The PlayStation 5 is only four years old and still has a lot of life left in it, but Sony may be considering a mid-cycle refresh for the console in the form of a more powerful PS5 Pro. In fact, some rumors suggest we could see the new console as early as this year, and that it will include some pretty big upgrades.
Of course, Sony has yet to officially confirm anything or even publicly admit that a PS5 successor is in the works. But based on the timing of the PS4 Pro's release in November 2016, three years after that console's launch, it appears Sony is also looking to iterate on its latest console. Of course, this is all rumor and speculation until we get official news, but it's also interesting.
PS5 Pro potential specs: higher performance and 8K gaming
There isn't much to say yet about the potential price and specs of the PS5 Pro. However, recent rumors and possible leaks suggest that the PS5 Pro will offer 33.5 teraflops of computing power. Yes, that's actually what the measurement is called, and it's almost three times more powerful than today's PS5.
Additionally, the GPU in PS5 Pro is rumored to offer 45% higher rasterization performance, and that it can use AI upscaling in a similar way to Nvidia DLSS, which should result in a smoother gaming experience and optimizations for even the most demanding games. Demanding gaming (DLSS) absolutely saved Star Citizen 's performance on PC, and it would be great to see a similar feature on PS5 Pro). According to new reports, this feature is called PlayStation Spectral Super-Resolution (PSSR).
Inside Gaming, the source of the alleged leak, said the PS5 Pro's system memory speed will also be 28% faster than the base PS5 (increased from the current 448 GB/s to 576 GB/s). The new system is also said to feature a "high CPU frequency mode" that will improve performance by 10% compared to existing consoles. Further rumors suggest that the PS5 Pro will be future-proofed to handle 8K gaming following a firmware update and will feature a custom machine learning architecture.
Reports from The Verge suggest that the PS5 Pro will include a standard mode (targeting a CPU speed of 3.5GHz) and a "high CPU frequency mode" (targeting a 3.85GHz). Standard mode performs similarly to a regular PS5, but the new High Performance mode is where the PS5 Pro really shines. According to The Verge, this new mode will allow more power to be allocated to the CPU, which means the GPU will be underclocked by about 1.5%.
Sources also told The Verge that Sony has asked developers to use the new upgrade technology that the PS5 Pro will offer, targeting a frame rate of 60fps and featuring ray tracing effects. It should offer similar gains to games using Nvidia's DLSS or AMD's FSR systems, both of which render games at a lower resolution and then upscale it to improve performance without putting too much of a strain on the system.
Allegedly, games that take full advantage of PS5 Pro’s new specs will receive a special PS5 Pro “enhanced” label. However, there are reports that Sony will not only use this label on the aforementioned 60fps-targeted games. They'll also appear in games that target 30fps but take advantage of the PS5 Pro's other upgrades.
This could mean we see PS5 Pro Enhanced games that can run any resolution between 1280p and 2160p at 30 fps on the PS5 Pro, while games between 1080p and 1440p can only run at 30 fps on the base PlayStation 5 . And if developers enable ray tracing, their games may be labeled PS5 Pro Enhanced Editions despite not improving performance in any way.
Such a label is sure to cause some confusion, as anyone seeing the PS5 Pro Enhanced Edition label would probably expect to see some sort of performance boost from the new console. However, this is actually similar to what Sony did with the PS4 Pro, when Sony started releasing enhanced games for its more powerful version of the console. Thankfully, The Verge says Sony won't let developers slap the "enhancement" label just to deliver a more stable frame rate. These games will need to take advantage of some of the new features offered by PS5 Pro in order to apply the label.
Much like the PS4 Pro, the PS5 Pro is also expected to have a "Hyper Boost" mode or "Performance" mode, which should improve gaming performance even if developers don't update it to the new PS5 Pro SDK and take advantage of the mode. Any new features.
When will PS5 Pro be released?
Since the PS5 is already in the second half of its life cycle, it makes sense to release the PS5 Pro sooner rather than later, at least based on Sony's February financial results call. Presumably, we could get a more powerful PlayStation 5 as early as fall 2024. Just like the PS4, which was replaced by the Pro model three years later, the base PS5 is also releasing in the fall, so it's reasonable to assume that Sony will similarly try to position the PS5 Pro as a must-have holiday gift. Analyst Colin Moriarty revealed that third-party studio publishers have learned about the PS5 Pro specifications to provide more support for the upcoming product.
Of course, all of this is subject to change, as Sony has yet to provide any official confirmation or information about the PS5 Pro, though the rumors are certainly widespread enough to suggest this isn't entirely wishful thinking. Of course, there were already rumors about a Nintendo Switch follow-up before the Switch OLED was released, so rumors and speculation aren't always what people think.
