What we know and what we want to see

Update: September 13, 2024 (2:23 PM ET): We’ve updated this PlayStation 5 Pro rumor hub with official details from the PS5 Pro announcement, as well as a leak that .

Original article: The PS4 Pro was only a slight iteration of the PS4. It used the same controller, played the same games, and had all the same features. Its main reason for existing was to allow for smoother gameplay, 4K support across various games, and a few other quality-of-life upgrades. Will the PS5 Pro be similar, only offering slight improvements?

In this article, we have rounded up all the credible facts, leaks, and rumors we’ve seen so far related to a PS5 Pro.

Just as it did with the PlayStation 4, Sony confirmed that the PlayStation 5 will get a Pro model. Earlier in the year, Sony announced it would do a September 10 presentation. The firm also had a minor slip-up that all but confirmed that the online event would feature the PS5 Pro. That online event turned out to be a technical presentation hosted by PS5 Pro architect Mark Cerny. In the video, we got our first real look at the PS5 Pro. It also provided details on the three most notable changes, which Cerny playfully calls the “big three,” which we’ll get into later.

• PlayStation 4 Pro — November 10, 2016

Sony announced on September 10 that the PlayStation 5 Pro will officially launch on November 7, 2024. Pre-orders are scheduled to open up on September 26. The new console will be available directly on PlayStation’s webstore or at participating retailers in territories where direct.playstation.com isn’t available. Sony says that pre-orders will be available at all other retail partners on October 10, 2024.

Included in the box will be a PS5 Pro, DualSense controller, HDMI cable, USB-C cable, power cable, and horizontal stand. What won’t be included is a vertical stand and disc drive.

Design

The PS5 Pro is the same height as the original PS5, but with the width of the current PS5 (a.k.a. the PS5 Slim). You can also swap out the side panels to customize the console to your liking. The most visible difference between the base system and the enhanced system is that the Pro features multiple horizontal lines in the midsection that stretch from front to back.

Due to the diagonal vents in the center, the PS5 Pro’s cover plates won’t be interchangeable with the PS5. So if you want to give the console a new look, you’ll need to buy new covers. At least you won’t have to worry about buying a new controller as it will still rely on the current version of the DualSense. There won’t be a variant with a disc drive, but the PS5’s disc drive add-on is compatible with the Pro if you plan on using physical media. And the USB-A port in the front has been replaced by an extra USB-C port.

What has been confirmed

Now that Sony has announced the PS5 Pro, we have some concrete details about the mid-gen refresh. As leaks had suggested, the goal of the PlayStation 5 Pro will be to achieve higher fidelity visuals and smoother frame rates. To accomplish this, the company focused its attention on three areas: the GPU, ray tracing, and AI-powered upscaling.

Starting with the GPU, the gaming giant explains that the GPU has been upgraded to have 67% more compute units and 28% faster memory than the base PS5. Confirming earlier reports, Sony states that this allows games to be rendered 45% faster than before. The company didn’t dive into specifics, but a report from Digital Foundry claims that the GPU has a clock speed of 2.18GHz with a boost speed up to 2.35GHz. Meanwhile, it was said that the cache of the GPU has been upgraded with an L1 cache offering 256KB and the L0 cache going up to 32KB. These numbers double what you get with the PS5’s GPU. On top of improvements to the clock speed and cache, Sony has also fit in new DirectX 12 Ultimate features such as variable rate shading and hybrid MSAA.

Next up, we have advanced ray tracing that’s said to provide more dynamic reflection and refraction of light. “This allows the rays to be cast at double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console,” said Hideaki Nishino, CEO of SIE’s Platform Business Group, on the PlayStation Blog. In an interview with CNET, Cerny said:

PS5 Pro uses the new advanced (ray tracing) feature sets that AMD created as the next step in their roadmap architecture. But if you look around, there are no other AMD GPUs that use it yet. We motivated the development, and I’m very happy we did so — the response from the developers has been extraordinarily great.

It should come as no surprise, but reports have said Sony wants developers to focus on this when creating games for the PS5 Pro. According to The Verge, sources close to the subject say developers were asked by Sony to make sure their games are compatible with the Pro and “focus on improving ray tracing.” Games that have significant improvements will have a “PS5 Pro Enhanced” label, which Sony says 40 to 50 games will get patches for by the time the Pro launches in November.

The final big talking point from the announcement was AI-driven upscaling. PlayStation won’t be using NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) to accomplish this as it has created its own version of the technology dubbed “PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution” (PSSR). As described by the firm, it is “AI-driven upscaling that uses a machine learning-based technology to provide super sharp image clarity by adding an extraordinary amount of detail.” In the video above, you can see how this upscaling helps boost visuals, making objects in the distance sharper and clearer than before.

While these factors all lead to better-looking visuals and more realistic graphics, they also help the PS5 Pro hit higher frame rates with less work. Unlike the PS5 where players often have to choose between performance or resolution modes, Cerny says gamers will now be able to enjoy the best of both worlds with 4K/60FPS. The console will be able to run games at up to 12oFPS, but will aim for at least a constant 60FPS. This will also open the doors for other game modes like 4K, 8K, and dedicated 120FPS modes.

In addition to this information, Sony adds that the console offers a feature called PS5 Pro Game Boost. This feature is capable of enhancing or stabilizing the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games. At the moment, the company says there are over 8,500 backward compatible PS4 games playable on PS5 Pro. There’s also an Enhanced Image Quality feature for PS4 games, which does exactly as it sounds, improves resolution on PS4 games. On top of that, the system has a 2TB SSD and supports Wi-Fi 7, 8K resolution, and variable refresh rate (VRR).

Expanding upon the presentation, CNET, who was given exclusive time with the console, provided a few extra details. According to the outlet, PSSR works across the whole game library, but those games will need to be patched first to upscale to 4K. As expected, the console will also benefit the PSVR 2, allowing VR games to get a performance boost with Game Boost. Sony is also reportedly tuning its AI upscaling to work with all VR games, but there are no upgraded VR games announced yet. If you plan on also getting a new TV to take full advantage of the Pro, you’ll want one that supports VRR that ranges from 40 to 120FPS as these will be the best for the Pro, Cerny told the outlet.

These are all the confirmed specs and features, so far. We still don’t have a spec sheet and there are plenty questions that still need to be answered. The leaks and rumors prior to this presentation help to fill in these gaps.

Leaked and rumored specs and features

In December 2023, a full set of specs for the processor leaked. Allegedly, the processor comes with the codename “viola” and is still based on the AMD Zen 2 architecture. A few of the details in the spec leak below have been confirmed:

Insider Gaming has reported that the PS5 Pro could come with an identical CPU to the regular PS5. However, the PS5 Pro could come with a “High CPU Frequency Mode,” which would take the CPU to 3.85GHz over the current 3.5GHz, which is a 10% increase. A caveat noted for this feature is that it could downclock the GPU and result in about 1% lower GPU performance.

Only days after Sony’s technical presentation, a new leak surfaced. An unspecified developer reportedly sent YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead early footage of one of their games running on a PS5 Pro side-by-side with it running on a base PS5. On the PS5, the footage claims the game has a 1080p-1600p dynamic resolution range with a mix of medium and high settings running between 45 to 60FPS. Meanwhile, the dynamic resolution range is 1600p-2160p and the FPS is locked at 60 — without the need for PSSR — on the PS5 Pro. The leak adds that there’s an extra 1.2 GB of RAM available thanks to a Memory System Efficiency system and corroborates that the High CPU Frequency Mode improves performance by 10% at the cost of GPU performance.

A report from The Verge explains the qualifications for earning the PS5 Pro Enhanced label. One way includes increasing the target resolution for PS5 Pro games that run at a fixed resolution on the base model. Another way is to increase the target maximum resolution for games that run at a variable resolution on PS5. This means a game that runs between 1080p and 1440p at 30FPS on PS5, but runs at 1440p and 2160p on the PS5 Pro at the same FPS would be eligible for the Enhanced title. Additionally, developers can earn the label by enabling ray-tracing effects in a game that didn’t have it before. No raising of the resolution would be needed for this option. Finally, if the developer were to raise the FPS (e.g., from 30 to 60) despite having the same resolution, this would also qualify for the Enhanced label.

Some improvements that wouldn’t qualify for the Enhanced label include stabilizing the frame rate on the Pro. The developer would also be denied if the game runs at a variable resolution on the PS5 and the increased resolution on the Pro didn’t increase the maximum resolution. For example, if a game that had a variable resolution between 1080p-1440p on PS5 was bumped up to a variable resolution between 1280p-1440p on PS5 Pro, that would not qualify.

The Audio Compute Voice (ACV) is also said to be running at a higher clock speed, with the Audio Compute Module library boasting 35% more performance. The end result is that more complex sounds can be processed quickly.

As mentioned earlier, there will be certain new and existing games that will be enhanced specifically for the PlayStation 5 Pro. These enhancements will make games look and run better than before. Sony says that 40-50 games will be ready with these enhancements by November. We don’t know the full list yet, but here are the ones that have been announced:

In the CNET report, it’s said that the enhancements are mostly subtle. However, there are a few instances where the enhancements popped off the screen, such as with FF7 Rebirth. PS5 Pro supports 8K resolutions, but Gran Turismo 7 is the only game confirmed to offer an 8K mode for the PS5 Pro. The current PlayStation 5 technically supports 8K also, but 8K support is limited to just one game — and it’s not a very popular one. PSVR 2 games will also eventually get enhancements, but no VR games have been announced.

• PlayStation 4 Pro — $399

Rumors claimed that the PS5 Pro could possibly sell for $600 or more. We really hoped this wouldn’t be the case, but it turns out these rumors were spot on. In the technical presentation mentioned earlier, Cerny revealed that the PlayStation 5 Pro would cost a whopping $699 (£699.99 UK, €799.99 EU, and ¥119,980 JP (includes tax)).

The PS5 Pro is a disc-less console like the digital version of the PS5. A disc drive add-on and stand are both available, but they are being sold separately. The stand costs $29.99, and the disc drive costs $79.99.

If you’re already rocking a PS5, there’s no absolute need to upgrade anytime soon. The important thing to remember is that this will not be a PS6. The PS5 Pro is simply a better iteration of the current console, not some wild leap forward. Think of the PS5 Pro as a Pro model smartphone, something that’s for those who want zero compromises regardless of the cost.

For those who’ve yet to pick up a PS5, waiting a little longer might be a good idea. When the Pro becomes available, it will no doubt lead to cheaper pricing for the OG PS5. In fact, Sony is planning to start selling refurbished base PS5s.

If you’re OK with buying an alternative to PlayStation, there’s always the Xbox Series X ($489 at Amazon), which is much cheaper than the PS5 Pro. You may even be interested in a Steam Deck ($549 at Manufacturer site), which you can hook up to your TV to bring PC gaming into your living room.