When we all picked up our shiny next-gen console at the end of 2020, we were assuming that we’d be closer to the 4K/60 FPS dream, but with every major AAA release, it became fairly obvious that we were going to be forced to choose between a 4K image and buttery smooth 60 FPS goodness, constantly left wondering what we were missing with the other mode. With the PS5 Pro, that next-gen promise finally feels delivered on, and then some in a number of different ways.
When it comes to the design of the PS5 Pro, it pulls in heavy inspiration from both the original PS5 as well as the PS5 Slim with it being the same height of the original PS5, but the same thickness as the PS5 Slim, and pulling over that same four plate design that the Slim introduced. I really like the racing stripes that break up the faceplates, and whilst it is a tad annoying that the top ones are differently sized to the Slim (it looks so good in black), there’s clearly a different vent design that means this probably wasn’t going to be possible.
There has been a lot of chatter around the PS5 Pro not coming with a disc drive and I’m not going to get into whether this is a good thing, but the disc drive mechanic is super nifty and very easy to put on (if you can get you hands on one). You simply take the faceplate off, and it’s a small connector that the disc drive slips into and then it’s the exact same process to pull it off. Same goes for the empty SSD slot, which is very easy to access and place an SSD into, if the additional 2TB SSD isn’t enough for you.
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Similarly, there was a bit of controversy about the console not coming with a vertical stand. The console does stand fine on its own without the stand, and it does come with a much improved horizontal stand in the box in the form of two plastic little legs that clip into the racing strips between each faceplates. This is a huge improvement on the stand that came with PS5 and whilst it looks flimsy, I can assure you, it’s super secure and a great solution.
The only other hardware changes of note are Wi-Fi 7 which is great for future proofing (I’m always going to want to be hardwired), and like the Slim there’s 2 USB-C ports on the front and 2 USB-A ports on the back. The great news when it comes to noise and heat is that the PS5 Pro is practically silent. I have had it on for most of the last week testing a variety of games, and I never heard it ramp up even once, and similarly, waving my hand around the console resulted in a normal amount of heat, which is impressive given the performance.
Just like it was with the PS4 Pro during the review period, performance is hard to talk about with the PS5 Pro, as PlayStation has clearly put some stipulations in place in order for a developer to say that a game is ‘PS5 Pro enhanced’ but as far as how they incorporate that into their game, whether that be a new singular graphic mode, additional graphic modes, or replacement graphic modes, it’s totally up to the developer, and it varies greatly between games even with PlayStation’s first-party studio.
Whilst it’s not always immediately obvious how a game is better, it’s very clear after playing through 15-20 games over the last week that the improvements are going to be massive for games in terms of delivering on that next-gen promise.
The biggest new technology in the PS5 Pro is PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) which is similar to NVIDIA’s DLSS which I’ve spoken about time and time again in regards to how much it helps PC performance through the use of AI upscaling. Whilst I’m not Digital Foundry, it’s pretty clear that what PlayStation has done here is pretty fantastic as some of the improvements that I witnessed across games were night and day, and this is only at the beginning of the console.
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For instance Star Wars Outlaws now has just one mode on the PS5 Pro, which is 4K/60 FPS. On the original PS5 it was either 30 FPS in Quality mode or 60 FPS in Performance mode and neither felt great with the Quality mode lacking a smooth framerate and the 60 FPS mode looking quite blurry, but now, you don’t have to choose as it’s the best of both worlds in one mode.
Similarly, Alan Wake 2 has kept its two modes, but performance mode now runs at 60FPS with base PS5 quality level graphics, and there’s a new ray-tracing Quality mode that sticks to 30 FPS, but looks absolutely incredible and in-line with what you’d get out of a very high-end GPU on PC.
Insomniac Games has done much the same with both Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet & Clank where the new Performance Pro modes now run at 60FPS with quality-like visuals and it’s upped the ray-tracing on Quality modes but kept them at 30 FPS. Realistically, I suspect that going with the 60 FPS mode will be a lot easier decision for most now, with there being next to no visual downgrade.
I really liked the way Naughty Dog took advantage of the PS5 Pro, with a new third mode simply called ‘PS5 Pro’ that utilises PSSR to bring 4K/60 FPS to both The Last Of Us Part 1 and Part 2. These games already looked stunning, but to now be able to play them in 60 FPS without feeling like you’re seeing a downgrade on the visuals just makes all the difference.
Probably the biggest difference was Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth which has a new Versatility graphics mode. This is a game that was heavily critiqued for how blurry it was in performance mode, and this game is one that kept all of its original modes, but this new Versatility mode is both super crisp, looking indistinguishable from the original Quality mode and runs at a smooth 60 FPS.
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Just because of some of lack of information about PS5 Pro upgrades and how different developers were handling the new technology, I reached out to a few developers from the likes of Bioware and Hello Games and it was very clear that these teams were excited in the new world of possibilities that the console unlocks. It was always a little bit of a running joke that the original PS5 had an 8K logo on the box, but now that is starting to become a reality.
Whilst F1 has a super stunning ray-tracing mode at 4K/60 FPS, it also has an 8K option for those that have the compatible TV. No Man’s Sky also has a new 8K option for those that want to jump in. I do suspect that this will still be quite a rarity, and I suspect that most people don’t own an 8K TV and have no intention to upgrade, but if anything, it is a good example of how much more headroom developers have to play with when using PSSR.
It’s not only the PS5 Pro enhanced games that see an improvement. There’s Game Boost that basically acts to lift the frame rates or resolution of any game that has uncapped framerates or dynamic resolution. A great example of this is Elden Ring and the Monster Hunter Wilds beta that both perform better on PS5 Pro and also Resident Evil 2’s uncapped ray-tracing mode that ran at 60 FPS on the PS5 Pro and 45ish FPS on the original PS5.
There’s also an ‘Enhanced Image Quality’ option in the system settings that uses AI upscaling to make PS4 games look clearer. I didn’t spend a heap of time with this, but I did try Bloodborne and a few other games, and it wasn’t a night and day difference, but I did notice things like text being a lot less blurry on the PS5 Pro.
Whilst I’ve been pretty positive on the PS5 Pro, I want to be really careful not to oversell it, because you won’t be blown away going from the PS5 to PS5 Pro, at least with what’s on offer so far. It’s more of a consistent, across the board improvement that feels more what I was expecting coming into this generation. This is the closest that console gaming has felt to playing on a PC in terms of playing a game with a fantastic, crisp resolution at 60 FPS.
If you’re somebody that constantly finds yourself flicking between graphics modes or have thought that something doesn’t run at solid enough frames or look like its running at full resolution, this is the console for you, but if you’re not somebody who cares about that then I’d probably wait until something like Grand Theft Auto 6 or the next big PlayStation first-party game comes along.
What’s on offer here from PlayStation is fairly remarkable from a technological standpoint, and yes the PS5 Pro is expensive, but it does offer a fairly high-end experience in line with a PC that would be far more expensive to put together, and AI upscaling systems only improve over time, so this feels like it’s only the beginning in how far the PS5 Pro will be pushed.
