Sony has now officially announced the PS5 Pro and as suspected it’s going to be releasing this holiday season, but at a considerably higher price than the original PS5.
Sony confirmed the console and its launch date and price during a technical preview on the morning of September 10. Sony’s Mark Cerny began the technical preview by talking up the original PS5 that launched nearly four years ago. Following that trip down memory lane, Cerny immediately showed off the new Pro model of the console. It comes with some notable upgrades that Sony feels justify the price increase. Not the least of which is simply better visual fidelity while delivering faster frame rates.
With the original PS5, many games are capable of running at 60 frames per second. Some can even run at up to 120 frames per second, like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. However, in a lot of the games that support 60 frames, you either have to choose between that 60 frames in the game’s Performance Mode, or go for the Fidelity Mode and gain visual fidelity while the frames dip down to 30. It’s a compromise that many gamers have had to make but likely wouldn’t mind not having to.
The PS5 Pro will essentially take away the requirement of having to choose. You can have your cake and eat it too. Interestingly Cerny says that players were choosing Performance Mode about three-quarters of the time.
Sony’s new PS5 Pro will launch at $700 USD
This is a big ask from consumers, full stop. A $700 price tag is likely what some weren’t hoping for, but it is probably what many were expecting. The kicker here is that the PS5 Pro comes without the disc drive. Making the price just a little tougher to swallow. However, it does support the disc drive add-on that Sony released alongside the PS5 Slim. So you can still get the PS5 Pro and play physical games. That being said, the disc drive add-on is another $80.
To top things off, the new stand that allows the PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro to sit vertically costs $30. So you’re looking at a total of $810 altogether. For some with the original PS5 or the Slim model, the upgrade may not be worth the asking price, but there are definite tangible benefits to the more powerful console.
The PS5 Pro has 45% faster rendering and advanced Ray Tracing
If you’re trying to come up with reasons why you might want to spend this money, here’s what you’re looking at. The PS5 Pro promises an overall performance boost of 45% faster rendering thanks to a larger GPU. This makes gameplay “much smoother,” Sony says.
It also has advanced Ray Tracing capabilities for even higher visual fidelity. The new Ray Tracing capabilities can oftentimes allow rays to be cast at double the speeds of the current PS5. Sony says that in some cases the speeds are even tripled. Additionally, the PS5 Pro offers AI-upscaling via PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution. This was rumored to be coming much earlier this year, and it turns out the rumors were true.
Sony is also already working with developers to enable games to take advantage of these features. Games like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Demon’s Souls, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Gran Turismo 7, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows will all get free updates for this feature support. With more coming in the future.
The PS5 Pro launches on November 7
Price notwithstanding, the PS5 Pro is an impressive piece of hardware for console gamers. The upgrades are certainly going to enhance the experience of playing PS5 games. If you’re not deterred by the high cost, you can purchase the console on November 7. Pre-orders for the PS5 Pro will begin on September 26. The PS5 Pro will be available at PlayStation Direct and at participating retailers. Sony does not confirm if retailers will have pre-orders on the same day, but it’s likely they will. How much stock they have is another story.
2024-09-11 15:09:11