PlayStation 5 Pro: Everything we know
With rumors flying of a potential PlayStation 5 Pro, we go over all of the information out there right now, including speculated release windows, price rumors, and leaked features.
With the PlayStation 5 now four years old, rumors surrounding a potential pro version of the Sony console are well underway. Its predecessor, the PlayStation 4, received its pro upgrade just three years after the original console’s launch, so the PS5 is more than due its “pro” counterpart.
Sony has yet to announce or confirm the existence of the PS5 Pro, but, Insider Gaming, notorious for publishing reports and leaks, has further backed up its report from March that there’s a PS5 Pro on the way.
Just remember, everything written here is speculative, and should only be considered a rumor for now. With that in mind, here’s everything we know about the PS5 Pro.
Release window speculation
The PS5 Pro is expected to release in 2024, according to reports. These leaked details come from Tom Henderson of The Verge, who accurately predicted PlayStation’s portable streaming device ahead of the announcement.
In an article for Insider Gaming published in May 2023, Henderson shared that they can report with “100% degree of certainty” that the PlayStation 5 Pro is currently in development, and that its expected release date is ”Q4 2024.”
Additionally, Dexerto understands that developers have also been briefed on the new console.
Dexerto While the Q4 2024 release window is regarded as when we can expect the upgraded console to come to fruition, Henderson has doubts.
According to the reliable leaker, several sources have indicated concerns about the proposed release window. This is allegedly due to the low number of first-party games that will make use of its upgraded tech come launch.
Despite this, developers still have until July 30 2024 to submit any applications for their games to support the PS5 Pro to Platform Certifications & Operations (CertOps.)
His latest report explains that while it doesn’t fully support the 2024 release date, all applications released after September 15th “will be required to support the PlayStation 5 Pro.” With that in mind, the PS5 Pro could still be on track for its proposed Q4 2024 release window.
Price speculation
The PS5 Pro is expected to cost between $600-$700, according to a YouTube video from reporter Jeff Grubb.
It’s all speculative, but the PS5 Pro could cost considerably more than the current PS5 and PS5 Slim disc and digital-only models. Especially to account for all the proposed hardware upgrades.
However, when the PS4 Pro launched on November 10th, 2016, it only cost $399. Despite its better GPU, support for new “performance” modes in certain titles that increased graphical fidelity, its price point was the same as the original PS4 at launch.
Specs speculation
YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead released a video outlining the specifications that had supposedly leaked for the PS5 Pro console. The video has been removed from YouTube, following a copyright claim from Sony, lending credence to its contents.
Luckily, we know from the now-deleted video, that the PS5 Pro is slated to release with 576 GB/s (18GT/s) system memory, a 28% increase over the launch version of the Sony console.
UnsplashThe CPU will allegedly be identical to the PS5 processor, yet the PS5 Pro will come with a ‘High CPU Frequency Mode.’ This mode will push the CPU to 10% higher than the original PS5, taking it up to 3.85GHz.
In a later YouTube video posted on August 27, Moore’s Law is Dead also shared that the PS5 Pro dev kit, which the creator reportedly saw in person, comes with 2TB of storage.
While this doesn’t mean the PS5 Pro will have that exact storage capacity, it would make sense. Its competition, the Xbox Series X console, recently got a 2TB refresh of its own, expected to be released later this year.
The originally leaked specs were later confirmed by The Verge, which further explained that devs will be able to pick the mode during development and have access to 1.2GB more system memory.
Both the launch PS5 and the PS5 Slim, currently have 12.5GB of system memory for devs to utilize. However, Tom Warren explains that Sony has increased this to 13.7GB for the rumored PS5 Pro.
The PS5 Pro is also alleged to have a more powerful GPU with an improved rendering, slated to be 45% faster than its predecessor. The PS5 Pro is also said to deliver x2-4 faster ray-tracing performance.
AMD leaker Kepler_L2 revealed that the PS5 Pro would have access to several new RDNA 4 ray-tracing features.
Rumored RDNA4 ray tracing features explained
A full list of RDNA4 ray tracing features revealed by Kepler is as follows:
- Double ray-tracing intersect engine
- Potential increase in GPU processing for ray-tracing by doing it in parallel
- RT instance node transform
- Efficient way to transform 3D objects
- Ray Tracing Tri-Pair optimization
- Decreases computational load when calculating ray-triangle intersections
- Change flags encoded in barycentrics to simplify the detection of procedural nodes
- Unknown currently
- BVH Footprint Improvement
- Bounding Volume Hierarchy to potentially make grouping geometry faster.
- RT support for OBB and Instance Node Intersection
- Oriented Bounding Box might get ray-tracing support. The OBB involves an invisible container that calculates the size, position, and collision of an object.
Power leak
YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead also shared in a YouTube video, that he had seen a PS5 Pro dev kit in person, and that the upgraded console has the same “two-prong power connector” as the launch model PS5.
As usual, any Moore’s Law is Dead video should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the tech content creator suspects that the PS5 Pro will use less than 250 watts or even less than 200 watts.
For comparison’s sake, that wouldn’t be a huge difference from the PS5, which consumes around 209.8W in AAA games.
Features speculation
It’s expected that the PS5 Pro will be more powerful in terms of what it can provide graphically, but won’t leave the older console in the dust.
“The PlayStation 5 Pro will be targeting improved and consistent FPS at 4K resolution, a new ‘performance mode’ for 8K resolution, and accelerated ray tracing,” Henderson said.
These rumors are lent credence by an X/Twitter post from user Onion00048, who spotted a new patent from PlayStation’s Mark Cerny in 2022.
Cerny, the architect behind the PlayStation 4 and director of Knack, submitted a patent indicating that Sony is investigating how to increase ray tracing performance on the PS5.
As this couldn’t be implemented via an update to the PS5 console and would require newer hardware, it’s expected that the PS5 Pro would focus on graphical fidelity much like the PS4 Pro.
The now-deleted Moore’s Law Is Dead video also shared details surrounding ‘PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution’, or PSSR. According to the YouTuber, PSSR is Sony’s in-house upscaling tech, similar to Nvidia‘s DLSS, and AMD‘s FSR.
A document shared within the Moore’s Law Is Dead video alleges that PSSR will utilize machine-learning techniques and enhance the resolution of games, with 4K support at first, then later with 8K support coming in a future SDK version.
According to sources who spoke to Tom Warren at The Verge, Sony is encouraging developers to use ray-tracing tech, with games showing any significant enhancements being able to use a “Trinity Enhanced” label.
Games & backward compatibility
Like with the PS4 Pro, we expect that Sony won’t split the PlayStation user base up depending on the console they happen to have. Every game will come to every version of the console that gets released.
When the PS4 Pro originally launched, games like Days Gone and Horizon Zero Dawn were advertised as compatible with the upgraded Sony console.
The open-world RPG supported the then-brand-new HDR feature, along with 4K TV compatibility.
SteamWhile just like the existence of the console itself, no game has been announced with PS5 Pro support in mind, we suspect this trend will continue.
We can only continue speculating for now, but Metal Gear Solid Delta and the Silent Hill 2 Remake are among some of the upcoming games for PS5 that likely could see improved PS5 Pro versions going forward.