It is nearly time for the ‘holiday season’, and often in tech, that means new hardware to purchase – and for video game console players, there’s a new PlayStation 5 Pro.
Releasing in two months from now, the Pro will sit alongside the existing PS5, with Sony’s stated aim to minimise the gap between graphics and performance modes typically seen in contemporary gaming.
To hit this target, the PS5 Pro has three key features:
- Larger graphics processing unit (GPU) – 67% larger, 28% faster RAM, up to 45% faster rendering when compared to standard PS5 – “A streamlining and accelerated approach that allows calculation of the rays at double, or even triple, the speeds of PlayStation 5,” said Mark Cerny, Lead Architect of the PS5.
- ‘Advanced’ ray tracing.
- AI-driven upscaling – Using an AI library called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) to analyse games “pixel by pixel, and can add an extraordinary amount of detail, which boosts the effect of resolution of the games,” continued Cerny.
Sony has showcased several examples. For instance, the level of detail in The Last of Us Part II during 60 frames per second gameplay is akin to that of the 30fps graphics mode on the ‘standard’ PS5.
Gran Turismo 7 is purportedly still able to run at 60fps but now adds ray tracing of car reflections in-race – something that was previously reserved for a 30fps cap and only for replays/menus.
While no specific details were provided at this stage The Crew Motorfest was also briefly used as part of a montage of games purportedly improved by the new device.
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