The PS5 Pro is finally official. It was announced during a special online presentation during which the console's lead architect, Mark Cerny, detailed the hardware, some games and features.
It'll be priced at £699.99 / $699.99 / €799.99 / AUD$1,200 and available from 7 November 2024.
Sony has finally lifted the covers on its mid-generation console refresh, the PS5 Pro, and as expected it'll be the most powerful console yet.
Announced as part of a technical presentation hosted by lead architect Mark Cerny, the new machine is much more powerful than the existing PlayStation 5.
Its graphics processor boasts 67% more compute units, RAM that runs up to 28% faster, and is capable of rendering up to 45% times faster. Ray tracing support can also run two and even three-times faster than on the PS5.
This results in a machine that, as Cerny states, is capable of bridging the gap between fidelity and performance modes in games – giving you the best of both worlds, so to speak.
Games with run with maximum fidelity, resolution and details, he claims, but with higher frame rates – 60 and even 120fps in some cases. That's also thanks to PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), which uses AI to map the graphics in real time and upscale the resolution without sapping power for other processes.
Anyone who has seen a game running on a PC with Nvidia's DLSS active will know what to expect.
Developers have been converting existing games, while also working on future titles that will be upgraded to make use of the PS5 Pro's extra power.
Games like Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Gran Turismo 7 will feature improved performance on the new console, including ray traced reflections and shadows (where needed), as well as 4K visuals and 60 frames per second. There are plenty of other games that were highlighted in the nine-minute presentation too.
Another added benefit for legacy games is that the performance on thousands of them can theoretically be improved through a PS5 Pro Game Boost feature. It works similarly to the boost mode on PS4 Pro and can enhance PS4 games as well as many PS5 titles (ie. make the frame rates more stable and upscale resolution, that sort of thing).
It's all very exciting stuff.
However, as Spider-Man himself (almost) said: "With great power comes great... expense". The PS5 Pro will be available from 7 November 2024 at the eye-wateringly high price of £699.99 / $699.99 / €799.99 / AUD$1,200.
And that's for a digital-only console – you have to buy a UHD drive separately, should you need it. At least it's compatible with the existing Disc Drive released at the same time as the current PS5 model.
You also get a 2TB SSD preinstalled, so that's more than double the capacity in the original PlayStation 5. Still, it's time to get saving.
