PlayStation 5 Pro review months later and PS5 Pro is much easier to recommend

The PS5 Pro is much easier to recommend than it was a few months ago, and it might be worth investing as Sony continues to improve older titles.

[jznrpg]

I enjoy mine thoroughly. It plays games better than the base PS5 with better frame rates and a bit extra shine in graphics sometimes a good amount better
I always planned on getting it to give my OG PS5 to one of my children but even if I didn’t have them I would have got it. I really don’t care what other people think of my purchases. I’m sure plenty of people think I’m dumb for buying 1000 year old samurai swords. Gaming on console has been a hobby of mine since I can literally remember and I don’t mind spending money on it like my other hobby’s.

[Abear21]

Yup, I’m future proofed too and with GTA6 coming the Pro is a no brainer if you’re a long time hardcore console gamer.

PS5 Pro is the best place to game, PC gets PS games years later, by the time they’ll get GTA6 I’ll already have beaten it and will be playing Wolverine or another great PS exclusive.

[Him007]

Yup me too definitely worth the money everything is better

[RedDevils]

Future proof is stupid. You be using a PS6 in 2-3 years time lol

[badz149]

@Elderson

"buy a PC" - LOL

and pay for overpriced hardware? good luck getting a decent gaming PC (matching the PS5 Pro spec) for a reasonable price nowadays. I just bought a 4070S yesterday, the last one available in a PC store where I live for $680. I was kinda pushed to buy it (as I need it for research, not gaming) because only the 4060 and 4060Ti are left and they are already overpriced way above MSRP too!

the depressing thing is, when I asked for the 5000 series, the seller told me the 4080 and 4090 variants are all but gone and they are keeping the 5000 series for themselves for now because they know the price will skyrocket in the coming months due to this artificial scarcity from Nvidia.

so yeah, good luck "future-proofing" yourself.

[cbuc1125]

so true....well said!

[darthv72]

I'm sure it's good tech... but it's just not doing anything radically different than the base 5. At least the 4Pro did stuff the base 4 could not in order to justify the upgrade.

Playing quality @ performance mode is not the flex people think.... not for the price it is. Especially since even the base 5 has yet to be pushed to a breaking point where a Pro would be warranted. I mean it's still being shackled by the 4 for God's sake.

If they can finally leave 8th gen behind, then maybe we will truly see what 9th has to offer. By then 10th gen will be creeping up.

[sos_gamez]

...and being held back by the 9th gen.

[BehindTheRows]

I certainly don't hear you ever complaining about the Series X being shackled by the Series S "for God's sake". You're so transparent, it's ridiculous.

In any case, PSSR allows the Pro to do things the base PS5 cannot. This is on top of how much better games run on it. I know you're only here to put it down, but for those of us who actually use the thing, the differences are easy to see. It's not about a "flex". Most Pro modes are clearly above previous modes and people are not wrong to be happy with that.

[Abear21]

PS6 in 2028 and base PS5 struggles to run games like Final Fantasy already. Pro is the console to have for the next couple years of games.

If you’ve been gaming for longer than since the pandemic you already know consoles get their best games the last couple years of their lifespan. This is when devs know how to max them out and better tools have become available.

Series S and base PS5 will be rough on the next set of must have games coming; GTA6, Death Stranding 2, MGS, Doom, Wolverine, ES6, etc.

[isarai]

I'm not paying 800 bucks for AI upscaling

[pwnmaster3000]

I thought it was $700?
Either way it’s still too expensive

[Pyrofire95]

It is $700 idk why ppl keep saying $800 in these comments.

[isarai]

780+ tax if you want a disc drive, seeing as how i have plenty of physical games, id want a disc drive.

[ABizzel1]

It’s $700, but after taxes and especially if you want the disc drive you’re at +$800. The lack of disc drive was the big issue for me, I got my PS5 Pro, and the disc drives are still sold out and being gauged on eBay and everywhere else, so I sold it and kept my base PS5 since I had a launch model and that drive doesn’t fit.

[RedDevils]

Here in Australia good luck getting the disk drive. You be lost $250+ on ebay

[fr0sty]

$700 for 40% more raw GPU power, AI upscaling, and 2x the SSD space (which alone costs almost as much as the $200 premium over the base model).

[isarai]

If you're paying $200 for 1tb you're getting ripped off. I bought a 2tb internal ssd for my ps5 almost 4yrs ago for $150. And that 40% more is mostly dedicated to AI upscaling, also seem to be skipping over the big "no disc drive" elephant in the room.

[Pyrofire95]

I can't edit my comment or whatever. but yeah, how quickly I forgot about the $80 disk drive sold separately. dumb as heck

[Knushwood Butt]

Happy with my base PS5 to be honest. Plus, it has a media drive built in.

If I was going to splash out on new hardware, I'd get a Portal.

[pwnmaster3000]

If you have money and really want it, I say go and buy it. Be happy, but if your already content with your PS5 or want to buy buy one, I recommend waiting for a sale or just buy the standard if don’t care for the slight upgrade. $700 for a pro is too much.

[gleepot]

How's that? Absolutely nothing has changed.

[badz149]

the GPU market has changed. it's so much easier to recommend the PS5 Pro now that a new midrange card, the RTX5070Ti is being sold for over $1000

[Pyrofire95]

As a Pro owner. I'm not sure how much has improved yet. It's BETTER, but like it wont get worse.
All the games I played had good pro boosts but I've heard about the messier ones.

[LoveSpuds]

I have been generally really happy with the upgrade. My favourite game of the last 5 years+ is Elden Ring and that game runs like a dream on Pro.

[Reaper22_]

No thanks.

[BehindTheRows]

We know. Your history tells us that you aren't a PlayStation gamer, so why would anyone expect you to get a Pro?

[BehindTheRows]

@Elderson

No. Your attempts to circumvent permabans are flops. I know that hurts, but just accept that you aren't wanted here.

[BehindTheRows]

@Eldorians

And you’ll keep getting banned, to the entertainment of everyone who can see how pathetic this is. 😉

[Toecutter00]

Does it still not come with a disc drive? The idea of a "pro" model is that it has added features, not less than the base model. I can admit that I'm weak enough when it comes to new tech that I would have bought one by now, against my better judgment. But since, like most gamers, I need something to actually play my games on, it was a hard pass.

[badz149]

"not less than the base model"

you do know that the "base" PS5 has no BD drive and launched at $400, right?

[DivineHand125]

I can only recommend the PS5 Pro to people who want a console, have plenty of disposable income, and a 4K OLED TV with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The base PS5 is still fine for everybody else. With the base model, you will still have an experience that is acceptable for most games with a few exceptions. Developers have gotten the message that 30 FPS equals a commercial disaster, and even games that were originally released at 30 FPS have gotten a performance update with a few exceptions.

This generation as a whole is not as good as the last one. We have more expensive hardware and fewer games. Sony was firing on all cylinders last generation, especially towards the later half, but this time, it feels like the other way around. This ultimately means there will be even fewer releases to take advantage of the PS5 Pro features.

I am only aware of 3 big releases that have trailers out, and that is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Wolverine, and Ghost of Yotei. Yes, Saros is set to release next year, but I don't see it as a major release since the target audience is niche. It will be a rogue-like bullet hell game just like Returnal. It is not for most gamers. There is also the possibility that the game from Naughty Dog is actually a cross-gen or PS6 game.

[rockloi]

Which commercial disasters are you talking about? Most devs are still targeting 30fps first, and even on the Pro are frequently releasing new modes targeting 30fps. When 60fps is absent the worst you get is a bit of a stink on social media or the odd message board.

30fps first isn't going anywhere.

[Grilla]

No ones playing games on ps5 or pro at 30fps. They can add 30fps modes all day long but hardly anyone uses them. 30fps has been an Xbox issue.

[andy85]

There isn't one single AAA game on the Pro that is only 30 fps. Not a single one. So clearly, yes it is going somewhere

[DivineHand125]

Gotham Knights, Redfall and Hellblade 2 didn't do well commercially. Most Gamepass users didn't even download those 2 Xbox games that launched at 30 fps.

Dragons Dogma 2 and Starfield didn't do as well as they could have partly because they launched at 30 fps.

Mark Cerny himself said the majority of gamers on PS5 play on performance mode. In most cases the game is not set to performance by default but the gamers are presented with the choice between performance or the quality mode when they first boot into the game. This means console gamers of this generation have made their choice and any dev who doesn't make a performance option available at launch, should prepare themselves for less than stellar sales performance.

[rockloi]

New to N4G, I can't reply to second-level comments?

For decades I've seen the exact same conversation about framerates, people claiming that the writing is on the wall and this generation things will be different - this time I agree, gamers having the *choice* has definitely been a paradigm shift, but I am saying that 30fps *first* isn't going anywhere - "broken performance mode" has become so common an expression this generation as to be trite, with Digital Foundry often recommending fidelity modes. andy85 can talk about no 30fps only games on PS5 Pro, but the PS4 Pro was not any different and PS5 still lead with prioritised 30fps modes, as they would still if it was as powerful as a 5090.

It's quite charitable to attribute the commercial performance of those games to 30fps when I would say that there is a litany of issues there, we need to understand that the fact we're here talking about it makes us a biased demographic.

[RhinoGamer88]

At $600 with a Ps5 trade in of $300 it is...

[DFresh]

I really enjoy the PS5 Pro.
The visuals and performance make the upgrade worth it.
I gave my sister my OG PS5 for her apartment and that gave me an extra motivation to buy the PS5 Pro.
I don't regret it.
Though if you want to run it properly (max stats) you need a 4K@120hz HDTV which can be pricey.
It really depends on the person.
Me I like having the latest and greatest technology.
I got the deep pockets for it so I buy it.

[Psychonaut85]

I’ll grab one when it drops to $599. Current price is still a hard no from me. And I imagine a lot of other people

[ZAF]

I would buy it, if it had any good first party games coming this year, Playstation has been really weak this last 2 years with their first party titles.

[Elda]

I'm always playing my PS5 Pro on the weekends or whenever I'm home from work.

[DaniMacYo]

My current OG PS5 is playing up randomly freezing then it shuts off. Sometimes after
I take a screenshot or video. Or just during gameplay. Even the video recording stops recording sometimes. So if I was to get a new PS5 it would be worth the investment to go Pro. Not another OG or slim.

[Miacosa]

Aside from price thing is nice.