Sony’s announcement of the PlayStation 5 Pro has sent shockwaves through the gaming industry, but not the way that you think. Instead of hype, the company faced intense scrutiny, mainly for the product’s nonsensical price point, but also including other ridiculous decisions and nebulous claims.
At this point, this latest version no longer represents the evolution that we have always expected of gaming consoles. In comparison, the PS4 Pro still provided what was considered necessary at a price point that seemed fair despite its middling assessment.
So then, can the PS5 Pro at least justify itself as a future investment when faced with the current direction of game development? The answer to that is a bit more nuanced than a straight no.
Laying its Innards Bare
At the heart of the PS5 Pro is a considerably beefed-up GPU, with a 28% boost in GPU frequency and a 67% increase in compute units. According to Sony, this equates to a 45% better and faster rendering performance compared to the base PS5. The base PS5’s GPU features 36 compute units running at 2.23 GHz. Extrapolating from Sony’s claims, we can estimate that the PS5 Pro’s GPU might boast around 60 compute units running at approximately 2.85 GHz.
It is indeed an impressive jump. But if we observe overclocking trends over the last five years or so (somewhere past the GeForce GTX 10-series), the majority of the performance boost would most likely be carried by the increase in compute units. Also, knowing the trend of tech companies to cherrypick benchmarking metrics, this 45% most likely represents the optimal value. As such, a reasonable average would most likely hit somewhere around 25%. Still very substantial, but nowhere near as sensational.
This assessment is made even more convincing by the fact that the PS5 Pro upgrades will not feature a direct architecture jump, but rather a deeper customization of its RDNA2 architecture. Many tech websites dub this as ‘RDNA 2.5’ or ‘almost RDNA 3.’ But case in point, the architecture itself is still the same, only sprinkled with bits and pieces of features that were previously marketed heavily for RDNA 3.
Think of it as an upgrade from an RX 6700 (regarded as the compute equivalent of the base PS5) to an RX 6800. Same RDNA 2 architecture, but only bumping up its compute units and frequency, with a bit of RDNA 3 features here and there.
To be fair, this increase in GPU horsepower does represent a notable increase in ray tracing capabilities. But, come on, we talked about this a million times already. If you are playing a slower-paced game, sure. Take a deep breath, and wonder at the visual marvels of your realistic lighting and global illumination. But if you are playing faster-paced games, good luck sacrificing your frames for realism. Maybe, just maybe, you could get the best of both worlds with improved lighting plus balanced frame rates.
But not even the Radeon RX 7900 XTX has done that so far in 4K. So don’t expect stable 120 FPS, or true native 4K rendering when using the PS5 Pro’s ray tracing features.
Needless to say, an increase in compute units also demands a corresponding increase in memory bandwidth, which Sony claims to be at least 28% on the PS5 Pro. This is actually quite decent, and this is a good step in making heavier games more playable on the console at 4K. This is an overall plus and a win. This does not have to be GDDR6X, by the way, as a wider bus width could easily achieve this. And remember, RDNA 2. So GDDR6X would not be as economically sound for manufacturing.
As expected, there were no details about CPU upgrades. Gaming consoles are still integrated systems that weave the CPU and GPU in a significantly different way from the average PC. Some might worry that certain traditionally CPU-
intensive tasks might not keep up. But keep in mind, things like NPC counts and multi-player displays involve counting the assets more than rendering them. So no problems here in the near future, maybe even in the next decade.
AI-Driven Upscaling Considerations
One of the more interesting aspects of the PS5 Pro is Sony’s emphasis on AI-driven upscaling technology. Yes, the eternal buzzword rears its ugly head once again. Which is somewhat awkward given the almost equally heavy marketing towards being able to natively render in 4K. As we all know, this is completely different from simply downscaling resolutions a bit, and it has indeed helped a lot of GPUs today (those would enough VRAM at least) to maintain a level of usability (albeit at the cost of making develops lazier).
If this is truly AI-driven, and is as advanced as it purports to be, we can probably expect an Nvidia DLSS equivalent, or at least something that is more akin to Intel’s XeSS. Based on the teaser material, it does provide a good level of detail preservation. Textures and other similar surface data do tend to be far more noticeable than ray tracing features. But it doesn’t really add to the justification of the PS5 Pro’s cost. If anything, the availability of smart upscaling actually diminishes the exorbitant price offer, because the base PS5 could effectively make use of it as well.
Performance Implications
The PS5 Pro’s hardware enhancements translate to several key performance targets:
Native 4K rendering – Upscaling is the game for the PS5. Or, barring that, automatic resolution scaling. The PS5 Pro aims to reach true native 4K with its compute unit upgrades and memory bandwidth extension. However, with its current configuration, it is safe to assume that it would still rely on upscaling a fair amount of the time to stabilize frame rates.
Improved frame rates – If you are not too strict on settings and resolutions, the extra GPU power on 1440p and 1080p is actually quite impressive. It should allow more intensive games to keep a 60 FPS rate, or even 120 FPS for more optimized titles.
Enhanced ray tracing – We can also expect a direct improvement in ray tracing performance based on its rasterization improvements. Don’t expect too much though, as not even AMD’s RDNA 3 has mastered what Nvidia’s Lovelace and Intel’s Alchemist have done so far.
8K output? – While native 8K gaming remains highly impractical, the PS5 Pro supports 8K output, likely through upscaling techniques. A sort of gimmick “future-proofing” option, we suppose.
The Console Killer Trend Returns?
These upgrades might have been impressive and all, but Sony decided to slap a $700 price tag on it, while omitting other features already present in the original PS5. Yes, the unit only includes the base model, excluding the disc drive and vertical stand. As such, the PS5 Pro represents a significant investment to both new buyers and people who already own a base PS5.
The best part about the PS5, previously, was that no gaming PC could ever match it in terms of price to performance. The combined cost of the Radeon RX 6700 and a Ryzen 7 3700X (rough compute equivalents of the PS5) already cost more than a PS5, and that’s still without the rest of the PC components.
Even without considering the current economic landscape, bumping the PS5 Pro to $700 is asking for trouble purely in a PC price trend sense. To put this in perspective, for a slight bump to about $800, PC gamers could potentially build a system with:
· An Intel Core i5 12400 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600
· A much better GPU for ray tracing like a second-hand RTX 3070
· 16GB of DDR4 3600MT/s CL16 RAM
· A 1TB high-end PCIe 3.0 or mid-range PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
· A standard case and a Tier A power supply
While the PS5 Pro is better for plug-and-play use, the price comparison, plus application versatility, brings us almost back again to the meme-level PS4 Pro days (a time when people show off console killers often using an RX 580 or GTX 1060 that kicks console performance out of the water).
The “modularity” of the disc drive isn’t even a good idea in the slightest. This approach basically violates the all-in-one philosophy that has traditionally defined console gaming. The additional $80 cost just to get one and $30 for the vertical stand brings the total cost for a fully-equipped PS5 Pro to $810, making us even closer to the “PS5 killer” that we listed earlier.
How Good is it Right Now?
Unless Sony is willing to significantly drop the PS5 Pro’s overall price, there is absolutely no way that it will be worth the purchase. As we’ve seen with the continued PS4 support even today, developers will definitely strike more of an accessibility balance for the base PS5. Thus, most of the practical benefits of the PS5 Pro will boil down to better frame rates (within intended resolutions).
And if you are not crazy for 4K gaming, why even bother? 1440p hits the sweet spot between having a higher, more crisp fidelity than 1080p, while still balancing costs and performance very nicely in between. Remember, there is a reason why 1080p has continued to be an acceptable resolution even after all this time. There is a driving force in moving the goalposts of GPUs every new generation (GTX 1060 was marketed for 1440p, and now the RTX 4060 Ti is marketed for 1080p).
As for AI upscaling, it’s going to be a mixed bag. If updates related to the feature eventually become exclusive to the PS5 Pro, then we might see an eventual justification for its existence that combines its rasterization performance perks.
A step up in the right direction would definitely be if we would finally get a standalone, accessible web browser. Yes, you can work around it, but it’s not something you could call user-friendly. Not only would this enable you to visit different information-based sites, but it would also enable you to dive deeper into a different kind of gaming that also covers a huge market – web browser-based titles. This could include all genres of online card games, some 8 Ball Pool, Krunker, A Dark Room, in general, JAVA build games, or something simpler, like a turn-based game that everyone probably tried out at a certain point in their teenage years – OGame.
Will it Eventually Be Worth it?
The eventual success of the PS5 Pro, if it ever would, will depend heavily on how quickly and effectively developers can leverage its enhanced capabilities. That is really the only way that early adopters can justify their early purchase.
Would such a trend continue, though? Playability-wise, there is no reason to believe so. At least not on the compute performance front. Games with non-adjustable ray tracing are here sure, and modern features introduced by Unreal Engine 5 put new processing requirements on future games. But most of these can be overcome (generally) by upscaling and by compensating for rasterization performance.
Plus, a good number of games just outright won’t use these features to be playable. Red Dead Redemption 2 still looks very good even today, and it has been several GPU generations after its release. Titles with anime art styles, for example, will never use ultra-realistic graphics because that is simply not needed.
Case in point, there has to be some other game-changing technology that would spur this technical obsolescence. Something like the jump from AVX1 to AVX2 support in 4th Gen (Haswell) Intel processors, or the switch from AGP to PCI Express. The PS5 Pro simply does not represent such a leap.
Then again, Sony can just lower the price. It technically is already a single-tier jump from the base PS5. The company only needs to listen to the crowd and make its purchase more reasonable. Somewhere around the ballpark of $600 for the entire package, including the stand and disc drive goes a very long way to negating the backlash that the product currently suffers.
Keep Your OG PS5, and Just Build a PC
To be fair, the PS5 Pro does offer a tantalizing glimpse into the future of console gaming. However, for many, the base PS5 continues to provide more than enough for years to come.
The PS5 Pro’s legacy would instead be defined by how it influences game development practices, consumer expectations, and the broader trajectory of the gaming industry. Whether it proves to be a necessary jump for future game development gimmicks, or a cautionary tale about middling generation upgrades remains to be seen.
What’s clear is that Sony was absolutely out of touch with the current economy. What could have been an amazing deal in terms of raw compute performance, turned out to be an absolute media circus. That being said, we’re pretty sure that it will still sell at its original price to a good degree, given the console’s solid branding.
