Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro is out now. Priced at £699.99 / $699.99 / €799.99, Sony’s upgraded console provides improved visuals and performance over the standard PS5.
Thanks to its larger GPU, games that take full advantage of the PS5 Pro can benefit from ray-traced reflections, faster performance, and improved image quality via Sony’s ‘PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution’ (PSSR) AI upscaling.
Most modern games offer a graphics mode focusing on fidelity or a performance mode with higher frame rates. The PS5 Pro aims to provide the best of both worlds, offering the fidelity of graphics modes without sacrificing frame rates.
As a result, many games will run on PS5 Pro at 4K and 60fps, or even 120fps, without compromise.
Games released before the console require a patch to be ‘PS5 Pro Enhanced’ and fully utilise the PS5 Pro. However, the ‘Game Boost’ feature can improve the performance of PS5 games and backwards-compatible PS4 gamers without a patch.
While reviews have been positive, initial reception was mixed, with many feeling that the standard PS5 hasn’t reached its full potential yet. Others feel that the visual and performance enhancements it offers are negligible. It’s the definition of an enthusiast console.
Racing games often showcase the prowess of new hardware. This is certainly the case with the PS5 Pro, with several racing games taking advantage of the upgraded console, offering sharper image quality, greater fidelity and smoother frame rates.
Gran Turismo 7
Gran Turismo is Sony’s flagship racing franchise, so it’s a given that Gran Turismo 7 will take advantage of the PS5 Pro’s extra horsepower and show off its capabilities.
As highlighted in the PS5 Pro announcement video, a new ‘Raytrace Priority’ mode will add ray-traced reflections to cars during gameplay at 60fps. On the standard PS5, ray-tracing is only supported in replays and menus, while capped at 30fps. Sony’s PSSR upscaling technology will also result in sharper image quality.
An “experimental” 8K resolution mode targetting 60fps will also be available to the elite few who own an 8K display. However, there’s no word yet if the PS5 Pro version of Gran Turismo 7 will get a graphical boost on PSVR2.
Despite prominently appearing in the unveiling video, Gran Turismo 7 has yet to receive a PS5 Pro enhancement update, with Polyphony targeting a November release.
However, Digital Foundry discovered that Gran Turismo 7 will run at a native 4K resolution and 120fps without an enhancement patch thanks to the PS5 Pro’s Game Boost.
F1 24
Although first-party support is expected, several third-party racing games will take advantage of the PS5 Pro. Alongside Gran Turismo 7, F1 24 boasts one of the most visually dazzling PS5 Pro upgrades.
F1 24’s PS5 Pro quality mode takes the visuals to the next level. Whereas the standard PS5’s quality mode restricts ray-tracing to replays and showroom sequences, cars and track surfaces feature ray-traced reflections during races on PS5 Pro, while running at 60fps and up to 1440p.
Coupled with improved lighting, the result is spectacular – particularly on wet track surfaces where the enhanced reflections are most noticeable. On the standard PS5, ray tracing is restricted to replays and showroom scenes.
Impressively, F1 24 will run at a native 4K resolution at 120fps on PS5 Pro. Like Gran Turismo 7, it will also support a native 8K resolution at 60fps with PSSR upscaling, pushing Codemasters’ EGO engine to its limits.
The Crew Motorfest
Just in time for the launch of Season 5 and the Year 2 Pass, The Crew Motorfest boasts a plethora of PS5 Pro enhancements from day one.
Upscaled with PSSR, Ubisoft’s open-world racer will run at 60fps with an average resolution of 1696p during missions. Enhanced visuals bring more detailed shadows, textures, and reflective textures.
According to Ivory Tower and Ubisoft, up to 15% more foliage and objects are visible on-screen, with denser, more detailed environments featuring more vegetation and crowds. Improvements to the cloud rendering, lighting and reflections enhance the atmosphere of Motorfest’s Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Maui.
Although there are no ray tracing effects or 120fps and 8K modes, the increased image detail is noticeable compared to the standard PS5’s performance mode, resulting in a “very worthwhile upgrade”, according to Digital Foundry – an impressive feat considering that Motorfest is set in a vast open world.
Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown
In addition to its well-publicised server troubles, Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown suffered from performance problems at launch. Even after several patches, Nacon’s open-world racer struggled to maintain a smooth 60fps in performance mode on PS5 at launch, while the quality mode was capped at 30fps.
Since then, the most recent patch has improved the visual quality on PS5, bumping up the resolution from 1080p to 1440p in quality mode while improving the frame rate in performance mode.
Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown is listed as PS5 Pro enhanced. In theory, the more powerful console could push the resolution and graphical fidelity further or allow higher frame rates in quality mode.
Its PS5 Pro enhancements have yet to be revealed, but Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown would certainly benefit from an upgrade.
Complete PS5 Pro enhanced racing/driving game list
Here is a complete list of PS5 Pro-enhanced racing games confirmed so far:
- Gran Turismo 7: Ray-traced reflections during races at 60fps, 8K resolution mode. Patch date TBC.
- F1 24: Enhanced ray tracing lighting effects during races up to 1440p. 120fps at 4K and 8K at 60fps game modes.
- The Crew Motorfest: Average 1696p resolution and 60fps. Higher quality textures and shadows. More objects and crowds on screen.
- Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown: Enhancements TBC
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