As rumors about the PS5 Pro whipped up a frenzy during the summer, it seemed as though we had a winner on our hands. There was some excitement in the air, and the promise of a mid-generation refresh suggested a new phase in the PS5’s lifecycle. Then Mark Cerny’s presentation arrived.
Ever since, conversations about the upcoming PS5 Pro have focused on how outrageously expensive it is, and rightly so. Of course, there’s some attraction to PlayStation’s new upscaling tech from enthusiasts, but it wasn’t until the new 30th anniversary PlayStation collection announcement that I saw anyone being vocally excited about the PS5 Pro.
With all that in mind, and PS5 Pro pre-orders going live on Thursday, I find myself in a tricky situation. I’ve always been a fan of PlayStation, but I don’t know if I’m excited enough to set up camp on launch day to grab myself a new console. If you’re in a similar position and don’t know if the PS5 Pro is for you, I’m going to set out the biggest talking points and try to help you decide what to do.
The price
The first thing we need to consider is how much money you’ll need to splash down for an upgraded PS5. $699.99 / £699.99 is no small sum, particularly if you’re an existing PS5 owner who parted with $500 or more for a regular PS5 at launch.
Obviously, pre-orders will be dominated by those of us lucky to have that kind of sum sitting around, but I know plenty of PlayStation fans who might get that FOMO itch, telling them they need to save up and bag themselves the latest and greatest PlayStation. As someone who reviews gaming hardware for a living, I see two sides to this $700 coin.
I completely understand, and agree, that the PS5 Pro is too expensive. Based on previous launches, its price leap from the regular PS5 is higher than expected. I’m not sure if that price leap is justified, either, especially when that new vertical stand isn’t even included!
Let’s not forget that even as computing parts advance, consoles are supposed to be the more affordable and approachable alternative, so anything over $600 seems like it’s failing in that regard. The PS5 Pro’s price blurs the line between the gaming PC realm and consoles that are affordable for more people, so I understand the frustration.
Then, there’s the PC gamer in me. Reviewing computers and tracking their prices throughout the year, I do have to tell you that while your outrage is justified in the console market, $700 for a gaming PC with brand new frame generation technology inside it is exquisitely cheap. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sure any PC gamer would be better served by selling their rig to buy a PS5 Pro, but Sony has managed to keep the cost of the new Pro model down below the $800 mark that I’d expect entry-level gaming PCs to sit at.
Verdict: If a bigger GPU and more technical gaming performance interests you, I still wouldn’t really recommend the PS5 Pro at this price. At $700, I’d suggest that you keep saving, even a hundred or two more, and check out Black Friday gaming PC deals, which will likely get you even better performance for slightly more money.
The games
I bought a PS5 at launch, and while I’ve been a lifelong PlayStation fan, this is the first generation that feels like Sony’s really losing me. It’s not that I don’t like the PS5, or that I think it’s a bad system - in some ways, it's the best machine the brand has ever produced, and I’ve faced so few technical issues when it comes to the console’s hardware.
The reason I’ve been spending more time playing games on a PC this generation is because the games - the lifeblood of any video game console - have felt eerily lacking. Insomniac’s Spider-Men titles on PS5 have been excellent fun to zip through, but they’re over so quickly and feel like a minor advancement over 2018’s original. Demon Souls isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but it’s just one of many first-party exclusives from the PS5 era that’s a rehashing of something that came before. The Last of Us Part 1 and Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection may have their upgrades, but I didn’t buy the PS5 to be a remaster machine. Even my beloved Ratchet & Clank had a release that came and went, feeling like a flash in the pan that didn’t make my jaw drop with SSD usage like Mark Cerny promised.
God of War Ragnarok and Returnal are two saving graces for me that really stood out, but arguably Sony Santa Monica was held back like Guerilla Games was by Horizon: Forbidden West’s cross-generational release.
First-party exclusive games are arguably the reason that the PS4 so drastically outsold the Xbox One, and why so many people transferred over to PS5. With Mark Cerny’s PS5 Pro presentation, only older games were shown off, and even if I haven’t been a huge fan of Sony’s first-party output this generation, they’ve all played brilliantly on the regular PS5.
Verdict: The good news is that a State of Play is being held tonight, and with over 30 minutes of content to go through, I’m slightly hopeful that this is when the case will be made for the PS5 Pro’s existence. If we get updates on some fan-favorite franchises, maybe my mind will change, I’m just not convinced that the games so far on PS5 have warranted a beefier console.
Technical upgrades
In terms of raw specs, the PS5 Pro will boast beefier innards than the original model. To throw some percentages at you, the PS5 Pro will tout 45% faster rendering, 65% more compute units, and seemingly a 0% change in CPU power. From the looks of it, the PS5 Pro will use the same Zen 2 processor the normal PS5 does, which is an interesting architectural choice.
Perhaps the reason Mark Cerny’s team didn’t choose to upgrade the console’s processor or its RAM, is that PSSR will do most of its heavy lifting. This is Sony’s new AI upscaling technology which uses machine learning to output better gaming performance. This includes frame generation to up the smoothness of your experiences. We’ve seen the wonders this can produce on a PC or laptop, and it’s allowed lesser graphics cards like the RTX 4060 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 to be far more viable than entry-level graphics cards usually are.
The other upgrade to speak of is storage. The base model of the PS5 uses a 1TB SSD, while the new version will increase your allowance to 2TB. This is a nice touch for the money you pay, but it should be noted that upgrading the normal PS5’s storage with one of the best SSDs for PS5 is already possible, so it isn’t exactly a reason to upgrade.
The problem with all of these new specs isn’t that they aren’t worth the money, or that they aren’t impressive enough. I think the reason that they haven’t convinced the masses is that we haven’t seen their potential yet. Just how many frames of a difference can PSSR give us? Will the average player even notice the difference if there isn’t a Steam-like FPS counter in the corner of the screen? Will there be games coming in the future that actually need this boost in graphical power? There are a lot of questions left to answer, and if I was to invest $700, I’d want answers first.
Verdict: Based on the specs, there are some serious benefits to buying a PS5 Pro, especially thanks to PSSR, which could be a game changer for demanding titles. On the other hand, it’s harder to make a buying decision based on some controlled game demos from titles that came out over the last five years and run just fine on a base PS5.
Futureproofing
This is the main reason why I think buying a PS5 Pro might actually be viable. More and more video games are being developed with Nvidia DLSS or AMD FSR in mind, and if that’s the case now, that kind of technology could become a necessity or maybe even a minimum requirement in a few years. I can definitely see the PS5 Pro being supported for longer than the PS5 thanks to that upscaling capability. If you aren’t planning to buy a PS6 at launch, a Pro-pre-order might be better for you in the long term.
A personal reason a PS5 Pro might make sense is that Mark Cerny has said that the new console will give a performance boost to PSVR 2 as well, which could be huge for an already brilliant VR headset that has a 120Hz refresh rate and powerful foveated rendering capabilities. If you’re a lover of the best VR headsets like I am, this might be a reason to bite the bullet and grab an upgrade.
Not only am I thinking about gaming hardware futureproofing here, but I’m thinking about displays too. More and more gaming TVs are releasing, and with refresh rates of 120Hz and even 144Hz now, having a gaming console that can make the most of it is going to make a world of difference. You might already have a display that can boost over 60Hz, but if you’re planning on getting one, I can’t describe how much of a difference higher refresh rate gaming makes.
Verdict: For futureproofing, the PS5 Pro might actually make a lot of sense. Its price may be hard to stomach now, but if you think of it as a longer-term investment, it could last you well into the next generation.
Overall, should you buy the PS5 Pro?
Everyone will have their own attitudes to this launch, and depending on you, your budget, your current setup, and your attitudes to what good gaming performance means, the PS5 Pro may be a point of outrage or your next hardware purchase.
There’s value in future-proofing, for sure. If you don’t want to have to fork out for a PS6, this might be a viable upgrade for you, especially if you have a higher refresh rate on your current gaming display. Similarly, if you notice poor gaming experiences on the current PS5, or what a beefier internal SSD without the faff of buying separately, the PS5 Pro is an option. For VR enthusiasts who love PSVR 2, there’s some value to be had by that larger GPU.
Personally, I’m not sure I’ll be buying Sony’s upgraded console. It’s expensive, and has a lot left to convince me of. How much of a difference will the average user spot in terms of frame rates and graphical fidelity? Are there games coming that I’ll actually want upgraded hardware for? If those same games are coming out on PC later, should I just wait and play them further down the road on an even beefier machine?
I may need to go hands-on with the PS5 Pro to give you a more definitive answer, but I won’t be getting one until I know the performance boost is worth it.
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