PlayStation 5 Pro comparison: What is different from the regular PS5?

After numerous rumors and leaks, the PlayStation 5 Pro is finally official – complete with a new GPU, a $700 price tag, and no built-in disc drive. But is that all? Why is this new console 40 percent more expensive than the existing PS5, which you can buy today for $500? The same console that will go on sale during the holidays, not long after the Pro’s November 7 launch date.

What differences between the PS5 and PS5 Pro make them (depending on who you ask) a worthwhile upgrade or a redundant expense?

According to Sony’s technical presentation hosted by PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny, the PS5 Pro features three major performance improvements over the standard PS5. It features a new, more powerful GPU for more processing power and faster rendering, advanced ray tracing for improved in-game reflections and more intense lighting, and a new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaler to keep frame rates high without sacrificing resolution and image quality.

The GPU is really the star of the show, with Sony promising 67 percent more processing units and 28 percent faster memory, resulting in 45 percent faster rendering. But the PS5 Pro’s CPU and memory speeds remain unchanged, so while it should deliver 4K resolution And If the frame rate does not increase to 60 fps or more, the console may not load or boot games faster.

The biggest change for current PS5 owners is that when playing on a PS5 Pro, there is no longer a need to choose between Performance and Fidelity modes (the decision many current games force users to prioritize either frame rate smoothing or sharper images). But Sony could easily move those goalposts with the PS5 Pro, as the upcoming console also supports 8K gaming. It’s possible that the performance and fidelity modes will still be available if playing games in 8K means sacrificing framerate again – which it certainly will. The difference is that most people won’t care, because who the hell owns an 8K TV right now?

Ray tracing is a feature that has been supported since the PS5 launched. But the PS5 Pro progressive Raytracing promises to make it better with more dynamic reflections and light refractions. In general, games with nice lighting and lots of reflections should look a bit prettier (rejoice, Gran Turismo 7 Fans). So far, ray tracing on the current PS5 has been a bit lackluster compared to what is possible on PCs with high-end GPUs (which, to be fair, cost more than a PS5 Pro alone). But that has more to do with the games themselves than the console. Many titles are not optimized for ray tracing on consoles, although there have been some PS5 highlights, like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 that have good ray tracing performance. The PS5 Pro should simply make them look better without compromising on frame rate.

The PSSR AI-powered upscaler is the most technical software trick of the PS5 Pro’s features. It’s very similar to Nvidia’s popular DLSS feature on PCs, and is a post-processing asset that helps achieve higher frame rates at high resolutions. The standard PS5 uses more conventional anti-aliasing, while the PS5 Pro uses machine learning to scale things based on what’s actively rendering on your screen. It’s one of those things that works in the background to tidy up small details.

Another area where the PS5 Pro should be more capable than the current PS5 is its support for Wi-Fi 7 (the PS5 has Wi-Fi 6 and didn’t even make the jump to 6E when the Slim came out). That can be helpful for downloading huge games to the Pro’s internal 2TB SSD at higher speeds, but only if your home network supports Wi-Fi 7 – which most people don’t yet due to the costs involved. Notably, this feature won’t help Remote Play on the PlayStation Portal, as Sony’s one-trick pony handheld for console streaming is bafflingly limited to Wi-Fi 5.

Aside from the new GPU and the revised cooling system it requires, the PS5 Pro’s biggest physical differences are its design and lack of a disc drive. The Pro will be tall and long like the original PS5, but as thin as the revised Slim model. It has a new ribbed design element above the side slots of its removable panels (for which Sony will sell customizable replacement parts at a later date). Personally, I still find them a bit ugly, and fear that Sony’s refusal to show the front of the console horizontally means another weird trick is planned to make it lie on its side. The Slim had silly-looking little legs like a pizza saver to help it balance. I’d hate to see the more expensive Pro do the same.

The lack of a drive can be remedied by purchasing the same $79.99 modular drive that Sony already sells for the PS5 Slim. So instead of having the option to buy a PS5 Pro with or without a drive (a practice Sony instituted when it launched the very first PS5), you’re left with no choice but to get your own. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that a “Pro” console will have to come with all sorts of extras, including physical media, which some diehard fans might prefer, but this could just be the start of a digital-only future for the next generation of consoles. And at least the M.2 slot remains on the Pro for adding even more fast storage.

Another part of the ever-changing I/O on PS5 consoles are the USB ports, which continue to slowly transition almost entirely to USB-C on the PS5 Pro. Here’s a simple breakdown of the USB ports on all three PlayStation 5 consoles since launch:

• PlayStation 5 (Original): One USB-C and one USB-A on the front / Two USB-A on the back
• PS5 (Slim): Two USB-C on the front / Two USB-A on the back
• PS5 Pro: Two USB-C on the front / One USB-C and one USB-A on the back

So in total, you still get four USB ports on the PS5 Pro (thank goodness) and most of them are USB-C. We don’t know how fast each of them is on the Pro, but considering both the original PS5 and Slim have three 10Gbps SuperSpeed ​​ports and one slower port, it’s safe to assume the Pro will follow suit.

One thing that won’t change is the controllers. The PS5 Pro ships with the same old white DualSense controller, complete with its potentiometer-based analog sticks that can drift over time. The Pro would have been a good opportunity for the DualSense to switch to drift-free Hall effect sticks, but luck was out.

This is the second generation of consoles with a mid-cycle model called “Pro,” and while the PS4 Pro was generally well received in 2016, we should not forget that it launched at the PS4’s original price of $400, along with a cheaper Slim model. The market looks very different now: There is no price reduction for the Slim PS5 (apart from the occasional bundled game) and the PS5 Pro costs a whopping $700 (or $780 with an additional drive).

The PS5 Pro seems to be aimed primarily at PlayStation superfans who could buy it at almost any price. But there are other people who are looking for something they can just turn on and start playing – without having to mess with drivers or deal with the configurations and costs of a gaming PC. For those people, the PS5 Pro seems like a great option, even if the price might initially put them off.