Today’s PS5 Technical Presentation is officially over, but we’re still getting to grips with everything that we learned. The event, which lasted for just nine minutes, was presented by PlayStation 5 console architect Mark Cerny and gave us our first official look at the PS5 Pro.
From some initial information about the console’s specs to an overview of some of its most exciting features of the console and confirmation of a PS5 Pro release date as well as when PS5 Pro pre-orders begin, there is loads to unpack from the stream. While it didn’t give us a look at any new games or the long-rumored overhauled DualSense Wireless Controller, there is still plenty to get excited about with the PS5 Pro announced - plus a few things that admittedly left us less than thrilled about what Sony is bringing to the table.
If you missed watching the event or just want to get up to speed with all the biggest news, here are some of the key takeaways from what was revealed.
1. The PS5 Pro has seriously high specs
As you might expect, the PS5 Pro is shaping up to be a huge technical upgrade compared to the base PS5. Cerny described the ‘big three’ additions that it brings to the table, including a larger GPU that has 67% more compute units than the current model and 28% faster memory. Sony claims that this will lead to up to 45% faster rendering while you’re playing, leading to a much smoother experience overall.
Another major addition is advanced ray tracing, which will allow for more dynamic reflections. The example used in the stream showed very life-like reflections on the sides of cars in a match of Gran Turismo 7, an impressive showcase of what the PS5 Pro can do.
Finally, the PS5 Pro will utilize AI-driven upscaling or PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). It seems as though this will work similarly to existing upscaling solutions like Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD FSR, upscaling an image using AI technology in order to deliver great image clarity and detail while keeping performance stable.
We’re still waiting for more information to emerge but, judging by everything that we’ve seen so far, it seems safe to say that the PS5 Pro is very powerful and will really help some of the best PS5 games shine.
2. The price might sting
The price of the PS5 Pro was also revealed and you should probably brace yourself as it might sting. The PS5 Pro will cost $699.99 / £699.99 / AU$1,999.95, which is an increase of $200 / £200 / AU$450 compared to the base PS5.
An increased price tag for the PS5 Pro was to be expected given the substantial jump in its power relative to the original machine, but this is still a lot of money to ask for any video game console. It also means that the PS5 Pro is officially now Sony’s most expensive console to date.
We’ll have to wait and see whether this high price tag negatively impacts the number of people willing to invest in the PS5 Pro, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it pushes more budget-conscious gamers towards other options from competitors like the Xbox Series X or even a fully-fledged gaming PC.
3. More storage out of the box
Here’s one key upgrade that might be overlooked. We now know that the PS5 Pro will come with 2TB of storage out of the box, a big boost compared to the 825GB of the original model and even the 1TB of the PS5 Slim. This is a massive improvement, especially when you consider the huge installation size of many recent games. To give you a brief idea of what this means in practical terms, 2TB will fit just over 13 installations of the 150GB Horizon Forbidden West.
This will be a big deal for those with large libraries who, realistically, are likely to be the main target demographic for a ‘Pro’ console.
4. Game Boost looks great
Definitely one of the stronger features in the PS5 Pro’s repertoire, in our opinion, is PS5 Pro Game Boost. This could potentially achieve great things, applying performance boosts to “more than 8,500 backward compatible PS4 games playable on PS5 Pro” according to the official PlayStation Blog post.
What this effectively means is that your collection of PS4 games will run better than ever on PS5 Pro. Potentially, that could extend to games that never received any enhancement patches on either PS5 or PS4 Pro. That certainly makes shopping for older PS4 titles much more enticing whether that's secondhand or when one of PlayStation's digital sales events rolls around.
5. No disc drive or stand, I'm afraid
We're going to end on a bit of a downer, sadly. We now know for sure that the PS5 Pro does not ship with a console stand or a disc reader.
The PlayStation blog confirms that the “PS5 Pro is available as a disc-less console, with the option to purchase the currently available Disc Drive for PS5 separately.” If you’re unaware, the Blu-Ray Disc Drive by itself costs $79.99 / £99.99 / AU$159.
If you’re planning on going physical, then, expect to pay up to $779.98 / £799.98 / AU$1,358.85 for the console and disc drive in total. If you already own the Disc Drive for PS5 for your PS5 Slim, though, it seems likely that it will be compatible with the PS5 Pro.
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