Technology
Danish Kapoor
Danish Kapoor

Sony announces PS5 Pro with advanced GPU, ray tracing and AI-powered upgrade

After months of leaks, Sony has officially announced the PS5 Pro, a more powerful PS5 console. During a special technical presentation, Sony chief architect Mark Cerny stated that the PS5 Pro improves upon the original console in three main areas: a larger GPU, advanced ray tracing, and custom AI-powered upscaling technology.

The PS5 Pro will be released on November 7th and will retail for $699.99, with pre-orders starting on September 26th. The device will feature a design similar to the slim version of the PS5, as leaks suggest. The console, which has three lines on the side, will come without a disc drive. However, it will also have a 4K Blu-ray disc drive and optional console covers that can be purchased separately.

Mark Cerny revealed that thanks to the hardware updates, the PS5 Pro will render games 45% faster, resulting in improved detail and frame rates in games. One of the most important features of the PS5 Pro is that players will be able to choose visual quality over performance modes. “Gamers choose performance two-thirds of the time,” Cerny said.

Sony has updated the PS5 Pro’s GPU with 67 percent more compute units and sped up its memory by 28 percent. These hardware upgrades should contribute to games rendering 45 percent faster.

The extra power will make for a big improvement in ray-traced games, with Sony stating that developers will be able to render rays two or even three times faster than the current PS5 console.

PS5 Pro includes Sony’s AI-powered PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), a feature designed to improve frame rates and image quality in PlayStation games, similar to Nvidia’s DLSS and AMD’s FSR technologies. This specific PSSR upscaling is designed to replace a game’s existing temporal anti-aliasing or upscaling technology.

Sony also announced that the PS5 Pro will offer a “Game Boost” option that will apply to over 8,500 backwards compatible PS4 games. “This feature can stabilize or improve the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games,” said Hideaki Nishino, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment platform business group. “Enhanced Image Quality” will also be available to increase resolution on select PS4 games.

The PS5 Pro will also feature Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, VRR, and 8K resolution support. Games will need to be updated to take advantage of some PS5 Pro features. Sony said developers are preparing free software updates for existing games, and those games will be marked as “PS5 Pro Enhanced.”

The PS5 Pro will be compatible with the PlayStation VR2 headset, PlayStation Portal handheld console, and existing PS5 controllers. Sony said it hasn’t made any changes to the user interface or network services for the Pro, so they’ll be the same as the existing console.

What will be the first PS5 Pro Enhanced games?

The first PS5 Pro Enhanced games include Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Demon’s Souls, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Gran Turismo 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart , The Crew Motorfest, The First Descendant and The Last of Us Part II Remastered.

Danish Kapoor