Sony PlayStation 5 Pro Review: The Best Console Graphics Yet

The original PlayStation 5 launched in November 2020, kicking off the current generation of gaming consoles. Three years later came 2023’s Slim model with the same performance but a slight increase in storage. Now, four years after the original PS5 debuted, we get the first real step forward with the PlayStation 5 Pro. 

The PS5 Pro, available Nov. 7 for $700, enables higher graphical fidelity and improved ray tracing at much higher and smoother frame rates than the original. It’s the most powerful gaming console on the market, but it’s also the most expensive. And that price doesn’t even get you a vertical stand ($30, sold separately). If you want to play physical PS5 games, you’ll need to pick up Sony’s external disc drive (another $80). 

At $200 to $300 more than a base PS5, getting the Pro today is sort of like opting for a pricier graphics processor to get better visuals in a desktop PC. But is it worth the expense? To find out, I compared the PS5 Pro directly with its older siblings through a variety of games, including Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. In scene after scene, I saw improved details with no sacrifice in smoothness, a combination that makes the P5 Pro the highest-performance game console I’ve ever tested. Yes, it’s expensive, but for gamers who want the best experience, it could be worth the price.

Watch this: Sony PlayStation 5 Pro Review: The Most Advanced Game Console Ever

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Design: Familiar, but with racing stripe fins

The PS5 Pro takes a lot of design cues from last year’s Slim model, which itself is a smaller console that kept the original PS5’s flared plastic look. It has the same four exterior panel design, but unfortunately the panels are ever-so-slightly different in size. This means that if you bought any of PlayStation’s nice color panels to customize your device, they won’t fit on the new one. It also uses the exact same external disc drive, which clips to the side like with the PS5 Slim consoles. 

Unlike the last two PS5 models, there is only one version of the PS5 Pro — the digital-only option. In previous models, you could spend $50 to $100 more for a console that would read physical discs. Now, if you want your new PS5 Pro to have that functionality, you need the $80 disc drive released last year. However, if you have a Slim model and have been using an external drive, that same drive will work in your new machine.

The PlayStation 5 Pro also gets a bit bigger in size, sitting in between the original and Slim models in dimensions. And now it has these racing stripe-like fins on the side between the top and bottom plastic panels that do vent a bit of the air. Like the Slim, it has two USB-C ports on the front and two standard USB-A ports on the back. It also can be positioned horizontally or vertically. It comes with two little plastic feet to lay it flat, but if you want it to stand upright, you’ll need to purchase that same $30 stand separately. You can still install your own SSD, but Sony has doubled the internal storage to 2TB this time around. It also now supports Wi-Fi 7.

Upgraded graphics, ray-tracing and AI upscaling

There are three main features that power the PlayStation 5 Pro’s improved graphics and performance. The first is the upgraded GPU. PlayStation states it includes 67% more compute units and 28% faster memory compared with a standard PS5. These enable it to render gameplay 45% faster.

The second feature is advanced ray tracing that allows games to utilize more dynamic reflections and realistic lighting. Put simply, if you see parts of the environment accurately reflected in water, windows or mirrors, that’s ray tracing at work. PlayStation states that it can now cast rays at double, and sometimes triple, the speeds of the current PS5. 

The last key feature is AI upscaling, which Sony calls PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution. This is a machine learning-based technology that provides higher image clarity. It’s primarily used to make games look sharper at higher resolution, and it works automatically.

How do games look on the PS5 Pro?

On the standard PS5, you usually had two options to choose from when it came to a game’s visuals. Performance mode, which would lower the resolution, often to around 1080p, while boosting the frame rate, usually targeting 60 frames per second. This allowed games to run more smoothly and would often result in less dense environments and textures. The other option is Resolution (sometimes called Fidelity or Graphics) mode, which raises the resolution to around 4K while capping the frame rate at 30 fps. 

Thanks to the Pro’s increased power, games that have received an update can now target a full 4K resolution while still reaching 60 frames per second. Your games will look better, areas will be more detailed, and the game will still run as smoothly as possible without the trade-off.

However, this doesn’t eliminate the two graphics options. In fact, all the games I tested still feature a Pro Performance and Pro Resolution option (some games rename either mode, but it’s essentially between performance and graphical quality). For several of these games, the PS5 Pro was able to increase further than just 4K 60, with some games, like EA Sports F1 24, advertising 8K or 120 frames per second. One quick caveat is that I don’t have an 8K TV, and my capture device caps out at 4K 60, so I was unable to test and show those performance capture options off. Given the scarcity of 8K TVs out there, many gamers probably won’t benefit from this just yet either.

In Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, we can easily see the increased resolution in the environments and textures, for instance, in the denser foliage compared with the standard PS5’s Performance mode. On PS5 Pro, both Pro modes look very similar, but when slowed down, we can see how much smoother the Pro Favors Performance mode is, while having extremely similar graphical detail.

In Spider-Man 2, we see a more solid and numerous NPC shadows between both Fidelity modes compared with their Performance counterparts. We also see a livelier city, with more car traffic and NPCs wandering around on the Pro model compared with the standard one. And of course, the higher frame rate is present, really making Spidey’s web swinging look and feel its best.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart also features both modes, with the Performance Pro option targeting 60 frames per second while keeping the resolution high. The Fidelity mode lowers the frame rate to 30 again but adds in various ray tracing effects instead. The Pro provides a pretty large boost in artifact clean up and texture density when we look at this close up of Rivet. We see this again in this close up of Ratchet, where the baseline PS5’s facial texture almost looks matted compared with the Pro’s. And when we look at scenes with a lot of distance, we see the areas farther away remain in focus, as well as more particles being introduced, such as the confetti or the crowds.

EA Sports F1 24 is another good example of how much more detail we see in the scenes on the new Pro. The race track texture is far more detailed, especially in the Quality mode on Pro. We also see more text in focus when looking at background elements when comparing either console’s Quality modes against Performance.

While we are seeing modest improvements to a number of games, the downside is that you won’t get this across the board for everything. Simply loading up any PS5 game on the PS5 Pro doesn’t guarantee that you’ll see a bump in performance — developers have to go back and patch in the enhancements. For example, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, a game released early in 2024 that I saw a PS5 Pro demo of last month, had a fantastic looking update. Originally, in Performance mode, that game looked almost fuzzy with how much it had to lower the resolution. Unfortunately that patch wasn’t available for me to capture when putting this review together.

At launch, PlayStation states it will have around 50 titles upgraded and running better on the Pro. Of course, there will be more support going forward, but this is just something to keep in mind if you’re thinking of getting a Pro on day one. I’m personally hoping that both Final Fantasy XVI and Ghost of Tsushima, which are not on that list, get updates in the future since I never got around to their DLC, and this would be the perfect excuse to load them up again. And it’s a little disappointing that we have no new first-party titles coming out around the new console’s late 2024 launch to really get excited about.

However, we can look at even older games for another new feature for the PS5 Pro — Enhance Image Quality for PS4 Games. This is found in the console’s Screen and Video settings and must be toggled on. Doing so will enable a system-wide image quality boost for “some games.” I’m unsure what the full list of supported PS4 titles are, but I took a look at 2018’s Spider-Man and saw graphical improvements. This is a really nice addition for anyone with a backlog of PS4 games. It’s something we saw Xbox doing with some of its backward compatibility efforts, and it’s nice to see PlayStation joining in.

Pricey, but not overpriced 

The PlayStation 5 Pro retails for $700. But remember, if you want to stand it upright and have it to read discs, you’ll need to shell out another $30 and $80 respectively. This makes it the most expensive console we’ve seen hit retail — but I wouldn’t say it’s overpriced.

When it comes down to my purchasing recommendation, it really depends on whether you already have a PS5. The baseline console without a disc drive retails for $450. Increasing your storage another 1TB will probably cost around $100, so it really comes down to whether the graphics upgrade is worth $150. With Black Friday right around the corner, there’s a good chance the base PS5 will see some discounts, but I highly doubt the Pro will. 

I personally think the upgrade is worth the price since you’ll also be future proofing yourself for the next handful of years. Anyone buying a PS5 Pro is basically guaranteeing they’ll be able to play the next decade of PlayStation games comfortably. Even if we saw a PS6 in around four years time, the install base on PS5 is far too high for them to abandon it, and we still see that now with titles like Call of Duty Black Ops 6 still launching on last-gen consoles like the PS4 last month.

If you already have a PS5, then I think you’re better off saving your money and not getting the new machine. Even while I was putting this review together, I was still surprised just how well the base model was keeping up with the Pro in a lot of cases. But if you can find a good trade-in deal, or you’re thinking of getting your first PS5, then I definitely think the Pro is worth it.