Following over a year of rumors, Sony announced the PS5 Pro console on September 10. Like the PlayStation 4 Pro console, it’s a mid-generation hardware refresh aimed at high-end gamers who wish to run PlayStation 5 games at higher frame rates and/or with better visual quality.
As PlayStation Principal Product Manager Toshi Aoki confirmed in late September, Sony has started discussing the PS5 Pro internally even before the PlayStation 5 launch (November 2020). The first concrete rumors about the specs came in October 2023 via RedGamingTech, while another leaker shared even more in December 2023.
Release date and pricing
The PlayStation 5 Pro will debut globally on Thursday, November 7, 2024. Its pricing was by far the most contentious topic of the unveiling. Pre-release rumors hinted at a price of around $500, but the reality is far different: Sony asks $699 / £699 / €799 for its new console.
This is a major departure from the PS4 Pro, which launched at the same price as the base PlayStation 4, just $399. Of course, many things have changed over these last eight years, such as inflation and the inability to reduce manufacturing costs over time after launch.
Despite the high price, Sony remains confident that the PS5 Pro console could sell similarly to the PS4 Pro, which accounted for circa 20% of the total PlayStation 4 sales. Since then, Digital Foundry and even Respawn’s Vince Zampella have argued that assembling a PC as powerful as the PlayStation 5 Pro would inevitably cost more nowadays.
Hardware Specifications
The console’s main enhancements are undoubtedly found in the GPU, a significant improvement over the PS5’s RDNA 2-based graphics card that only featured 36 Compute Units. The PS5 Pro, on the other hand, is equipped with 60 Compute Units, or 67% more than the base console. The memory speed is also 28% faster, going from 448GB/s to 576GB/s.
Overall, Sony says this will translate into 45% faster rendering. But the PS5 Pro’s ace in the hole may well be the inclusion of unreleased AMD technology that will greatly improve ray tracing performance (up to twice as fast). System architect Mark Cerny said outright that Sony spurred this innovation.
The new console will offer a 2TB SSD, more than twice the 825GB of the PS5. However, it does not include a disc drive or a vertical stand, which must be purchased separately (for $79.99 and $29.99, respectively) for those interested. The PS5 Pro also supports Wi-Fi 7 and 8K displays.
So far, few developers have commented on the hardware, but No Man’s Sky Engine programmer Martin Griffiths openly declared that the PS5 Pro ‘absolutely rocks.’
Software Features
Another major new feature of the PS5 Pro is the so-called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution. This is the first console with built-in AI upscaling technology powered by machine learning. Cerny said of PSSR:
We added custom hardware for machine learning and an AI library called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, or PSSR for short. PSSR analyzes the game images pixel by pixel and can add an extraordinary amount of detail, which boosts the effective resolution.
While usage of technologies like PSSR will require work on behalf of the individual game developer, the console also includes a system-wide feature called PS5 Pro Game Boost, which can improve the performance of PS4 and PS5 games alike. Moreover, another feature called Enhanced Image Quality for PS4 games will be available to improve the resolution on select PS4 games.
PS5 Pro Confirmed Games
So far, 62 existing or upcoming PlayStation 5 games have been confirmed to receive proper support for the new console. You can find them all below, and we’ll add more as they are announced by the respective game studios.
- Alan Wake 2
- Apex Legends
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows
- The Callisto Protocol
- The Crew Motorfest
- cyubeVR
- Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster
- Demon’s Souls
- Diablo IV
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard
- Dragon’s Dogma 2
- Dwarf Journey
- Dynasty Warriors: Origins
- EA Sports College Football 25
- EA Sports FC 25
- Empire of the Ants
- Enlisted
- F1 24
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- The First Descendant
- Fortnite
- Gran Turismo 7
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Kayak VR Mirage
- The Last of Us Part I
- The Last of Us Part II Remastered
- Lies of P
- Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
- Madden NFL 25
- Marvel Rivals
- Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
- The Midnight Town Stories: Adam’s Diary
- Mortal Kombat 1
- My Little Universe
- Naraka: Bladepoint
- No Man’s Sky
- Outbreak: Shades of Horror Chromatic Split
- Pro Baseball Spirits 2024-2025
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Redacted
- Resident Evil 4
- Resident Evil Village
- Retrieval
- Rise of the Ronin
- Rogue Flight
- Spider-Man Remastered
- Spider-Man Miles Morales
- Spider-Man 2
- Spine: This is Gun Fu
- Star Wars Jedi Survivor
- Star Wars Outlaws
- Stellar Blade
- Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown
- Towers of Aghasba
- Unreal Kingdoms
- Until Dawn
- Warframe
- War Thunder
- Wolverine
- World of Warships: Legends
