PS5 Pro Review – A Big leap or Small Step?
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For the Professionals
It was a mere 4 years ago when the PS5 generation started, and here we are with a mid-generation refresh. And like the PS4 Pro before it, the PS5 Pro looks to enhance, enrich and improve PS5 games but not transform them, the question is how good the professional boosts are?
Rather than do a traditional review of the new console, the reality is from a setup, use, install and navigation perspective, this is PS5 business as usual. Right down to the Dual sense, 4K 120 output, 48-120 VRR range and even the ability to add an optical drive, check out other video on that. You can even take your PS5 M2 SSD from the expansion slot and drop.it into the PS5 Pro with the same account and it will work perfectly, no transfers needed, again covered in another video. All games, including PS4, PS5, PSVR2 and PS portal are fully supported. In fact the only thing different is the design, power draw and power inside. Check out my PS5 base and Slim reviews for more on that aspect.
The aesthetics are better than the original phat model. Mostly because the black, ram air like grills remind me of my Kwacker bikes or many other sports bike designs. The black and white contrast works well, it’s more slender, svelte and agile looking. The improve wi-fi could help also but I remain wired always. The manual gives the specs, a 40w maximum power hike on the PSU over the slims original 350w and I believe 330w of the slim. The manual notes 16.7tflops (long time viewer know my thoughts on that metric) so circa 2,1 ghz for the GPU clocks. 576GBs bandwidth in that 16GB GDDR6 ram and 1.5GB bump in DDR4 over the base PS5s 512MB used as an SSD cache now bumped up for apps and games. As I expected and mirroring the PS4 Pro here but larger. This is where the 1.x GB of 3xtra game data space comes from. Needed for the PSSR buffer data and increased RT effects and proxy BVH objects.
All this is superfluous though to the reason a console exists, games. The PRo has a clear target to improve PS5 games to be better and offer a closer level to high end PC, a target audience for sure. The ease, simplicity and friction less..ish experience of a console can never be matched by a PC but the cost here is also edging into decent PC spec realms. However, this console is aimed at the a/v conasieur, those that want the best of both and this is a clear growth market. They know who they are and as such the price can only be judged based on those who want it. Every game I test here and in other videos, is available on the much cheaper PS5, this is a premium choice.
How good Is it
The odd thing here is a brand-new console should never launch with no new games, Horizon: Zero Dawn comes closest, but that launched on PS5 and PC just before review hardware landed and is a remake. It does present specific Pro modes, something true of a collection of games available within the review window. These compliment the current modes available on PS5 and sometimes they just replace them, and even remove them, presenting a single option. I will call the “best of both”. And this was the raison d’etre from the PS5 Pro announcement, stop the choice and have both quality and performance in one mode. But in this launch window the consistency and success of these, which is a key pillar, was not always a positive one. Which is a the best time to get into just what the console can do to current games, be them boosted by default or updated by code.
What’s on the Disc?
The PS5 Pro can play PS4 or PS5 games both downloaded or on the original disc, so long as you have the optional drive. Like the PS4Pro and PS5 before it, any current game will use the extra power within the console where possible. The results will vary based on a title and title, and even SDK version basis. Using a bad launch version in 2023’s Jedi Survivor, the Performance mode launched with Dynamic Resolution Scaling(DRS) enabled using FSR2, Ray Tracing enabled and a 60fps target. But it failed, with tearing and dipping on base PS5. This was later patched to remove the Ray Tracing and update the code which was a success. But it also provides a nice barometer of improvement the console can deliver with no code touched. This same code on PS5 was often into the high 30s, low 40s with tearing this looked and felt bad. In addition it also ran around 720p FSR2 which could impact the image quality. Now, running that same code on PS5 Pro we see both an image and performance boost in that same RT performance mode. FSR2 is still used but now that DRS range is at the higher end of that scale, with counts here coming in around 1080p levels. This leaves an image that is closer to the Quality mode and benefits from double the temporal data in this mode now. In addition, we see no tearing and a fully locked 60fps, bar a couple of dropped frames that are likely related to the code base of this launch version than any hardware limits. A nice update and poster boy for the best-case scenario the PS5 Pro can deliver with this being CPU, Ray Tracing and GPU bound. All these elements combine to add circa 30% increase in performance and image quality increases.
However, this is not always going to be the case and in a classic PS4 title, Bloodborne, we see no increase at all and that same code base coming into the conversation. Here the game is limited by code access, memory, CPU but nothing to do with the base hardware as 2 generations of upgrades on PlayStation hardware. On PS5 Pro we still suffer from terrible frame pacing and even dips under 30fps. And no har. But fear not, that classic Last Guardian version I covered in my PS5 launch videos still runs at that buttery smooth 60fps at circa 1920P.
Another example of boosted base code that also uses Ray Tracing, albeit software Unreal Engine based, is Robocop Rogue City. On my PS5 Slim review the exact same code would dip into the low 50s, 40s identically on Phat and Slim models. Here on PS5 pro though we are now a locked 60fps which was sufficient power and base code quality to see at least 33% boost again. Now it may still dip in other places but this really highlights the fact that games that are updated by the developers to better utilise the new architecture, dedicated Ray Tracing hardware upgrades and PSSR solutions from the Machine Learning hardware boosts will push above and beyond. But these 3 games give you a good spread of the Good, the Bad and the average when it comes to using the inherent PS5 Pro boost mode power and will all be relevant to each title, more to come.
PS5 Pro Enhanced
What about boosted modes that come from developer focused PS5 Pro patches than? Well, as mentioned earlier, Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered has new modes that replace the PS5 version, all with a Nintendo slant of Pro tagged on. The previous PS5 Quality/30fps mode now runs at 60fps on PS5 Pro with enhanced performance and Balanced modes using 120Hz/VRR screens. But the big ticket items come in PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution(PSSR) and the enhanced Ray Tracing hardware.
Stellar Blade now has two new modes over and above the PS5, entitled Pro and Pro Max, the former uses PSSR to deliver an improved image quality even over the 30fps resolution mode. But requires VRR as it targets a 50-60fps level, can still go higher, but stays within that VRR window which is better than without. The image improvements do show a far more stable image with PSSR, even over the native 4K resolution mode that uses Unreal Engines TAAU or TSR. With thin objects, specular and sub pixel details all being far more unstable and creating flickering even when stationary with TAA over PSSR which is far more stable and cleaner even at a lower resolution base. However, this is not the best example of how PSSR can improve image quality over base PS5 games but is a decent start. This may be the version of PSSR used, as this can and will evolve over time with new versions being shipped by Sony within SDK’s and even discrete updates for games developers.
A great boost and one that really leans into the three core pillars of PS5 Pro, is Dragon’s Dogma 2. A game I covered at launch and beyond was heavily CPU bound, both in the Ray Tracing mode and the later released performance mode that removed it. Image quality could also suffer with the REengine’s interlaced Checkerboard solution causing noise and sub pixel hatching and ghosting during play. Even on PC, with my 5600X CPU paired with an RX6800 GPU we were often struggling in towns into the low 40s and high 30s with big frame time spices of 80ms+. The new modes on PS5 Pro allow you to choose three presets of PSSR base resolution and thus image quality, which affects the GPU. Performance, Balanced and Quality and by using the top and bottom of these with Ray Tracing enabled (this is split out so can be used with any of the three PSSR options) we can test the image and performance boosts. And they deliver the best enhancement here, with the Performance PSSR setting, including Ray Tracing, now running within 50-60fps with frame times not exceeding 33ms. Even the maxed out Quality mode runs better than the previous performance mode on PS5 with a significant boost in image quality, stability and details. Highlighting that more has gone on here under the hood, both in the architecture of the PS5 Pro in regards to data access, caches, memory and more, alongside Capcom making more updates to better utilise the PS5 Pro Hardware. This is still early days and we need more games, and time to get a better view of what can be achieved here, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a great start for launch.