The PS5 Pro Design and Build:
Sleek, Familiar Look
Physically, the PS5 Pro adopts the same general look as its predecessor with some tweaks. Its form factor is smaller and thinner, akin to the PS5 Slim, yet retains its distinctive matte finish. Notably, the Pro is a digital-only console with additional ventilation stripes, giving it a cool, streamlined look. This digital-only nature may disappoint fans with extensive physical media collections, however.Cooling and Ventilation
With new venting on both sides, the Pro manages airflow effectively to support higher graphical output and intensive gaming. Aesthetic stripes add a racing-inspired edge, but they’re functional too, reducing thermal load during gameplay.
The Hardware Upgrade:
Boosted GPU Performance
An upgraded GPU with faster memory and more compute units powers the Pro, delivering enhanced 4K visuals with improved frame rates. The "big three" upgrades—GPU power, ray tracing, and AI-driven upscaling—bring more fidelity and stability to the gameplay.Enhanced Ray Tracing
New ray-tracing capabilities enhance lighting, shadows, and reflections, offering a richer visual experience in supported games. Games like Demon’s Souls and Alan Wake 2 truly showcase this feature, bringing environments to life with heightened realism.AI Upscaling with PSSR
The PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) is PlayStation’s answer to AI upscaling seen on PC
When the PlayStation 5 launched in November 2020, Sony brought more than just a new console—it delivered an exciting leap in gaming experience. The PS5 wasn’t just visually impressive; it promised smooth gameplay, virtually instant load times, and a compelling lineup of games that showcased the system’s power, including several first-party titles that set a new standard for console gaming. Fast forward to 2024, and games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales continue to dazzle players on the PS5. Guiding Miles as he soars through a sprawling cityscape and slips effortlessly between towering skyscrapers is still an exhilarating experience, and it highlights just how well the PS5’s visuals and fluidity have held up.
For my money, Demon’s Souls, remade by Bluepoint Games, is still the most visually stunning title on the PS5. Its atmospheric lighting and carefully crafted art direction capture the game’s hauntingly tense mood, making it feel as immersive today as it did on release. This kind of quality is a testament to Sony’s achievement in making the PS5 a console with true staying power.
The PS5 Pro, now joining the PlayStation lineup, enters the market as a powerful hardware upgrade intended to enhance the PS5’s capabilities. With improved internals and a sleek design, the Pro might appeal to both new and dedicated players—but its appeal will hinge on convincing these gamers that the upgrade is truly worthwhile. Unlike the original PS5, which introduced a brand-new gaming experience, the Pro has to make its case with performance tweaks rather than groundbreaking exclusives.
The new PS5 Pro looks familiar, retaining the sleek, bold design of its predecessors, yet with a slightly smaller footprint. It adopts a matte finish similar to the launch PS5, and new ventilation slats line both sides of the console for improved cooling. This cooling setup supports the Pro’s beefed-up graphics processing unit, which allows for crisp 4K visuals. And while the look of the PS5 Pro isn’t radically different, those “racing stripes” definitely add a subtle aesthetic flair.
Physically, the most noticeable change is the lack of a disc drive; the PS5 Pro is a digital-only console. While the trend toward digital gaming continues, many gamers still value the ability to use physical media. And at a $700 price point, those who have a library of physical PS4 or PS5 games will need to pay extra to enjoy them on the Pro. This missing feature may cause hesitation for some fans, especially those who prize their physical game collections.
Sony has highlighted several technical improvements with the PS5 Pro. According to PlayStation’s Mark Cerny, the Pro allows players to enjoy both the frame rate fluidity of a performance mode and the high-quality visuals of a fidelity mode, thanks to three key upgrades: a more powerful GPU, enhanced ray tracing, and PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), a machine learning-based upscaling technology that sharpens images. This “big three” brings console gaming closer to the high-performance, visually striking experience often reserved for powerful gaming PCs.
To put these features to the test, I tried out some of the PS5’s best visual showcases on the Pro. Demon’s Souls, for instance, has been updated with a PS5 Pro setting that combines the detail of Cinematic mode with the smoothness of Performance mode. The result is impressive, as I could see finer environmental details and lighting effects that weren’t as pronounced before. However, most of these enhancements are subtle—if I hadn’t scrutinized the game side-by-side in different modes, I might not have noticed the difference. This makes the Pro’s improvements a nice addition, but not essential.
Alan Wake 2 makes better use of the Pro’s enhanced ray tracing. The eerie, atmospheric lighting benefits from the Pro’s upgraded visuals, making the game even more immersive. But while Quality mode in Alan Wake 2 looks stunning at 4K with ray tracing, it’s capped at 30fps, which gives the gameplay a slower feel. This is where the PS5 Pro’s performance mode shines, balancing sharp visuals and a higher frame rate for smooth gameplay without sacrificing quality.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 goes a step further, giving players a range of settings that let them adjust visual effects similar to PC games. With Fidelity Pro mode at 30fps, I could enjoy stunning ray-traced reflections and ambient occlusion. And the game’s flexible settings allow for a 120hz option for smoother gameplay if the display supports it. Swinging through New York City as Spider-Man with everything dialed up is visually stunning. Even the smallest details, like the lights in high-rise buildings and the glow of dawn over the skyline, are crystal clear.
Other games I tested, like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, showed a noticeable difference in image clarity and frame rate stability with PSSR. In Rebirth, the PS5 Pro’s Versatility mode balanced 4K resolution with high frame rates, eliminating the choppiness sometimes seen in graphics-prioritized modes on the standard PS5. Ratchet & Clank, meanwhile, looked exceptionally vibrant and dense with detail on Fidelity Pro mode, though the visual differences between Fidelity Pro and Performance Pro were minimal.
I also explored the Pro’s performance with backward-compatible PS4 games, including Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima, and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The visual improvements were minimal, but load times were slightly faster, which made the experience a bit smoother. Without specific developer optimizations, though, PS4 games don’t fully utilize the Pro’s power.
Ultimately, the PS5 Pro is an impressive but inessential upgrade for most players. Its visual improvements are often subtle, and without exclusive games that push the console to its limits, it’s hard to recommend the Pro over the standard PS5. The enhancements it offers are more appealing on paper than they are transformative in gameplay, and in most cases, you’ll still need to choose between higher frame rates and top-tier visuals. Unless you’re someone who must have the latest tech or can spare the extra money, a standard PS5 will deliver a gaming experience that is more than satisfying for most.
The PS5 Pro does narrow the gap between fidelity and performance, but it hasn’t revolutionized gameplay in the way the original PS5 did. It’s a console that enthusiasts may appreciate, but for the average gamer, the benefits may not be significant enough to justify the upgrade.
