PS5 Pro Review: Should You Buy This $700 Gaming Console?

The first thing most of us do whenever we get a new video game is fiddle with the settings. We tweak the lighting, resize the picture frame, set the difficulty, and turn on the subtitles. And usually, we decide to play in either “Graphics/Fidelity Mode” or “Performance Mode.”

The choice is a personal preference. Do you choose a smoother gameplay experience that sacrifices visual presentation or sharper graphics that occasionally cause stuttering and dropped frames?

While the original PlayStation 5 console makes you choose between graphics and performance, the PlayStation 5 Pro lets you have your cake and eat it, too. Launched on November 7, the PS5 Pro is the first significant hardware upgrade to the OG PS5, with both increased processing power and higher visual fidelity.

You now have a monetary choice to make: $400-$500 for the OG (depending on the PS5 model you get) or $700 for the PS5 Pro. Should you spend more if the difference sounds like a nice-to-have rather than a game-changer?

The short answer is, “No.” But the longer, more accurate answer is, “Maybe, if …” There is only a select group of discerning players who will find the PS5 Pro to be worth its considerable price tag. The vast majority, though? Not really—at least, not yet. Not because it isn’t a great console, but because it’s an expensive and unnecessary upgrade for a system that, for most people, is perfectly fine, offering an exceptional Fidelity Mode that pushes games upwards of 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution.

I have spent over a week with the new console. Let's explore its benefits and drawbacks a little bit more.

The Upgrades: What Even Is It?

In its marketing, Sony touts the PS5 Pro as “the most visually compelling way to play games.” This amounts to an Upgraded GPU (for rendering games faster), Advanced Ray Tracing (for better light, reflections, and shadow simulation), and PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (or “PSSR” for advanced details and textures using AI and machine learning).

The first two—the Upgraded GPU and Advanced Ray Tracing—really allow the PS5 Pro to hit that sweet spot between Fidelity Mode and Performance Mode, creating a nice balance between beautiful visuals and solid performance, without sacrificing one for the other and vice versa.

That third component, PSSR, is most interesting. This is Sony’s attempt at upscaling technology like NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), which is the technology company’s AI-backed software that improves PC games’ image quality and performance. PSSR will do something similar for Sony games. In fact, there are over 50 PlayStation 5 games right now with downloadable "PS5 Pro patches" for specific visual enhancements, and PSSR AI technology affects every game that's played on the PS5 Pro, meaning every game will benefit from the console’s improved innards in some way. And like all machine-trained technology, you can assume that the longer it's around, the better it's going to get.

In Practice: How Do Games Look?

That is the most important and the dumbest question about the PS5 Pro, and therein lies the problem: Evaluating these visual upgrades is subjective and difficult to parse. I have a difficult time conceptualizing what teraflops are, and the PS5 Pro possesses 16.7 of them, more than either the Xbox Series X (12) or the OG PS5 (10.3). In a rudimentary sense, I know that teraflops are units that measure a computer’s speed. I know that having more of them is a good thing. But it's hard to quantify this metric in a practical sense.

There are some games where the extra processing power is readily apparent—not because of the visuals, but because of additions to the gameplay. Look at this city-level shot of Spider-Man 2 running on Performance Pro Mode on the PS5 Pro, and take note of the NPCs and vehicles:

Here's the same street corner, rendered in Fidelity Pro Mode, also on the PS5 Pro. This is a new experimental mode that flexes the console's enhanced abilities.

There’s a noticeable difference here, in that streets are more densely packed to give the game a fuller, more lived-in vibe. Other improvements aren’t as easy to discern. Check out this deer corpse in Resident Evil 4 Remake, which was taken on the OG PS5:

And this is that same deer but on the PS5 Pro:

By my estimation (as well as the consensus of several colleagues whom I asked), the latter image is slightly sharper, with slightly better lighting and shadowing, and slightly more detail, especially near the wet areas around the hooves. But this was not an easy distinction for me to make, and my colleagues struggled to as well. Can you tell the difference between the two shots?

There's a feeling of insecurity that creeps in as I peer at my television screen, trying to discern minute differences between videos and photos I took on the OG PS5 versus the PS5 Pro. Is the difference so minimal that I cannot say, with certainty, that there is a difference? Or is this an example of my own lack of perception and sophistication? Maybe another gamer with a better, more attuned eye than mine could tell. The same would be true at a wine tasting, for example. The afternotes of a particular vintage would be lost and wasted on someone who had not cultivated the required palette to discern these subtleties, or to even know they're there.

To wit: I can say, with confidence, that when playing Spider-Man 2 on PS5 Pro, the gameplay “felt smoother” and the graphics “looked better,” but that’s about it. Even when in motion—and you know that Spider-Man is always in motion—the game was crisper on the upgraded console than the base console, but then again, Spider-Man 2 already looked pretty damn good in 2023. When I played Hades on PS5 Pro (which is not on the list of "enhanced" games, but should benefit from the PSSR upscaling technology), it seemed to me that the characters looked “sharper” and were “better defined.” But what does this mean in a quantitative sense? “I know it when I see it” feels like an obtuse way to measure positive change. It can’t always be a “vibe.”

The Alternatives: What's The Best Way To Upgrade?

Also worth considering: do you have the setup to make the difference immediately discernible? There are many PS5 games that run at a consistent 60 frames per second (fps) and even register at upwards of 120 fps. Thus, if you don't have a 4K 120hz television, you're not even getting the full benefit of your standard PS5, let alone a PS5 Pro. To experience the PS5 Pro as intended, Sony recommends you have at least a 4K HDR television, which is becoming ubiquitous these days. But it’s also worth considering, "How big is your television?" and, "How close do you sit to it?"

When you take all three factors into account—the TV's specs, placement, and size—the solution might not be to get a better console. The solution might be to get a better TV.

The type of people who have a large, 4k 120hz television is a self-selecting group who have prioritized their home entertainment systems in their budgets. And for those people, who want to maximize their digital enjoyment on their comfy bed or couch, the PS5 Pro will give them the most definitive play experience possible.

But everyone else might consider upgrading their TVs first or investing in a gaming monitor that offers this sort of high resolution at a more reasonable, lower price. Or invest in nothing, especially if you're happy with the PS5 graphics as they are. Because after a while, your brain habituates to that which is new, and unless you're actively comparing gameplay footage side-by-side on a daily basis, there’s no real need to shell out $700, especially when you consider that the PS5 Pro doesn’t come with a disc drive. So, not only do you have tax on top of that MSRP, but you’ve gotta tack on an additional $80 for a separate, attachable disc drive to use any physical media you own. That sets you back almost $800, at minimum.

The Verdict: Is It Worth It?

Sure, the PS5 Pro offers better graphics, better performances, better wireless connectivity, and a better hard drive (the console’s SSD is 2 TB in capacity, double that of the OG model). But, again, despite all that power, there’s no difference, access-wise, between the two consoles; you’ll be playing the exact same games whether you have a PS5 or a PS5 Pro. GTA VI will be playable on both consoles, with one getting slightly better graphics and performance options. However, make no mistake; the two will be fundamentally the same.

So that's where things presently stand. But we still have several years to go before a PlayStation 6 launches, and a lot can happen in that time. Future games might take fuller advantage of the PS5's capabilities and push the hardware to its limits, which will give the PS5 Pro a more tangible reason to exist. The AI will continue to learn, likely making PSSR a more powerful tool—but that’s all in the future. For right now, the PS5 Pro is a “not now.” But “not now” doesn’t mean “not ever.” In this instance, it simply means “wait and see.”