On September 10th, PlayStation held a “technical presentation” that confirmed the long-rumored PS5 Pro’s existence and souped-up specs, like a buffed GPU, Wi-Fi 7, and support for Sony’s AI-driven upscaling technology, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, or PSSR. It will also come with features like PS5 Pro Game Boost to improve the performance of supported PS4 or PS5 games and enhanced image quality for PS4 games to offer higher resolution on “select” PS4 titles.
The presentation was hosted by PlayStation architect Mark Cerny and lasted a brisk nine minutes before announcing the PS5 Pro’s $699.99 price and launch date on November 7th, 2024. Preorders will start on September 26th.
Earlier this year, sources confirmed to The Verge that developers were being asked to ensure their games were compatible with the improved system, and the rumor mill picked up steam last month with a leaked illustration of what it supposedly looked like. Then, last week, Sony itself may have accidentally or on purpose shared what looked to be a PS5 Pro in its post celebrating 30 years of PlayStation history.
But now, Sony has put those rumors to bed. Stay tuned here for all the updates.
Sony will give the PS5 Pro crisper graphics — by backporting FSR 4
The PS5 Pro. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeToday, the $700 PlayStation 5 Pro can already produce crisper, sharper, smoother, and more stable graphics than a PS5, if you sit close enough to appreciate them. But starting in 2026, the company hopes to imbue games with a new AI upscaling formula that’ll make them even crisper, based on the AMD FSR 4 technique that’s now shipping with AMD’s new RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT graphics cards and appears to be competitive against Nvidia’s latest DLSS as well.
“Our target is to have something very similar to FSR 4’s upscaler available on PS5 Pro for 2026 titles as the next evolution of PSSR,” PlayStation lead architect Mark Cerny tells Digital Foundry.
Read Article >- What can the PS5 Pro do for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6?
The folks at Digital Foundry have a video and writeup of all the ways the latest Call of Duty takes advantage of the “most powerful PlayStation ever” despite being published by Microsoft-owned Activision.
Some issues with PSSR artifacts need to be straightened out, but the anti-lag VRR feature and enhanced 120Hz mode add something for the Pro’s extra cost.
PlayStation and AMD are teaming up to infuse games with AI
Sony is furthering its partnership with AMD so they can create more AI-powered technology to make games look and play better — and not just on PlayStation hardware. The two companies are establishing a “deeper collaboration” to work on “Machine Learning-based technology for graphics and gameplay,” lead architect of the PS5 and PS5 Pro Mark Cerny announced on Wednesday.
The two already partner on the PS5 and PS5 Pro’s GPUs, which are based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture, and the PS5 Pro uses a feature called PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) to improve image clarity and frame rates.
Read Article >- Here’s iFixit’s teardown of the PS5 Pro.
Based on the video, the inside of Sony’s most advanced PS5 looks pretty similar to the inside of the slim PS5. It’s still pretty cool to see, though — and the PS5 Pro at least has an easier way to access the CMOS battery.
Check out our PS5 Pro review if you want to learn more about the console.
- Digital Foundry’s PS5 Pro video review is an hour and 19 minutes long.
Need I say more? If you’re determined to hear every little morsel about Sony’s upgraded console and a thorough breakdown of which games benefit most from the added GPU horsepower and PSSR upscaling, here you go. No one does it quite like the folks at Digital Foundry.
PS5 Pro review: how close is your TV?
You don’t need me to tell you the new PS5 Pro, on sale November 7th, is the most powerful PlayStation ever made. The real question: could it possibly be worth $700, the most Sony’s ever charged for a game console?
I think I can answer that — but first, I need you to go find a measuring tape.
Read Article >PS5 Pro’s actual specs revealed
Image: SonyAhead of the PS5 Pro launch later this week, we have confirmation of a few more official specifications for the most powerful version of the PS5 yet. Digital Foundry has shared details from the manual included with its PS5 Pro review unit, confirming the console is powered by an AMD Ryzen Zen 2 8-core/16-thread processor with an RDNA-based graphics engine producing 16.7TF of GPU compute performance compared to the base PS5’s 10.23TF.
As we noted in March, initial leaked documents showed a much higher figure for the PS5 Pro, mostly due to a change in AMD’s RDNA architecture.
Read Article >- Pro, Pro, Pro.
Insomniac has released patches adding PS5 Pro support to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and both updates add new “performance pro” and “fidelity pro” graphics modes and toggles for ray tracing. The studio didn’t share screenshots or video alongside the updates, so we’ll have to wait and see if the improved graphics are worth the cost.
Version 1.004.000 Release Notes[Insomniac Games Support]
Here’s where you can still preorder the PS5 Pro ahead of its November launch
The standard PS5 Pro may not look as cool as the anniversary edition, but it’s far easier to get your hands on. Photo by Sean Hollister / The VergeWe’re inching ever closer to a mid-cycle refresh for the PlayStation 5, as preorders for Sony’s forthcoming console are now available to the masses. Although the $699.99 machine was originally exclusive to the PlayStation Direct storefront, it’s now up for preorder at all major retailers — including Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target.
Sony’s retro-styled 30th Anniversary consoles and accessories also went up for preorder at the same time as the standard PS5 Pro, but unfortunately, they quickly sold out and are still unavailable.
Read Article >- God of War Ragnarok is getting a PS5 Pro Enhanced patch, according to the PlayStation Store.
As Reddit, Push Square, and others are pointing out, the very good 2022 game is suddenly sporting a “PS5 Pro Enhanced” badge. Sony hasn’t yet confirmed a patch, nor do we have details on how the game might get enhanced.
- Five more PS5 Pro Enhanced games:
Rise of the Ronin, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, The Last of Us Part I, Spider-Man Remastered and Spider-Man Miles Morales. If I’m counting right, we’re up to 25 confirmed games.
Sony revealed the new ones in this monster blog post where developers also discuss what you can expect from the patches. We’ve also got a whole hands-on PS5 Pro preview about that!
I played the PS5 Pro, and it’s clearly better
Sean Hollister Here are all the games enhanced by the PS5 Pro
Image: Insomniac GamesSony finally confirmed the PS5 Pro, and in addition to enhanced features like Wi-Fi 7 and 8K gaming, the company has been sharing how recent and older games will perform on the system. As of September 25th, it’s revealed 25 different PS5 games that developers are specifically enhancing for the new console — here’s our hands-on with 11 of them.
The PS5 Pro may also “stabilize or improve the performance of supported PS4 and PS5 games” with a feature called Game Boost, and the Pro’s “enhanced image quality” could possibly improve the resolution for certain PS4 games.
Read Article >I played the PS5 Pro, and it’s clearly better
The PS5 Pro, next to the original. Eight years ago, PlayStation lead architect Mark Cerny showed me the power of the PS4 Pro in this very room. Today, I’m checking out the new PS5 Pro instead — and feeling some major déjà vu.
Like before, Sony is showing journalists a room full of screens at its PlayStation US headquarters just outside of San Francisco, playing 11 games side by side on both the original hardware and the guts of the new $700 Pro. Like before, you’ll pay a hefty premium for graphical improvements rather than new titles. Like before, games will need to be patched to give you most of those boosts, and not all patches will be equal.
Read Article >PS5 Pro will enhance Stellar Blade, Jedi: Survivor, Metal Gear, and Resident Evil
Sony has just revealed seven additional games that’ll get enhanced by its PS5 Pro, coming November 7th, on top of the games it previously revealed. New titles include Stellar Blade, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, F1 24, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, both Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
Additionally, developers confirmed a number of extra games in an official PlayStation blog post, including the new Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, The Last of Us Part I, Spider-Man Remastered and Spider-Man Miles Morales, and Rise of the Ronin. Insomniac suggests Marvel’s Wolverine will get enhanced for the Pro cosnole too.
Read Article >- PS5 Pro, but make it video.
I already showed you my hands-off photos, but here’s some video of Sony’s PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection and normal PS5 Pro too. You’ll see two different PS5 Pros in here, plus a throwback grey PlayStation Portal, DualSense, DualSense Edge, and PS5 Slim. No retro USB-C cable though; I asked!
- Clearing the USB-Air on the PS5 Pro.
The PS5 Pro’s USB situation has baffled me. Sony showed CNET a console with one USB-A and one USB-C (in a USB-A cutout) on its rear, but a commenter mentioned a render on Sony’s site shows two USB-A.
Sony didn’t respond when I asked, but Sean’s photos confirm it’s two USB-A like prior models so I’ve updated our comparison.
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Up close with Sony’s PS5 Pro — and the 30th anniversary model
The Sony PS5 Pro. We’ve now gotten our own brief look at the $700 PS5 Pro, coming this November. Fair warning: it’s a very limited look indeed. Just photos, no touching yet!
Given how little Sony has yet shared about its big, pricy console refresh, and the excitement for the company’s just-announced limited-edition PlayStation 30th Anniversary Collection, I figure you may want a peek anyhow.
Read Article >- You can’t convince me otherwise: this cable is the coolest part of Sony’s 30th Anniversary PlayStations.
“Unfortunately sick as hell” describes the whole package, but I’d even buy this cable solo.
The 30th Anniversary PS5s come with a USB-C cable where one end looks like a PS1 controller connector. Images: Sony PlayStation’s 30th anniversary PS5 and PS5 Pro are delightfully retro
Image: SonySony has deftly come up with a way to get more people on board with the PS5 Pro. The company has announced a special 30th anniversary collection for the suite of PS5 consoles and accessories that is unfortunately sick as hell.
“To celebrate this 30th anniversary milestone, we had to create something that honored the history and joy that PlayStation has brought us all,” said PlayStation platform business CEO Hideaki Nishino. All the consoles and accessories are cast in classic PlayStation gray and feature the old-school multicolored PlayStation logo creating a look designed to target every gaming 30-something’s nostalgia organ with surgical precision.
Read Article >- The PS5 Pro makes Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth look so much better.
Blame hardware, blame Square Enix — either way, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth forces you into a big graphical compromise on the PS5. It’s the one game I’d desperately like to play on the $700 PS5 Pro instead. Now, thanks to Digital Foundry, we all can.
Come pixel-peep what the PS5 Pro can maybe actually do
A crop of Spider-Man 2 from Sony’s PS5 Pro video. Image: SonyI think Sony might have made a mistake.
Not by pricing the PS5 Pro at $700 or ditching the optical drive — it can always drop the price or bundle — but by trying to showcase the PS5 Pro’s graphical improvements using a bandwidth-limited, compressed YouTube video.
Read Article >- The people want disc drives.
Wario64 spotted that the $79.99 PS5 disc drive is sold out on Amazon and Best Buy (via shipping). I’m seeing that it’s sold out at Target, too.
I’m guessing people are stocking up on the drives because the $700 PS5 Pro doesn’t come with one. But we also don’t know how many drives the retailers actually had on hand — perhaps it was just a few.
What’s the real difference between the PlayStation 5 and the PS5 Pro anyway?
The PS5 Pro looks like a slim that got a growth spurt. Image: SonyAfter various rumors and leaks, the PlayStation 5 Pro is finally official — complete with a new GPU, $700 price point, and no built-in disc drive. But is that pretty much it? What makes this new console 40 percent more expensive than the existing PS5 you can buy today for $500? The same one that’s bound to go on sale during the holidays, not long after the Pro’s November 7th launch date.
What are the differences between the PS5 and PS5 Pro that make it (depending who you ask) a worthwhile upgrade or a superfluous expense?
Read Article >Sony will sell you a refurbished PS5 if you don’t want to drop $700 on a Pro
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The VergeWant a PS5, but don’t want to spend $700 on a PS5 Pro? Thanks to Sony’s new refurbished website for PS5s, you’ll soon be able to buy an older version of the console for a lot less money than the PS5 Pro’s eye-watering cost.
You can see everything that’s on offer on Sony’s certified refurbished website, which lists a bunch of products as “coming soon.” A refurbished PS5 in the original launch design with a disc drive will cost $399.99 (a $100 discount from a new PS5 slim with a disc drive), while a refurbished all-digital PS5, also in the original design, will cost $349.99 (also a $100 discount).
Read Article >- Locked in for the debate.
No, not that one — this is the discussion about Sony’s newly-announced PS5 Pro, as the folks at Digital Foundry are breaking down what Mark Cerny & Co. did and did not reveal about the $699.99 disc drive-less console.
