We at last got a peek at the much anticipated PS5 Pro at the PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation. This mid-generation console upgrade appears to be pushing graphical quality to the next level, just like the PS4 Pro did before it. But in what specific ways does it differ from its predecessor?
Table of Contents
When the PS5 was first released in 2020, it had an AMD Zen 2 CPU and an RDNA 2 GPU, which were customized and very comparable to the specifications of high-end PCs at the time. Even though the PS5 Pro is still constructed using the same architectures, a lot of time has gone. Sony has finally given the GPU some love, increasing the number of Compute Units (CUs) available, which will significantly boost gaming performance, particularly at higher resolutions.
Even though Sony hasn’t technically revealed all of the specifications, I’ve done some napkin math and can pretty well guess what the PS5 Pro’s internal components will look like.
PlayStation 5 Pro First Look
Image Credit- www.polygon.com
PS5 versus PS5 Pro: GPU
The highlight of the event is the PS5 Pro GPU. All current indications indicate to it being constructed using the same AMD RDNA 2 architecture as the original PS5, although with more of it.
The 2020 PS5 included an RDNA 2 GPU with 36 compute units, which translated into 2,304 streaming multiprocessors (SMs). This places it on par with the AMD Radeon RX 6700, a mid-range graphics card. Because of its extraordinarily potent graphics architecture at the time, it was able to offer true 4K gaming without the need for as much checkerboard upscaling as the PS4 Pro did.
According to Sony, the GPU in the PS5 Pro will feature 67% more processing units.
However, the PS5 Pro contains more than simply unprocessed GPU hardware. Sony reportedly placed AMD’s next-generation ray tracing hardware, which Cerny claims hasn’t been launched yet, in one of Team Red’s graphics cards, according to a hands-on preview seen by CNET. The PS5 Pro may be able to meet the increasing needs of more sophisticated ray tracing effects on hardware with the aid of this next generation hardware, while AMD has struggled to match Nvidia’s ray tracing capabilities.
But time marches on inexorably, and newer games demand a little more processing power, particularly in 4K. The PS5 Pro is now available. Sony states that the PS5 Pro will include a GPU with 67% more computing units this time around. The new count of compute units, according to some quick calculation, is sixty. Since RDNA 2 CUs have sixty-four streaming multiprocessors, the new count is up to 3,840 SMs. That is a significant silicon growth. To put it in context, it places it on paper on par with the AMD Radeon RX 6800, a GPU that allowed for 4K PC gaming.
By no means is this a generational boost in GPU performance—after all, the hardware is the same generation. However, when those “fidelity modes” are activated, the significant advancement in silicon is suitable for a mid-generation refresh and should result in significantly greater performance.
PS5 Pro vs PS5 – Storage and Memory
Since the SSD isn’t mentioned in either Mark Cerny’s presentation or the PlayStation Blog, it’s reasonable to infer that the PS5 Pro will be equipped with the same top-tier SSD that the PS5 had in 2020. A PCIe 5.0 SSD wouldn’t significantly improve loading speeds, even if there are undoubtedly speedier drives available these days, especially considering their high cost.
But memory does experience an improvement. 16GB of GDDR6 RAM was included with the PS5 at launch as unified system RAM. Although the PS5 Pro’s capacity is the same, its speeds are higher, most likely because of the new GPU’s improved memory interface. According to Sony, the memory is around 28% quicker. Based on my not so accurate pencil calculations, this means that the memory bandwidth will increase to approximately 560GB/s, from 440GB/s on the previous PS5.
Every Game Enhanced for PS5 Pro So Far
This, together with the more powerful GPU, ought to allow the PS5 Pro achieve the 45 percent performance boost that Cerny consistently mentioned during the ten-minute presentation. However, given how much attention is being devoted to 4K gaming performance, it would have been good to see additional RAM in the PS5 Pro. Ultimately, contemporary 4K graphics cards are equipped with up to 20GB of RAM, which is specifically allocated for the GPU.
PS5 Pro vs PS5 – Upscaling
When the PS5 was released, PC upscaling technology was still in its infancy. Even after it was released a few years earlier, Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling technology was still experiencing significant learning curve issues. Many things have evolved since then. It seems sense that Sony would want to get in on the success that AI-based upscaling for PC games has been having over the past few years. After all, the majority of PC games released by Sony have some kind of DLSS or FSR (Fidelity Super Resolution, AMD’s equivalent of DLSS) incorporated.
Given the success of AI-based upscaling for PC games, it makes sense that Sony would want to have a piece of the action.
Conversely, the original PS5 employed the checkerboard-style upscaling that was first introduced with the PS4 Pro. Though not flawless, this upscaling technique enables Sony to deliver high-detail pictures at a high resolution without significantly compromising performance. The PS5 Pro follows the same principle, but instead of utilizing an enhanced filter to compensate for missing pixels, it employs an artificial intelligence system that can more precisely determine the missing picture data without significantly sacrificing fidelity.
Sony, however, had to develop a custom neural engine to power the new PSSR, or PlayStation Spacial Super Resolution, because the PS5 was limited to AMD technology. I can’t speak to the neural engine’s sheer power because the technical presentation didn’t really go into detail about it.
Though PSSR’s functionality is still mostly unknown, I’m confident Sony will provide additional details in the upcoming months.
PS5 Pro vs PS5 – CPU
Since Mark Cerny didn’t spend much time discussing the PS5 Pro’s CPU, it’s safe to conclude that it won’t be changing. Not because of the PS5’s CPU. Even with today’s games, the 8-core Zen 2 CPU is more than sufficient.
A powerful graphics processor, as opposed to a CPU, will handle the majority of the work at higher resolutions, which is what the PS5 Pro is obviously intended for. The CPU merely needs to coordinate things in the background and do physics computations, which it can already do exceedingly rapidly.
What if the PS5 Pro Was A Gaming PC?
How Much of an Upgrade Is the PS5 Pro, Really?
Just in terms of raw GPU performance, the PS5 Pro is a significant improvement for playing graphically demanding games at high resolutions. To further enhance performance at 4K, that larger GPU is then combined with specialist hardware for ray tracing and upscaling. Although we don’t yet know much about these specialist components, they undoubtedly go beyond what the PS5’s standard model can provide.
It’s crucial to remember that the new GPU is based on a CPU and GPU architecture that is about five years old, making it the equal of the AMD Radeon RX 6800, which is now available for roughly $350. The PS5 Pro costs $699 instead of $499, the price at which the PS5 was originally released four years ago, despite employing this outdated hardware.
Without a question, the PS5 Pro will provide a more realistic and lifelike gaming experience than the PS5 standard model, but it won’t be a generational upgrade. Simply an improved form of what already exists.
