The clue, ostensibly, is in the title. PlayStation 5 Pro is by its very description not a mainstream games console offering (we already have one of those and it’s called the ‘PlayStation 5‘) and so it stands to reason that Sony’s latest lump of gaming silicon caters for a relatively thin slice of the audience that cares – like, really cares – about high frame rates, improved image quality and a combination of both. Equally true is the fact that many people won’t care about such things and will be perfectly happy with what they have already.
PlayStation 5 Pro Hardware Review
Certainly, if you’ve got a standard PlayStation 5 console and you’re really quite happy with it and can see nothing in the way of technical issues on the games that you play then, quite honestly, the PlayStation 5 Pro isn’t for you. That said, with the arrival of PlayStation 5 Pro and Sony openly admitting that development on its latest mid-generation refresh began before the release of the base PlayStation 5 console, it’s very much clear that the idea of an enhanced ‘pro’ console is here to stay and far from being a one and done affair with the last generation PlayStation 4 Pro.
And that’s just as well really, because the console gaming landscape has changed dramatically since the release of the PS4 Pro back in November 2016. Whereas the raison d’etre of the PS4 Pro was very much to leverage fairly nascent, though impressive, checkerboarding techniques to upscale visuals to 4K resolution alongside the emerging television technology of the day, there was little else left on the table for pushing things in any other direction.
PlayStation 5 Pro Hardware Review:
- Introduction – What Does The PS5 Pro Do?
- Hardware Form Factor & Design
- PS5 Pro Game Performance – Benefits & Limitations
- PSSR Is The Star Of The Show And A Clear Statement Of Intent For PlayStation 6
- PSSR Finally Realises The 4K/60 Dream – But 120Hz TV Users Get The Most From PS5 Pro
- PS5 Pro Game Scenario Testing
- Conclusion – Is PlayStation 5 Pro Worth The Money?
Introduction – What Does The PS5 Pro Do?
With the advent of Unreal Engine 5 and advanced rendering techniques that gnaw away at the GPU and memory bandwidth of current generation consoles in ways that comparatively weren’t really witnessed in the previous console generation, the realisation that image quality has decreased dramatically this generation in many titles that use performance mode to hit something approximating 60 frames per second, has been an unwelcome one to say the least. Certainly in titles such as Lords of the Fallen (2023) where the resolution could drop as low as 648p in performance mode, players were provided a level of image quality that simply wasn’t acceptable, while AMD’s own FSR solution also ‘helped’ to create a fizzle-infested image during movement. It simply just wasn’t good enough.
As such, the elevator pitch for PS5 Pro is very much that the console can execute performance mode framerates with equivalent fidelity mode resolution and quality settings, a realisation of the 4K/60 dream that many folks had hoped that the base PS5 would be able to fulfil on the regular, but largely failed to. Essentially, the idea is that the trade off between image quality and framerate should no longer be a thing and that for those that want it, additional ray tracing features are now on the table too.
However, like every other piece of hardware that has come before it and will come after it, the PS5 Pro is approximate to a lump of clay that must be carefully shaped to the whims of those who ply their art creating games to run on the platform. Therefore, what you get from it is largely dictated by the manner in which developers make use of improved GPU and machine learning capabilities – and as you might very well infer, the results do indeed differ from one studio to the next.
And really that reflects the structure that this review is going to take. Sure, there will be sections on certain immutable characteristics of the PS5 Pro, such as its form factor for example, but really the critique offered here will be largely based upon what PS5 Pro can do for your existing games as well as how Sony’s second mid-gen console refresh sets the stage for what it will accomplish with PlayStation 6 in three to four years time.
Hardware Form Factor & Design
Taking obvious design and form factor cues from the PS5 Slim before it, the PS5 Pro is a sleek looking beast that eschews the chunkiness of the original, pre-slim PS5 console, albeit one that still requires a fair amount of real estate, whether you use it vertically or horizontally to be positioned correctly. Clocking in at 388mm tall, 89mm wide and 216mm long and weighing in at 3.1KG, the PS5 Pro is simultaneously bigger than the PS5 Slim, but also somewhat oddly lighter, very much creating the impression that the PS5 design as we know it has been refined to within an inch of its life.
Beyond its dimensions, the design language of the PS5 Pro itself clearly has a lot in common with the PS5 Slim as I have previously alluded to. This means that the more compartmentalised case plates are present, instead of the whopping, console-engulfing plates that are synonymous with the original PS5.
Somewhat annoyingly however, I discovered that after swapping over the additional internal SSD from my old PS5 to the PS5 Pro (which isn’t any easier or more difficult than attempting to do so with the OG PS5 or PS5 Slim I might add), that trying to set the case plate back into place doesn’t feel so secure as it did with the original PS5. Likewise, it also recently revealed and confirmed that the PS5 Slim case plates do not fit the PS5 Pro either, so those looking to migrate across their fancy customised plates might well find themselves disappointed in this regard.
Finally, perhaps the most obvious way that the PS5 Pro differs from the PS5 Slim from a visual perspective is in additional dividing black lines that sit across the front of the console, appearing somewhat notably as if the machine had been attacked by Wolverine’s adamantium claws or something. I think it looks neat and stylish, though I’m sure that maybe others might disagree depending on their own preferences.
Away from the visual makeup of the PS5 Pro, it’s worth mentioning that if you’re upgrading from the OG PS5 as I did, the USB-A ports are all located at the rear of the console, with the front of the PS5 Pro hosting two USB-C ports instead. It’s a small observation, but one worth noting all the same. In operation, the PS5 Pro is whisper quiet, with the fans not audibly kicking in during the hardware intensive chaos of titles such as Horizon Forbidden West or Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, for example. Though obviously not having an optical drive as standard also means that the noise profile of the PS5 Pro is reduced anyway.
If there is one real issue with the hardware design of the PS5 Pro, it is that the omission of a disc drive feels very much at odds with its status as a premium console. The same can also be said about the lack of vertical stand which when taken in tandem with the aforementioned MIA optical drive, all add up to make the PS5 Pro feel less of a great value proposition than perhaps it should do. Indeed, the absence of an optical drive feels all the more keenly felt owing to the poor availability and rampant scalping of the accessory thanks to a supply shortage situation that I dearly hope is rectified sooner rather than later.
PS5 Pro Game Performance – Benefits & Limitations
Broadly speaking, the chief benefits of the PS5 Pro’s improved performance versus the standard PS5 are underlined by the trifecta of its much more powerful GPU, advanced ray tracing capabilities and machine learning powered PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) upscaling technology. Additionally, the PS5 Pro also boasts faster memory than the standard PS5 (packing in an extra 2GB of DDR5 memory to boot), along with a CPU that can be clocked up to be 10% faster, as well. All good stuff then.
But before we get to the benefits that the PS5 Pro brings over the older base model, I feel it’s important to definitively outline its limitations. For a start, the PS5 Pro includes the exact same AMD Zen 2 CPU that features in that now four year old base PS5, albeit with the option to overclock it to gain a somewhat meagre 10% of extra performance.
Further Reading – Upcoming PS5 Games 2024 – The Best PS5 Games Coming Soon
The problem with this is that games that were deemed as being CPU limited on the original PS5 – so those titles that focused heavily on in-world physics and simulations such as Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3, for example, stand to potentially gain less from being PS5 Pro enhanced than other titles would. Interestingly, this also raises the question of how 2025’s juggernaut release, Grand Theft Auto 6, would fare on the PS5 Pro given that it seems to be doing a lot of complex world simulation while throwing a whole load of super detailed NPCs around the place.
Beyond what Sony’s latest console can do with games that have been specifically patched to take advantage of it, PS5 Pro will automatically enhance both PS5 and PS4 games to an extent without a patch by virtue of tapping into its much more powerful GPU. Known as ‘Ultra Boost Mode‘, any unpatched PS4 or PS5 title which is played on PS5 Pro which struggles to meet its framerate cap and/or employs dynamic resolution will find itself pushed much closer to the upper bounds of both its frame rate and resolution caps. It’s a great thing to have in all honesty as it’s essentially a free performance boost without any effort required on the part of the developer.
And to be clear, that additional performance advantage can manifest itself in some seriously impressive ways too. Taking Gran Turismo 7 as an example, prior to getting a full-fat, PS5 Pro enhanced patch, Polyphony Digital’s already stunning racer runs at native 4K resolution and 120 FPS, which represents a tremendous boost over the game running on base PS5 hardware. Additionally, other titles such as Metaphor Re:Fantazio or the recent Monster Hunter Wilds beta which struggle to maintain 60 FPS now do so without any issue, so its application is pleasingly quite widespread. There are, however, some hard-set limitations to Ultra Boost Mode and how it works.
The first is that Ultra Boost Mode will not magically increase a game from 30 FPS to 60 FPS, or even 60 FPS to 120 FPS where those previously established performance caps exist. It just isn’t providing those sorts of enhancements without input from the developer. Instead, at least where PS5 games are concerned anyway, Ultra Boost Mode is all about optimising the performance of those titles on PS5 Pro within the boundaries previously set by the developer.
The next limitation concerns playing PS4 games on PS5 Pro. Enabled by a handy ‘Enhance Quality for PS4 Games‘ toggle in the system menu, select PS4 titles will tap into the capabilities of the PS5 Pro to enjoy a sharper image, though the effect is rather subtle at best. Clearly where this effect works best is in menus and in UI elements that have a lot of static images and text, as in those cases, such assets appear a lot less soft and much clearer, approaching something like 4K resolution in some cases. Its effect on in-game environments and character models is variable at best and in games that have heavy post-processing going on, such as Red Dead Redemption 2 for example, the effect is largely imperceptible.
More of a nice to have than a bespoke feature to sell the console (which make sense considering how relatively quiet Sony has been about the feature), the PS5 Pro’s ability to enhance the visual quality of PS4 titles feels almost like an experimental feature; an early glimpse maybe at what Sony intends to regards to regarding backwards compatibility in the future, rather than an especially compelling or transformative feature in the here and now.
PSSR Is The Star Of The Show And A Clear Statement Of Intent For PlayStation 6
What is transformative though, is PSSR. Sony’s machine learning image upscaling technology is clearly the star of the show. The reason why upscaling technologies like PSSR and AMD’s FSR exist is because it allows gaming hardware like the PS5 and PS5 Pro to input a much lower resolution and then upscale to a much higher resolution at a fraction of the cost it would take the GPU to do such a task normally.
With AMD’s FSR, which has featured most prominently in pre-existing PS5 titles to date, the results can be mixed however, with a seeming increase in display resolution undercut by image breakup during motion and other visual artefacts such as fizzle and ghosting on fine edge elements such as particle effects. PS5 Pro‘s PSSR however, which is not a software solution like AMD’s FSR but instead is powered by a dedicated machine learning block within the console’s silicon, promises similar improvements but delivers on them in ways that FSR, even in its latest iteration, has no hope of matching.
The common misunderstanding (or in some cases, deliberate misrepresentation) of how input resolution works versus output resolution has resulted in certain folk complaining about Alan Wake 2 only running at 864p. To be clear this isn’t the gotcha-flex that they think it is, this is just the internal resolution the title renders at before PSSR performs its magic and upscales the image to a higher output resolution.
PSSR isn’t some automatic silver bullet right now that will automatically address image quality and resolve it to an extremely high standard. However in the case of Alan Wake 2, you’re still getting a tremendous increase in visual detail and output resolution at 60 FPS than what would ever be possible on the base PS5 console. Your eyes don’t lie.
Likewise, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the implementation of PSSR and more broadly the elevated GPU and ray tracing capabilities of the PS5 Pro will differ from developer to developer, as Lead Architect Mark Cerny mentioned in his initial technical review of the PS5 Pro console. This means that while the majority of developers will elect to upscale to 4K resolution at 60 FPS with base PS5 style quality visual settings in play and introducing cutting edge ray tracing features as Insomniac Games has done across its PS5 catalogue of games, others might decide to use PSSR in more unusual ways to push an even higher level of visual quality at 30 FPS, or even 8K resolution at 30 FPS as developer Hello Games has done with its open-universe adventure No Man’s Sky.
It’s also important to understand that PSSR represents Sony’s first extremely ambitious attempt at machine learning based image upscaling which already provides superior results to AMD’s FSR 3.1 and it will only get better. After all it’s easy to forget that the likes of AMD and Nvidia have been in the image upscaling game for years at this point, so to say that those hardware vendors have a head start in this respect would be something of an understatement. Certainly, long before PS6 arrives we will all see demonstrable improvements in the quality of its output. Even just a year from now we’ll see PSSR putting to shame what it is able to accomplish in the here and now.
Yet I fully expect PS6, whenever that console does arrive, to take even bigger, more bold strides down the avenue of machine learning and image upscaling techniques and in this sense PS5 Pro really does feel like a preview of what the next generation of PlayStation home consoles will look like. Oh and the PS5 Pro also lets you take screenshots in full 8K resolution too. Which is, y’know, nice.
PSSR Finally Realises The 4K/60 Dream – But 120Hz TV Users Get The Most From PS5 Pro
In the present, what is most crucially true is that PSSR allows PS5 Pro owners to finally begin to realise the 4K/60 dream in many cases and it’s this that will be a key selling point for players wishing to upgrade. Of course there is some bitterness to be had with this notion as many players had already previously expected the base PS5 console to provide the sort of 4K/60 uplift from PS4 Pro. However, owing to the advent of sophisticated game engines like Unreal Engine 5 this didn’t happen and many titles struggled to maintain decent image quality in performance modes that promised 60 FPS (yes, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Alan Wake 2, I’m looking at the pair of you).
Beyond its ability to essentially combine quality and performance modes, in addition to introducing additional ray tracing features, the PS5 Pro also stands to benefit anybody who happens to own a 120hz and VRR compatible display too (which shouldn’t be too much of a far-fetched proposition if you’re willing to throw down close to $700 on a PS5 Pro console to begin with).
As PS5 Pro pushes frame rates above 60 FPS in certain games such as Resident Evil Village and all of Insomniac Games line-up for starters, it’s abundantly clear that 120Hz VRR display users benefit greatly in ways that users of 60Hz displays are simply unable to. Perhaps the most potent example is the sterling work that Insomniac Games has done on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Not only does the marquee PlayStation Studios developer provide a Performance Pro mode at 4K/60 that provides the ray tracing settings of the base PS5 version, but so too does it also enable players to activate a Fidelity Pro mode as well which boasts maxed out ray tracing and visual settings. The kicker here is that if you’re using a 60Hz display, you only get to see Fidelity Pro at a locked 30 FPS. Users of 120Hz VRR displays on the other hand, can engage a 120Hz mode and uncap VRR, resulting in Fidelity Pro hitting the low 50s on the frame rate chart and essentially getting the best of both worlds in the process.
It’s certainly worth noting that PS5 Pro‘s improved image quality can benefit PSVR 2 titles, too. Kayak VR for instance now boasts 8K textures and additional ultra high details which make an already beautiful looking title begin to approach something like photorealism in VR. It’s breathtaking stuff, but the jury is out on whether or not other PSVR 2 developers will follow suit to same standard or not.
PS5 Pro Game Scenario Testing
As I have already mentioned earlier in this review, the implementation of PS5 Pro’s PSSR upscaling technology, advanced GPU and additional ray-tracing effects varies from developer to developer and from title to title. So with that in mind, I have collated the sort of performance and image quality results you can expect to get from a spread of different PS5 games below.
PS5 Games Tested On PS5 Pro:
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage
- Demon’s Souls
- Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition
- Enlisted
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- Immortals of Aveum
- Lords of the Fallen (2023)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
- Resident Evil Village
- Stellar Blade
- The Last of Us Part I
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
When played on PS5 Pro, Assassin’s Creed Mirage banishes the quality and performance modes of the base PS5 version to the abyss, replacing them with a single preset that kicks out an upscaled 4K presentation at 60 FPS with better texture resolution, improved draw distance and better shadow and reflection fidelity. Put simply, PS5 Pro offers up a stupendously sharp presentation with Assassin’s Creed Mirage that ably delivers on the 4K/60 ideal.
Demon’s Souls
Like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Bluepoint’s Demon’s Souls remake also directly delivers on the 4K/60 dream for players. By leveraging the PS5 Pro setting, players not only enjoy the benefits of a pin-sharp 4K resolution presentation, but all of the additional details offered up by the original quality mode together with a buttery smooth 60 FPS to boot. One of the best looking PS5 games ever now looks even better on PS5 Pro. What’s not to like?
Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition
Though Devil May Cry 5: SE has yet to receive a bespoke PS5 Pro patch (and maybe will never do so given the age of the game), simply playing the game as is via PS5 Pro’s Ultra Boost Mode offers up some tantalising performance improvements. Using the quality mode visual preset together with the added ray tracing preset now sees the game go between 80 and 115 FPS which despite the last-gen origins of Devil May Cry 5: SE, is still hugely impressive all the same.
Enlisted
Darkflow Software’s free-to-play historical military shooter also gets a sizable boost in both image quality and framerate thanks to its newly earned PS5 Pro enhanced status. Boasting both a reworked performance mode, not only will players get to play Enlisted at a brisk 120 FPS for the first time on console, but this also comes with greatly improved image quality thanks to PSSR, higher quality shadows and improved Global Illumination too.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Often cited as one of the worst examples of PS5 image quality, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth gets an extensive image quality makeover courtesy of PSSR. When playing in performance mode, the effect that PSSR has is simply transformative here, as it resolves a tremendously detailed image that is easily on par with the quality mode setting but at performance mode frame rates.
Further Reading – All PS5 Pro 8K Games – Every PS5 Pro Game That Runs At 8K Resolution
Immortals Of Aveum
Though Immortals of Aveum has yet to officially join the PS5 Pro enhanced club, it does benefit from the PS5 Pro‘s extra grunt to push some impressively high framerates. If AMD 3 frame generation is engaged, Immortals of Aveum tears along at around 110-120 FPS and very often stays in those upper bounds for most of the time. It’s a decent upgrade for sure and one that hints at how the extra raw power of the PS5 Pro can be used in tandem with pre-existing upscaling techniques.
Lords Of The Fallen (2023)
One of the earliest examples of Unreal Engine 5 overpowering the base PS5 hardware in its performance mode with resolution dropping as low as 648p(!) Lords of the Fallen gets a huge boost to image quality on PS5 Pro when running in performance mode. The touted 40% of extra pixel density is well realised on-screen, with Lords of the Fallen looking much more vibrant and sharper than the previously soft, muddy mess that base PS5 owners had to put up with. Though PS5 Pro offers up very much a night and day improvement, it’s also clear that while the image quality has improved, none of the additional settings from the quality mode preset have seemingly made the leap.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Essentially representing Insomniac Games’ cutting edge work with the PS5 Pro hardware, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 offers up a veritable cornucopia of visual presets and modes for eager web slingers to play about with. The headlining feature of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PS5 Pro is arguably its performance pro mode which combines the quality and ray tracing features of the fidelity mode on base PS5, with a liquid smooth 60 FPS. In motion it looks simply incredible, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You see, Insomniac Games has also implemented a high end fidelity pro mode which boasts all of the high end ray tracing and ambient occlusion features running at 30 FPS that simply wouldn’t have been possible on the base PS5. Where the additional cleverness kicks in is in how Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on PS5 Pro also makes use of 120Hz and VRR modes to push the frame rate much higher than 30 FPS on those who have the requisite supporting displays. Beyond that even, players can even tweak settings such as key shadow quality and reflections to claw back some FPS in the fidelity pro mode too. All told, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is emblematic of the fantastic amount of work Insomniac Games has put into supporting PS5 Pro features across its catalogue and sets a tantalising blueprint for other developers to follow in kind.
Resident Evil Village
What’s impressive with Resident Evil Village isn’t necessarily that it adds a 120 FPS mode on PS5 Pro, it’s that it adds a 120 FPS mode and then allows players to put ray tracing on top of it along with a HFR setting and *still* hit around 80-90 FPS at upscaled 4K. Absolutely jaw-dropping stuff that certainly highlights the sort of benefits PS5 Pro players might expect from future entries in Capcom’s legendary survival horror franchise.
Stellar Blade
With Stellar Blade developer Shift Up has implemented two new settings – pro and pro max settings. Pro is the one you’ll want to use as it leverages PSSR to hit 4K and together with HFR enabled allows the game to hit a gorgeously smooth 80 FPS. This is in contrast to the oddly paced 50 FPS of the pro max mode which provides higher native res but the trade off in frame rate isn’t really worth it especially as PSSR looks better anyway.
The Last Of Us Part I
Much like The Last of Us Part II Remastered, its chronological predecessor also boasts greatly from PS5 Pro enhancement. Running at an upscaled 4K and with an unlocked frame rate that hovers around 70 to 90 FPS, not only does The Last of Us Part I look immaculate from an image quality perspective but so too does it not have any of the performance dips seen in the PS5 version of the game when running in its quality mode at 120hz mode – in particular when Joel finds himself scrapping with multiple bloaters in the husk of the old Hotel Grand.
Conclusion – Is PlayStation 5 Pro Worth The Money?
Compared to the PS4 Pro which represented a very linear upgrade over the base PS4 – it did 4K which the base unit couldn’t do – the PS5 Pro is something of a trickier prospect to explain the virtues of to folks who don’t bury their heads in pixel counts, frame rates and AI upscaling methods on the regular. If you peel back the layered veneer of all the jargon which is synonymous with the PS5 Pro, a clear selling point does soon emerge as I have already alluded to in this review; PS5 Pro lets players have quality mode visuals and performance mode frame rates. In essence, it lets players have their metaphorical cake and eat it.
I’m the sort of person that in games like The Last of Us Part I, I relish the prospect of inspecting the micro detail of a scene – the signs, the old, semi-torn movie posters that hang from red bricked walls, the minutiae of cutlery set out on a table, the way leaves slowly blow in the breeze and in all of those circumstances, the PS5 Pro provides me with a far greater degree of fidelity with which to forensically explore some of my favourite video game worlds.
However not everybody cares about such things and that’s fine too. The base PS5 console is still a capable lump of gaming hardware and isn’t going anywhere. Indeed, I imagine that the base PS5 will remain a viable console for upwards of five years from now in all likelihood and that’s being conservative on the timescales.
It’s also clear that while the PS5 Pro is being positioned as a premium console, it falls somewhat short of that designation in some ways. For a start, there’s no denying the cost. At a hefty £699/$699 without an optical disc drive, without a vertical stand and with the sort of packaging that doesn’t feel anymore premium than the base PS5, it can feel like a bit of a tough ask even when considering the amount of power that lurks beneath its stylishly constructed hood. Equally, it’s also obvious that this is a console which is very much angled towards the vectors of the future. The world’s first actual 8K capable console, PS5 Pro smartly uses PSSR to achieve both that and the 4K/60 dream that has eluded many PS5 titles for so very long.
Further Reading – All PS5 Pro Enhanced Games – Every Game Enhanced By PS5 Pro (Updated)
Though PSSR is already wonderfully capable at this very early point in its lifecycle, it’s also apparent that we’re very much on the tip of the figurative iceberg here as all of the games that have been enhanced for PS5 Pro were originally not created with Sony’s new shiny chunk of gaming hardware in mind. This means that the best is yet to come and things will likely only improve as PSSR meaningfully iterates in the weeks, months and years to come as we inch towards the eventual release of PS6 and the evolution of machine learning tricks that it will surely offer. In this sense, PS5 Pro feels like a stolen glance at a crystal ball focused on the next generation of PlayStation hardware.
In the end, the PS5 Pro is all about peace of mind. It’s about having peace of mind that you’ll be playing the best console exclusives the industry has to offer on the best console hardware possible and it’s also peace of mind that you have a chunk of gaming hardware that can keep up with the advances in increasingly sophisticated graphics engines while minimising the hit to image quality. For many that won’t be enough and that arguably befits its premium price point, but for someone like me and others like me who want to play the best games in the world at the best visual quality possible, the PS5 Pro will provide an unparalleled console gaming experience for years to come, even if the economics aren’t quite where I would like them to be.
The PlayStation 5 Pro is out now.
PlayStation 5 Pro review unit very kindly provided by PR.