The PS5 Pro:

A PC Gamer's perspective

Posted: 9/11/24 (scary)

For the uninitated, Sony announced the PS5 Pro. Right after shutting down one Concord, a game that is now considered a rare item.

A PlayStation 5 Pro

The differences between the PS5 and PS5 Pro are what Sony claims are "The Big Three":

Bigger GPU

Sony has increased the amount of Compute Units from 36 to 60 and has increased memory speeds by 28%, resulting in a faster rendering time of 45% compared to the PS5.

In PC Gamer terms, its like taking a GPU from 5 years ago (RX 5700XT) and replacing it with a GPU from now (RX 7700XT)

Advanced Ray Tracing

Compared to Nvidia, AMD is lightyears behind the Ray Tracing capabilities and Sony claims that AMD has a Ray Tracing engine that has not been shown to the public yet in their PC GPU lineup. If these claims are true, it would allow us to game at 4k60 along with having very detailed lighting.

Sony claims that the calculations used for Ray Tracing are double or even triple what the PS5 can do.

AI Driven Upscaling

Sony also has added a new Machine Learning Upscaler called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, or PSSR. Which sounds similar to Nvida's DLSS, which renders a game in a lower resotion, then using AI, upscales it based on a higher resolution model.

Other Information

According to the leaks from earlier this year, it seems that they were correct about the Pro being focused on GPU only as the CPU and SSD look to be nearly identical to the PS5. Not like this would matter since making huge changes to the architecture would break a lot of games and cause even more headaches.

Final Thoughts

Sony kept a lot of information about "The Big Three" despite them diving into the technical information about the PS5 for near an hour back in 2020. Why would they do this? Who knows. Maybe its not ready for they don't want to release information too early.

It is a simple sales pitch however, PS5 Pro owners can now have both Pretty and Smooth visuals at once. At least in theory.

They also didn't showcase any new games, only existing PS4/5 titles. Which may be why many people are so upset, because for $700 it seems like a waste of money, when you could get a used PC or an Xbox.

What do I think of the PS5 Pro?

Despite what many people have said about the PS5 Pro Technical Presentation, I could notice a difference, but not one that justifies an extra $250 for the priviledge. And most people would agree. A large number of people could not tell the difference between the two game captures, which says a lot about how much of a "not worth $700" the PS5 Pro is.

I personally would play the console at my desk, and I prefer performance vs detailed graphics. It's what I grew up on, I didn't have the cash to get a decent or good GPU growing up. Whatever the PC I had, had, in terms of GPU, is what I got. So many games looked potato and that was okay.

I thankfully now have the priviledge of owning 2 monitors with a decent PC that lets me get over 60 on lower midrange games, to at least 30 in more demanding games.

I would not be able to tell the difference with my 27 inch 1080p monitor, which is why I personally would not buy one, if I had the opportunity to.

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