Sony announces PlayStation 5 Pro for 800 euros

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The rumor mill has been churning for a long time, but now it's official: Sony is announcing the PlayStation 5 Pro for November 7, 2024 at a price of 799 euros. The company is following a similar path as it did with the PS4 Pro: the new PS5 Pro primarily upgrades the graphics unit with additional shader cores and new functions. An entirely new AI unit for AI upscaling is PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) – comparable to Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) in the best case. Sony speaks of "the big three": larger GPU, advanced ray tracing and AI upscaling.

Sony does not mention any concrete specifications in the announcement. However, all relative specifications are in line with previous leaks from reliable sources, which is why we consider them to be credible. The following is a summary of the information to date.

Compared to the previous PS5 (Slim), the GPU of the PS5 Pro increases from 2304 to 3840 shader cores, with an architecture mix of RDNA 3 (Radeon RX 7000) and RDNA 4 (upcoming Radeon RX 8000). This is accompanied by cache increases and optimizations to 3D calculations. In particular, ray tracing graphics effects should run better.

Console	PS5 Pro*	PlayStation 5	Xbox Series X
Processor
Architecture	AMD Zen 2	AMD Zen 2	AMD Zen 2
Cores / Threads	8 / 16	8 / 16	8 / 16
CPU clock	up to 3,85 GHz	up to 3,5 GHz	3,6 / 3,8 GHz (with / without SMT)
Graphics unit
Architecture	AMD RDNA 3 + 4 Features	AMD RDNA 2	AMD RDNA 2
Compute Units / Shader	60 / 3840	36 / 2304	52 / 3328
GPU clock	up to 2350 MHz	up to 2230 MHz	1825 MHz
Computing power	18,1 TFlops	10,3 TFlops	12 TFlops
Memory
Size / type	16 GByte GDDR6	16 GByte GDDR6	16 GByte GDDR6
Interface	256 Bit	256 Bit	320 Bit
Transfer rate	576 GByte/s	448 GByte/s	10 GByte @ 560 GByte/s, 6 GByte @ 336 GByte/s
Storage medium
Size / type	2 TByte Custom-PCIe-SSD	825 GByte Custom-PCIe-SSD	1 TByte Custom-PCIe-SSD
Expandability	M.2-PCIe-SSD	M.2-PCIe-SSD	Custom-PCIe-SSD
Optcial drive	UHD-Blu-ray optional	UHD-Blu-ray	UHD-Blu-ray
*based on rumors

Many more TFlops on paper

If the PS5 Pro can maintain its maximum GPU clock rate, the graphics unit should be able to achieve 18.1 teraflops. Sometimes 36 teraflops are circulated, but this value is theoretical and can only be achieved under certain conditions: The so-called dual-issue cores of RDNA 3 double their computing throughput if two identical computing operations are performed at the same time.

This is by no means always the case, which is why the frame rate increases by up to 45 percent, according to Sony. Hardware-hungry ray tracing graphics effects should run two to three times faster. To ensure that the faster GPU does not starve due to the memory transfer rate, Sony is using faster GDDR6 components, presumably with 18 instead of 14 gigabits per second and pin. The total transfer rate should thus increase from 448 to 576 GByte/s.

The CPU cores remain with the Zen 2 architecture, i.e. at the technical level of the Ryzen 3000 processors. This is not a tragedy, as the GPU is practically always the limiting factor in current consoles. There should be a small boost of up to 350 MHz more clock frequency. It is not known in which production process the new PS5 Pro processor will roll off the production line.

Game patches and Game Boost for thousands of games

Numerous games will receive PS5 Pro patches to improve the graphics. Sony specifically names: Alan Wake 2, Assassin's Creed: Shadows, Demon's Souls, Dragon's Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Gran Turismo 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, The Crew Motorfest, The First Descendant and The Last of Us Part II Remastered.

Games without the PS5 Pro patch should primarily run more smoothly with the faster hardware. Sony calls this "PS5 Pro Game Boost".

800 euros with 2-TByte SSD

The PS5 Pro goes on sale on November 7. In Europe, Sony is asking 800 euros for the console – making the PS5 Pro almost twice as expensive as the previous Playstation 5 at launch. In addition to the faster processor, a 2 TByte PCI Express SSD is included instead of 825 GB. Sony is also including a single Dualsense controller and "Astro's Playroom". A UHD Blu-ray drive is not included as standard, but can be added as with the PS5 Slim.

A note on our own behalf: Foraum is scouring all major German retailers with an availability bot at the start of sales and notifies users when stores are offering the Playstation 5 Pro. Foraum also draws attention to offers.

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(mma)