Blair Loveday
We have spent four glorious years with the current gen of consoles, and with some games starting to creak around the edges a bit, an upgrade was inevitable.
And the console that needs that upgrade the most is the Nintendo Switch, but that isn’t the machine I am talking about. Instead what we have is the shiny new PS5, aptly called the PlayStation 5 Pro.
So what’s in the box?
The box is loaded with the shiny new PS5 Pro, a Dual Sense controller, and all the cables. What it doesn’t come with is a vertical stand, or any stand for that matter, or a disc drive. Initially with the high price I was expecting these which is unfortunate.
The good news is while there isn’t a model with the disc drive, you can add a disc drive yourself. The disc drive is the same model that was used for the PS5 Digital. It sells out fast so keep your eye out, but don’t pay the gouging prices on online auction websites, they will come back into stock.
When you compare the original PS5 prices, the digital edition was the lowest of course with the disc version being the more expensive, until now, so this is at least consistent. The big benefit with Sony doing it this way is you don’t have to worry about only one console version being available and having to buy a disc version you don’t want, or buy a digital version and wanting that disc drive. You can buy this, then get the disc drive when you’re ready. The challenge, especially when comparing to those original prices, is the PlayStation 5 Pro price tag is very steep.
What about style?
The console certainly has a look. I have always thought the PS5 was an ugly console, but the PS5 Slim made it way tidier by reducing the collars that were sticking out the top. The PS5 Pro has a similar style to the PS5 Slim, but with slightly bigger fins on the side.
When it comes to physical size it is bigger than the Slim, but smaller than the original PS5. So it is pretty dang sleek for a PS5. I still wouldn’t say I love the design, but it’s way tidier than the original.
So, what are you getting for the price?
Obviously the price point here is quite steep. So, what are you getting here?
The first thing is it is rocking a similar SSD to the original but it’s 2TB which is a decent step up. The real money is in the GPU though. The GPU has a way bigger 16.7 teraflops which is a huge jump over the 10.3 teraflops in the original. This and some other on board improvements allows for the big change which is PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution).
PSSR is essentially an AI system that upscales images being broadcast onto the TV. This is expected to get the images up to 4K without putting all the strain on the hardware. It should be able to hit higher eventually, apparently 8k with a lower FPS. Given the power of most TV’s, this is unlikely to be an issue any time soon.
So in essence, all the money has gone into the graphics. This may sound like a bad thing, but given how well games perform on the PS5, the main issue will be graphics related. If your game is jittering, or bouncing around, it’s more than likely to be the power of the graphics card. With the new upgrade, a bunch of games offer performance, graphics, or balanced options. In many situations performance gets the games to a consistent 60 FPS and the games look better than the graphics modes on the PS5. Each of these potential options come down to how they have been set up in the game, but generally you get at least a couple of options.
How do the games look?
Naturally I had to take these for a spin. The first game I took for a spin was Spiderman 2.
That game looked amazing and performed well before, so I wasn’t expecting a change. The biggest change is scenery in the background. Buildings and stuff look way more detailed at distance. This isn’t exactly a game changer, but it looks nice.
Gran Turismo 7 on the other hand looks bloody stunning. For some real perspective I played it for a few hours and then went back to my OG PS5 and the detail and quality looks almost night and day. Again, GT7 looks amazing on PS5, so you aren’t missing that much, but it looks just that little more gorgeous on PS5 Pro.
The real challenge to test are games that were struggling on PS5, and there aren’t many of those. Metaphor: ReFantazio for example supposedly had real frame rate issues on the OG PS5, which from anecdotes I have heard from others are sorted on the Pro. Baldur’s Gate 3 on the other hand ran perfectly decent on PS5, but I booted that up and there is a clear improvement on PS5 Pro. It looks and runs so much smoother.
There are some games that are reported to have some issues. I have heard issues with the Dragon Age, Dragon’s Dogma, and more where they can have some graphical or performance issues. I don’t have any of these so couldn’t test myself, but imagine they should be patched and fixed quickly.
Should you get one?
This is a tough one. There is a noticeable bump in the smoothness and graphics of games, and that extra storage is really sweet. The issue is that it is very expensive and the bump isn’t massive. If money isn’t an issue for you, then yea it’s great.
If you are looking to buy your first PS5, or your old PS5 is broken, then I would absolutely recommend buying it. But is there enough to justify it if funds are tighter to upgrade a working PS5 or Slim? For me, probably not when I could grab 12 brand new games to run on the excellent OG PS5.
While not an essential buy, the PlayStation 5 Pro is an amazing console, and well worth the cash if you have it.
