Sony finally presented the PlayStation 5 Pro: what we are offered to overpay for

>> Sony introduced the PlayStation 5 Pro/Sony

The Sony company announced its most powerful game console, the PlayStation 5 Pro. It is an updated model of the PlayStation 5, which was announced back in 2020.

Like its predecessor, the PS4 Pro, the PS5 Pro is fully focused on improving the graphical fidelity of games, and to do so, it's received three new key improvements. The GSMArena publication tells more about the set-top box.

The first of them is an upgraded graphics processor. While still based on the same architecture, the PS5 Pro GPU now has 67% more compute units and 28% faster memory. Sony claims these changes deliver 45% faster game rendering compared to the PS5.

Another improvement is hardware acceleration of ray tracing.Given that AMD graphics rely on their compute units for ray tracing, increasing the number of compute units also increases ray tracing performance. Sony claims that the PS5 Pro GPU can draw rays at double or even triple the speed of the PS5 GPU.

Finally, Sony also announced a new solution for artificial intelligence-based image scaling,

strong>which she developed on her own. It's called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution and uses AI and machine learning to upscale images to higher resolution.

PS5 Pro tech presentation: watch the video

Given that this is likely a hardware-accelerated solution, it should deliver better results than the mediocre AMD FSR software technology used in PS5 games, and should be on par with DLSS from Nvidia or XeSS from Intel. However, Sony didn't mention any aspects of frame generation, so it looks like the solution only applies to image scaling.

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Speaking about the new hardware, PlayStation lead architect Mark Cerny (Mark Cerny) mentioned the need to switch between performance and quality in PS5 games, allowing the user to choose between high frame rates or image quality. This resulted in users choosing performance mode 3/4 of the time for a better frame rate, which compromised image quality. The aim of the PS5 Pro seems to have been to make this switch redundant and deliver the image quality you'd expect from a quality 60fps mode, thus giving you the best of both worlds.

New Teaser PS5 Pro consoles: watch the video

With the combination of more powerful hardware and built-in image scaling, this seems entirely feasible, but we'll have to wait for built-in support in games to see if that claim holds true. Sony showed off several games from original sources and third-party developers that took advantage of the improved performance of the new console. Games optimized for the new console will be labeled PS5 Pro Enhanced.

Sony also announced a new PS5 Pro Game Boost feature that can be applied to more than 8,500 PS4 games and boost their resolution and frame rate for the new console. The new console also features Wi-Fi 7 in regions where it is supported, as well as support for VRR and 8K displays.

The PS5 Pro has only minor visual changes compared to the standard PS5 . It is taller than the current slim model, but has the same thickness as the non-Blu-ray PS5 model. The PS5 Pro doesn't have an optional optical drive model, and users will have to buy one separately (it's the same drive as the PS5). The only consolation here is that the PS5 Pro has 2TB of internal storage compared to the standard model's 1TB.

The PS5 Pro is priced at $700, a 56% increase, than the price of the digital PS5, which costs $450. The console will go on sale later this year on November 7, with pre-orders starting on September 26.