6 days Ago By Kevin Low
share 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 It’s one of the worst kept secrets of the video game industry but also one of the most highly anticipated. At a time when most tech get an annual refresh, update or upgrade into a new model, the video game industry has bucked the trend as game consoles are supposed to last, some beyond a decade if they’re powerful and popular enough. So following a pattern established in recent years, a console gets a substantial upgrade around the mid-point of its life cycle because technology advances and gamers don’t necessarily want to invest in a new ecosystem of hardware, software and accessories.
This was the case for the previous console generation, with the PlayStation 4 Pro and the Xbox One X offering enticing performance upgrades over their ageing counterparts, to tide things over in anticipation of the next console release. Someone must have forgotten to tell Xbox it’s happening again. The arrival of the PlayStation 5 Pro comes almost 4 years after the launch of the original, as Sony attempts to push the boundaries of console hardware performance and extend the longevity of its platform.
Advertisement ▼ Visually, the console looks almost identical to the PS5 Slim, first unveiled and released back in October 2023, with the only major difference being the presence of three stripes along its side, compared to Slim’s single-stripe design. The smaller console was already a sight to behold to begin with, so no complaints here on the decision to keep things in line with what works, and is instantly recognisable. Surprisingly, the souped-up console still manages to maintain a compact form factor, measuring 388mm x 216mm x 89mm, only slightly larger than the PS5 Slim and much smaller compared to the massive original 2020 model.
The PS5 Pro only ships in a diskless variation, but transferring the removable disk drive from a current PS5 Slim to the Pro is not only possible, but an easy process as well. Out of the box, the PS5 Pro, like the Slim, doesn’t come with a dedicated vertical stand, and instead only includes two plastic clear pieces that snap into the side of the console and enable it to be set up in a horizontal position. Still, for owners of the current PS5 Slim vertical stand, fret not as the stand is compatible with Pro.
The placement and number of ports on offer also remain the same, with 2 USB-C ports on the front and 2 USB-A ports on the back. A more notable, albeit slightly disappointing similarity is with regards to the included DualSense controller, specifically that it’s exactly the same as the base models. Well, as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but still, it would have been nice to see at least a design refresh (similar to the PS4 Pro’s additional touchpad LED lights) for what was undoubtedly the most innovative part of Sony’s fifth console generation.
Once booted up, players will immediately be familiar with the console’s user interface (UI), which also remains untouched from previous iterations, apart from a brand new first-boot animation screen. All the accessibility and control features players have come to know and love are still here, including the recently added home screen widget tab, a customisable rundown of important console information like controller battery levels, download progress bars and system storage available at one glance. But enough of what’s on the surface, let’s get into the nitty gritty and the main reason for getting the console in the first place – the superior hardware.
The PS5 Pro was flaunted with the promise of three main key upgrades – an improved GPU boasting 16.7 TFLOPS (Teraflops) over the base model’s 10 TFLOPS, which supposedly offers up to 45% faster rendering speeds; an in-built AI-driven upscaling dubbed the PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) and the inclusion of Advanced Ray Tracing. To test these features out, we took three games for a spin: Alan Wake 2 and Dragon’s Dogma 2 , both of which were notorious for running poorly on the base console, along with Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered , Sony’s latest offering which makes use of the power of the new hardware for PS5 Pro enhanced features.
Alan Wake 2 comes packed with PS5 Pro-specific enhancements on launch, such as the addition of Ray Tracing and improved image quality for its Quality mode, and higher output resolution and improved graphical details like better shadows and environmental detailing for its Performance mode. On its Quality mode, the game shines with the addition of Ray Traced reflections, offering a more photo-realistic experience, albeit capped at 30 frames per second. The same level of fidelity can’t be said about its Performance mode though, which although presents a much higher resolution, with approximately the same render quality as the original PS5’s quality mode, the game still struggles to maintain its 60fps target during any scene with large amounts of vegetation, of which there are many.
A disappointing revelation for such, considering the apparent power on offer, and one can’t help but wonder if the game should have prioritised maintaining a stable framerate in Performance mode over adding the visual bells and whistles. Thankfully, Dragon’s Dogma 2 fairs much better in comparison, but it is still far from perfect. For context, the title shipped with absolutely atrocious framerates, hovering around the 40fps range for the majority of gameplay, even dipping into the 30s and under during more intense scenes.
The game now supports PS5 Pro enhancements in the form of PSSR, which can be set in-game to prioritise performance, graphics or a balance of both. In practice, the new upscaler allows for crisp resolutions when set to graphics mode, although framerates do take a hit down to the 30s. In its performance setting, things start to get interesting, presenting a slightly blurrier upscaled image with much better framerates as a trade-off.
With this new PSSR setting, the game comes much closer to the ideal 60fps target, at least during its opening hours, hovering around the mid-50s, which is perfectly playable for those who own a VRR-capable display. It remains to be seen if the game can maintain this level of performance during more intense later scenes and if the framerate will drop below the 48fps VRR limit, but judging that the game is set to receive more PS5 Pro exclusive updates, the game’s future remains cautiously optimistic. Finally, for Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered , the title offers specific PS5 Pro-enhanced modes, with an across-the-board bump in resolution, depth-of-field rendering and volumetric quality.
The game looks amazingly sharp across all three of its included modes – Resolution Mode Pro, Performance Mode Pro and Balanced Mode Pro, with its performance mode being a stand-out, offering the same quality as the base PS5’s Quality Mode at a silky smooth 60fps. The enhancements seen in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered seem to be the main selling point of the console, with a slew of currently released titles such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 , Horizon Forbidden West , The Last of Us Part I/II and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth receiving PS5 Pro specific enhancements to bring their performance mode’s image quality up more in line with that of the base PS5’s Quality mode counterparts at 60fps. But with all the focus on PS5 games, where does that leave the backwards-compatible PS4 games? As part of the fray, a new togglable option also enhances the image quality of PS4 games, using PSSR to upscale the resolutions of older games and bumping up their fidelity to better match the quality of today’s standards.
It has to be noted that this new feature is not all-inclusive, however, and games can function unexpectedly when using it, with the console providing a disclaimer to switch it off if players encounter ‘unexpected behaviour during gameplay’. We tested this out with Assassin’s Creed Unity and Watch Dogs , two PS4 titles that ran at 900p at 30fps on the previous console. The difference is noticeable for sure, with improved image clarity and less jagged edges on object surfaces across the board, upscaling the image resolution to present a picture quality closer to that of native 4K resolution.
It is also worth noting that this new feature does not affect the game’s frame rate in any way. On the flip side, notable limitations of upscaling technologies do rear their ugly head in the form of artifacting (visual noise which surrounds the silhouette of objects, particularly the player character), and ghosting (objects presenting double images upon panning the camera), both commonly present in other upscalers too like Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR. Players can still choose to disable this feature if they wish, but this is nevertheless a nice added bonus to have, and it’s heartening to see that Sony is still supporting its older titles.
But while these upgrades are all well and good the PS5 Pro still can’t escape its most glaring limitation – its unchanged CPU. The AMD Ryzen Zen 2 8-core/16-thread CPU is fast approaching obsolescence at this point, and as games continue to push the boundaries of graphical fidelity, more titles are bound to become increasingly CPU-intensive, and having a more powerful GPU won’t be able to do much to avoid CPU bottlenecks. This can already be seen in the aforementioned performance with Dragon’s Dogma 2 , an intensive CPU-bound title that the PS5 Pro still has problems running smoothly even with its upgraded GPU, showing that even with its enhancements for current titles, the console still falls short in the way of future-proofing.
That’s not to say that the PS5 Pro doesn’t provide any other enhancements apart from graphical fidelity, as the console does benefit from much-improved heat management. After a full day of gaming, the console only ended up feeling slightly warm, a far cry from the heat generated by the base 2020 PS5 even after a few hours of gameplay. This is most probably attributed to the beef-up GPU being able to better handle intensive workloads, and not kicking into overdrive like its older brethren.
The console also benefits from its support for Wi-Fi 7, a neat feature to have for those who own a Wi-Fi 7-capable router. During testing, we achieved almost double the internet download speeds, from 474.1Mbps on the PS5 Slim using Wi-Fi 6, to 886.
2Mbps on the PS5 Pro using the same router with Wi-Fi 7. It’s a clear upgrade for sure, with the potential to go even higher with future firmware updates. Now comes the elephant in the room, the console’s asking price.
Coming in at a hefty S$1,069 , the PS5 Pro is a substantial premium over the S$889 Slim variant. To be fair, the additional cost also includes the bump to 2TB of storage over 1TB of the PS5 Slim, but potential buyers, especially those who already own a current PS5 model, need to be clear about what they are shelling their hard-earned cash for. There are currently around 50 games in the works to receive PS5 Pro upgrades, which will focus on 4K 60fps upgrades across the board with minor graphical enhancements thrown into the mix, even offering some extra modes for 120fps or 8K gaming.
But as it is, monitors and TVs which support 120hz refresh rates or variable refresh rates are not commonly owned among the general audience, much less so for 8K screens. At the end of the day, it all boils down to what buyers are looking for in their games, and whether they have the hardware to support it. For those who have screens capable of outputting at 4K or 8K, and are comfortable with gaming at 30fps, the PS5 Pro is a worthwhile upgrade to fully enjoy the increased resolution and fancy Ray Tracing it provides.
On the other hand, for those who prioritise a smooth 60fps gaming experience over graphical fidelity, or currently own either 1080p or 2K screens, the console’s beefy, and pricey, mid-generation refresh might be a harder sell. GEEK REVIEW SCORE Summary While the PlayStation 5 Pro boasts an improved GPU and new upscaling technologies to provide resolution bumps along with slick new Ray Tracing features for supported games, its appeal is slightly tarnished by its untouched CPU and steep asking price. Overall 8/10 8/10 Aesthetics - 9/10 9/10 Build Quality - 9/10 9/10 Performance - 7/10 7/10 Value - 7/10 7/10 Geek Satisfaction - 8/10 8/10 Kevin Low Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 .
He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. PlayStation PlayStation 5 Pro PS5 Pro Review A great looking minimalist pro controller with a few too many design issues for comfort. A compelling mystery adventure that fails to stick its landing.
Premium functionality juxtaposed by disappointing build quality..
