Upgrading from the base model to the PlayStation 5 Pro feels like upgrading from an RTX 3060 or 3060 Ti to an RTX 4070 GPU, allowing users to access visual features that were previously not available.
In a video shared recently on YouTube, the tech experts at Digital Foundry talked about the upcoming mid-generation system from Sony after having had the chance to go hands-on with it, saying that in games like F1 24, where the developer put plenty of effort into the PS5 Pro update, upgrading from the base model feels indeed like upgrading the GPU in a gaming system. Even in other scenarios where the visual improvements aren’t as massive, the PlayStation 5 Pro is definitely worth it for those players who play demanding console games in Performance Mode and wish to experience much better visual quality. On the other hand, the system doesn’t offer a whole lot in terms of visual improvements over the base model’s Quality mode, whose image quality is still fine at 4K resolution and standard viewing distance, although the system’s better ray tracing capabilities could be enticing even for this category of players as well.
As such, even at its high price, the PlayStation 5 Pro can definitely be worth it. While there is an argument to be made about the console’s price versus the price of a gaming PC with similar specs, the Sony console offers a completely hassle-free experience compared to a PC.
Digital Foundry also highlighted how important the introduction of the PlayStation 5 Pro’s PSSR upscaler is. The upscaler not only makes the system a more significant upgrade than what the specs suggest, but it can also be used to improve the visual quality of ray tracing, although not in the same way as DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction does, as Sony’s upscaler cannot separate all inputs from the final color value of a scene like the NVIDIA technology does.
Thankfully, it won’t take much longer for players to see for themselves if the PlayStation 5 Pro is a worthy upgrade over the base model. The console launches in less than a month, on November 7th, worldwide.
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