PS5 Pro confirmed — New Playstation will cost $699.99 on November 5 with larger GPU and PSSR Upscaling

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PS5 Pro confirmed — New Playstation will cost $699.99 on November 5 with larger GPU and PSSR Upscaling

The PlayStation 5 Pro had been long-rumored, and Sony started teasing it as PlayStation celebrated its 30-year anniversary. As expected, the new PS5 Pro features a redesigned chassis that omits the optical drive, but more important to hardware enthusiasts, it’s getting a big upgrade in the GPU department along with improvements to the memory subsystem. Here’s the breakdown of what’s changing and how it will affect performance.

A lot has changed in the hardware world since the original PlayStation 5 was revealed in September 2020. Back then, Zen 2 / Ryzen 3000 CPUs were the fastest processors from AMD, though they were superseded by Zen 3 and Ryzen 5000 just a couple of months after the PS5 announcement. Each Ryzen CPU generation has typically brought a 10–15 percent improvement in IPC (instructions per cycle), a key performance indicator. AMD just launched its Zen 5 and Ryzen 9000 series CPUs, three full generations newer than the original PS5 processor, but if you were hoping to see that in the PS5 Pro, prepare for some disappointment.

In order to better maintain backward compatibility, and to save on costs, the PS5 Pro will likely stick with the Zen 2 architecture on the CPU. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the CPU generally isn’t holding back performance on the PS5. There could be a shrink in the process node, from the original TSMC N7 7nm-class used on the PS5 to a more modern TSMC node like N5 or even N4P. Sony hasn’t provided any details on this aspect yet. If there’s a node shrink, which seems probable, it would bring some power and efficiency improvements to the table, allowing for slightly higher clocks on the CPU.

The big change is in the graphics department. The PS5 was the first taste of AMD’s then-nascent RDNA 2 architecture — the PC ‘Big Navi’ Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs wouldn’t begin shipping until November 18, 2020, one day before the PS5 officially went on *****. Even then, the PS5’s 36 CU (Compute Unit) design only matches the RX 6700 10GB in terms of core specs. While it’s a reasonably capable GPU for mainstream gaming, it certainly can’t keep up with the likes of the RX 6800 XT, never mind the current generation RX 7800 XT. And now we’re looking forward to the AMD RDNA 4 GPUs, which are expected to begin shipping in early 2025.

So what have Sony and AMD cooked up for the PS5 Pro? Sony isn’t quite spilling all the beans, but it did say there’s a 67% increase in compute units as well as 28% faster memory. There are also enhancements to double or even triple the ray tracing throughput, and AI hardware of some form.

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(Image credit: Sony Computer Entertainment)

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(Image credit: Sony Computer Entertainment)

RDNA 3 did offer some updates in the ray tracing department, and AMD may have taken things a step further for the custom PS5 Pro silicon. Or maybe it’s some amalgamation of multiple GPU generations all wrapped up in a nice bag. Either way, the inclusion of 60 CUs with enhanced ray tracing capabilities plus AI for PSSR — PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution — should provide for significantly improved performance at higher resolutions and with higher fidelity. That’s Cerny’s main point: that the PS5 Pro will effectively match the original PS5 “Performance mode” while delivering the image quality of “Fidelity mode.”

The price tag, however, is high. When the system launches on November 7, it will cost $699, which is a steep increase over the $499.99 PS5 with disc drive or $449.99 digital edition. While the system won’t come with an optical disc drive, you’ll be able to buy one separately, similar to the PS5 Slim.

Developing… Check back for more…

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