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PS5 Pro vs PS5: Specs and Performance Compared

Vaseline Posted on September 10, 2024

During the PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation, we finally got a look at what the long-awaited PS5 Pro will look like. And like the PS4 Pro before it, this mid-generation console refresh looks to take graphical fidelity to the next level. But how exactly does it compare to what came before it?

The PS5 launched in 2020 with a custom AMD Zen 2 processor and RDNA 2 GPU, both of which closely resembled the high-end PC specs of the time. Much time has passed since then, and while the PS5 Pro is still built on the same architectures, Sony has given the GPU some love, significantly increasing the amount of Compute Units (CUs) on offer, which will significantly improve gaming performance, especially at higher resolutions.

Sony hasn’t released detailed specs yet, but after doing some math I can get a pretty good idea of ​​what the PS5 Pro will look like.

PS5 Pro vs PS5 – GPU

The PS5 Pro GPU is the star of the show. At this point, all indications are that it’s built on the same AMD RDNA 2 architecture as the original PS5, only with, well, more of it.

When the PS5 launched in 2020, it featured an RDNA 2 GPU with 36 compute units, good for 2,304 streaming multiprocessors (SMs), putting it on par with a mid-range graphics card like the AMD Radeon RX 6700. It was an incredibly powerful graphics chip for its time, and was capable of delivering truly next-gen 4K gameplay without relying on as much checkerboard upscaling as the PS4 Pro had before it.

But time inevitably marches on, and newer games require a bit more horsepower, especially at 4K. Enter the PS5 Pro. This time around, Sony claims a GPU with 67% more compute units. Doing some light math brings that new count to 60, and since the RDNA 2 CUs have 64 streaming multiprocessors, that brings it to 3,840 SMs. That’s a massive increase in silicon. To put that in perspective, on paper it puts it on par with the AMD Radeon RX 6800, a GPU that was actually capable of 4K gaming on PC.

PlayStation 5 Pro first look

But it’s more than just raw GPU silicon being thrown into the PS5 Pro. According to a hands-on preview from CNET, Sony has added next-generation ray tracing hardware from AMD, hardware that Cerny claims hasn’t been released in any of Team Red’s graphics cards. AMD has struggled to keep up with Nvidia in terms of ray tracing performance, and this next-gen hardware could help the PS5 Pro keep up with the growing demands that more advanced ray tracing effects place on the hardware.

This isn’t a generational leap in GPU performance by any means, since it’s using the same generation of hardware after all. But the massive leap in silicon is well-suited for a mid-generation refresh, and should offer much better performance with those fidelity modes enabled.

PS5 Pro vs PS5 – Storage and Memory

Both Mark Cerny’s presentation and the PlayStation Blog fail to mention the SSD, so it’s safe to assume the PS5 Pro will feature the same high-end SSD that powered the PS5 back in 2020. And while there are certainly faster drives available today, a PCIe 5.0 SSD wouldn’t offer enough of a improvement in load times to make a meaningful difference, especially considering how expensive those drives are.

Memory, however, is seeing an uptick. The PS5 launched with 16GB of GDDR6 unified system RAM. The PS5 Pro has the same capacity, but with increased speeds, likely due to a better memory interface on the new GPU. Sony claims memory is about 28% faster , and my semi-reliable pencil calculation shows that’ll equate to around 560GB/s of memory bandwidth, up from 440GB/s on the old PS5.

All games so far improved for PS5 Pro

Combined with the beefier GPU, this should really help the PS5 Pro achieve the 45% performance increase that Cerny kept touting throughout the 10-minute presentation. However, it would have been nice to see more memory packed into the PS5 Pro, especially with the focus on 4K gaming performance. After all, modern 4K graphics cards are launching with upwards of 20GB of memory, and that’s RAM dedicated solely to the GPU.

PS5 Pro vs PS5 – Scaling

The PS5 came out when PC upscaling technology was still in its infancy. Nvidia’s DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, had come out a few years earlier and still faced serious learning challenges. A lot has changed since then. Over the past few years, AI-based upscaling has proven to be a winning technology for PC gaming, so it makes sense that Sony would want in on the action. After all, the majority of games Sony has released on PC have implemented DLSS or FSR (Fidelity Super Resolution, AMD’s answer to DLSS) in some form or another.

The original PS5, on the other hand, used the checkerboard-style upscaling that was first introduced with the PS4 Pro. This method of upscaling isn’t perfect, but it allows Sony to push out highly detailed, high-resolution images without too much of a performance penalty. The same philosophy applies to the PS5 Pro, but instead of using a glorified filter to fill in missing pixels, it uses an AI algorithm that can calculate missing image information more accurately, without a massive loss in fidelity.

But because the PS5 was locked to AMD hardware, Sony had to come up with a custom neural engine to power the new PSSR – or PlayStation Spacial Super Resolution. The tech presentation didn’t really go into any detail on this neural engine, so I can’t make any claims about its raw power.

We don’t know much about how exactly PSSR will work yet, but I’m sure Sony will release more information on this in the coming months.

PS5 Pro vs PS5 – CPU

Mark Cerny spent absolutely no time talking about the CPU in the PS5 Pro, so it’s pretty safe to assume that’s not changing. Not that the PS5 CPU is bad. It’s still an 8-core Zen 2 processor, which is still more than enough for modern games.

At higher resolutions, like the PS5 Pro is clearly designed for, most of the work will fall to a powerful graphics processor, rather than a CPU. The CPU will just have to coordinate things in the background and perform physics calculations, which it can already do extremely quickly.

What if the PS5 Pro was a gaming PC?

How big of an upgrade is the PS5 Pro really?

For playing graphically intensive games at high resolutions, the PS5 Pro is a huge upgrade, just in terms of raw GPU performance alone. That larger GPU is then paired with specialized ray tracing and upscaling hardware to further improve performance at 4K. We don’t know much about these specialized parts yet, but it’s certainly more than the base PS5 can offer.

It’s important to keep in mind, however, that the new GPU is the equivalent of the AMD Radeon RX 6800, which you can now find for around $350, and uses a CPU and GPU architecture that is nearly five years old. The PS5 Pro uses this older hardware, but it still raises the price to $699, up from the $499 the PS5 launched at four years ago.

I have no doubt that the PS5 Pro will deliver a more vibrant and detailed gaming experience than the base PS5, but it won’t be a generational upgrade. Simply a refined version of what’s already there.

Jackie Thomas is IGN’s Hardware and Buying Guides Editor and PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra