The PS5 Pro, a console that looks real and is nearing completion of production and release, is attracting a lot of attention from the tech and gaming communities. Sony intends to emerge victorious in the console war, both in terms of power and sales. But in 2024, day.
PS5 Pro Overview
The Pro’s memory bandwidth will increase to 576 GB/s from the PS5’s 448 GB/s, and its memory system should also be slightly more efficient. On the PS5 Pro, games will have access to an extra 1.2GB of system memory, for a total of 13.7GB (up from 12.5GB on the current version).
A “custom architecture for machine learning” and 300TOPS of 8-bit computation are also included with the PS5 Pro. When upscaling 1080p to 4K, Sony’s PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaling solution will consume roughly 250MB of memory and add about 2ms of latency.
It’s called the Trinity project, for PS5 Pro
Sony is currently developing an upgraded version of the PS5, known as codename Trinity, which is expected to debut as the PS5 Pro later this year. The Verge has corroborated the leaked specifications of the PS5 Pro earlier this week, and additional details have been acquired regarding how both existing and new PS5 games will be optimized to leverage the hardware capabilities of the PS5 Pro. Sony is also in the process of developing an “ultra boost” mode to enhance the performance of older games on the PS5 Pro.
According to sources familiar with PlayStation’s strategy, Sony is urging developers to integrate a new exclusive graphical mode into games for the PS5 Pro, which will incorporate Sony’s innovative scaling technology, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), alongside 4K resolution, a frame rate of 60 fps, and ray tracing effects. Insider Gaming initially reported on some of these enhanced PS5 Pro game details last month.
A DMCA takedown gives credibility to a leak about PS5 Pro specs
While Sony did remove the video, we still don’t know exactly what its intentions were. Remember that the following information is still a rumor and should be taken with a grain of salt. Having said that, let’s look at a few of the PS5 Pro’s promised features from the video. The now-defunct video, which is based on a leaked document containing information about Sony’s mid-generation upgrade, highlights two significant, easy-to-understand improvements expected with the PS5 Pro.
The first is a massive increase in ray tracing performance—anywhere from 2 to 3 times faster than the base PS5. According to the leaked document, improvements could be up to 4x in some cases. This is due to a “more powerful ray tracing architecture.”. The other benefit is improved GPU performance, which allows for a 45% increase in rendering speed over the original PS5. The PS5 Pro’s GPU is also said to be “larger” and use “faster system memory.”
It will even support machine learning with 300 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second) of 8-bit computation and 67 TFLOPS of 16-bit floating point. This is most likely in place to support PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), a new upscaling and anti-aliasing solution that is optimized for performance.
But, does a PS5 Pro make sense?
As a technology expert and analyst with nearly ten years of experience reviewing consoles and video games, I can speak for myself when I say that I don’t believe it.
The Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 are both incredibly powerful devices with internal hardware that is still relevant almost four years after their release. When the PS5 and Xbox Series X were released in 2020, they were on par with high-end computers, unlike the PS4 and Xbox One, which came out in 2013 with relatively lower CPU and GPU capabilities for that era.
A few exclusive games from Sony show that the PS5’s internal hardware is still capable of much more and has room for improvement. For instance, the 2021 game Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was a graphic marvel. or the visually stunning most recent Marvel Spider-Man 2.
Conclusion
With the upcoming release of the PS5 Pro, one must wonder if it will still be considered necessary in 2024. Given the outstanding performance of the current PS5 and Xbox Series X, the desire for an upgrade appears to be a little premature. Sony’s emphasis on power and technological advancements is admirable, but it remains unclear whether the market is ready for another mid-generation console.
