly Sony got a more powerful, refreshed PlayStation out into the market a generation ago.
Don’t get me wrong: The PS5 is an awesome console. Yet it could probably do with a hardware upgrade, considering the future of video game tech is squarely pointed at Unreal Engine 5. The likes of Lego Fortnite, adorable indie rock climbing puzzler Jusant, Layers of Fear and Lords of the Fallen have all used Epic Games’ pioneering tech this year, to varying degrees of success.
A reboot of the oft-forgotten 2014 game of the same name, Lords of the Fallen is a lovely looking title — well, “lovely” is probably pushing it when you consider its gothic word is teeming with gross monsters — but it certainly sports terrific lighting. It makes this brutal Soulslike one of the first console games to take advantage of Unreal 5’s Lumen features, which uses techniques like dynamic global illumination to make in-game lighting more realistic. And it works a treat.
The trouble is, all this luscious Unreal Engine 5 lighting comes at a price. And said price is predictably frame rate drops.
The trouble is, all this luscious lighting comes at a price; and said price is predictably frame rate drops. Even in its dedicated Performance modes on Xbox Series X and PS5, neither console come all that close to holding down a stable 60 fps in LotF. Hell, even before I treated myself to a PC upgrade, the combo of my RTX 4090 and aging Intel Core i5 12600K would dip below that magic number playing on the sensational Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED gaming monitor at a screen resolution of 3,440 x 1,400.
Ray tracing feels like the biggest deal in the world of gaming graphics tech since Sam Fisher and his beguiling real-time shadows knocked our collective socks off all the way back in 2002. But to fully get the most of this bewitching lighting technique without having to settle for 30 fps Quality modes, we need PS5 Pro.
Next-level power
YouTuber RedGamingTech has recently speculated Sony’s rumored upgraded console could get an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) that would come with machine learning-powered upscaling techniques. If true, this could take a bit of the workload off the PS5 Pro's updated silicon, with speculation that the new console’s CPU could also hit speeds “well over 3.6GHZ. For context, the processor in the PS5 runs at 2.2GHz. That potentially quite the bump in processing power.
The same YouTube source also claims PS5 Pro will pack in 23 teraflops, which if true, monsters PS5’s 10.28 Tflops and the 12 Tflops found in Xbox Series X. If these hardware upgrades prove to be correct, PS5 Pro has a much better chance at running the best PS5 games at 60 fps with full racing tracing features enabled.
The same YouTube source claims PS5 Pro will pack in 23 teraflops, which if true, monsters PS5’s 10.28 Tflops and Xbox Series X 12 Tflops"
It could also mean we may see more and more titles capable of hitting 120 frames per second on PS5 Pro, which is further bolstered by reports of Sony building its own version of Nvidia's DLSS. And trust me, coming from a high-end PC gamer, playing the likes of Forza Motorsport at 4K/120 fps is un-freaking-real.
As for how long we’ll have to wait from Sony’s refreshed console and all the Tflops it’s bringing to the table, you could be playing on the most powerful console ever in November 2024. Now that’s one Christmas gift this PlayStation fan would love to pull from (what would need to be an unreasonably large) stocking.
