The PS5 Pro rumor mill refuses to stop churning with new reports on a near weekly basis. While the upgraded version of the existing PS5 console hasn’t been officially confirmed in any capacity by Sony, reliable industry insiders continue to maintain it’s on the way with one source even suggesting that it’s “100% in development”.
The PS5 Pro would function as a mid-generation refresh between the PS5 and its successor, which we’ll call the PS6. We expect a PS5 Pro to follow the lead of its precursor, the PS4 Pro. Essentially, this was a more powerful version of the base PS4 console. It packed the same DualShock 4 controller and library of games but boosted performance and targeted 4K resolution on select titles. It was a console designed for gamers who wanted extra power to enjoy PlayStation gaming at its very best.
The PS5 Pro would presumably do similar by building upon the foundations of the base PS5 with refreshed internal components and maybe a slight visual redesign. But remember, it’ll be an iteration of the existing PS5 hardware, not a full-fledged successor; this is not the PS6.
As the PS5 Pro hasn’t been officially unveiled, all we have is rumors, leaks and a healthy dose of speculation. But for now, here’s everything we think we know about the PS5 Pro.
PS5 Pro latest news (updated March 31)
- Insider Gaming says Sony is prepping a “PS5 Pro Enhanced” label like on the PS4 Pro to show which games can take advantage of the superior hardware.
- Insider Gaming has expanded on the below PS5 Pro spec leak with even more details and indicated that developers now have access to the console's hardware kits.
- A significant PS5 Pro spec leak has surfaced courtesy of YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead and it hints at a powerful console that could compete with the best gaming PCs.
- PS5 Pro leaks reveal September 2024 launch and a huge new feature — here’s what we know.
- The PS5 Pro could be getting an AI boost thanks to a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) from AMD according to new spec leaks.
- A reliable leaker has said the PS5 Pro will release in November 2024, complete with upgraded GPU and RAM to make 8K console gaming possible.
PS5 Pro rumored release date and price
The PS5 Pro has been tipped to launch in the second half of 2024. This would place it about four years after the launch of the PS5. This would be a little longer than the three-year gap between the debut of the PS4 in November 2013, and the PS4 Pro in November 2016.
Most recently, a leak of information pointed towards a September 2024 release window — as confirmed by Jeff Grubb on his podcast. Another prediction comes from Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming, who has repeatedly suggested that the PS5 Pro will launch in November 2024. Henderson’s report is particularly significant as he previously leaked the existence of the PS5 Slim and PlayStation Portal last year. Furthermore, additional sources suggest a 2024 release date adding more credibility.
Last year, a leaker claimed that the PS5 Pro and Nintendo Switch 2 would share a launch window. Since then several sources have indicated that Nintendo has delayed its next hardware into early 2025, but there’s been nothing to suggest that Sony is planning the same. All signs point to the PS5 Pro still launching in 2024.
When it comes to price, there is precious little out there to even give us an indication of how much we need to save up ahead of time. At release in 2016, the PS4 Pro cost $399, this was the same price the base PS4 had launched at three years earlier.
If the PS5 Pro was to follow the trend of the last generation, it would launch for $499. However, don’t be surprised if the PS5 Pro is pitched at an even higher cost, maybe even $599. Sony proved with the PSVR 2 ($549 launch price) that it’s not afraid to charge a premium price for new hardware, so you might want to start saving those pennies as soon as possible because the PS5 Pro could be one expensive console.
PS5 Pro potential specs
When it comes to the PS5 Pro specs two words keep cropping up: 8K and ray tracing. We would expect these to be the two areas that Sony attempts to target with any form of revised PS5 hardware.
Our latest hint at the PS5 Pro’s specs comes from YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead, with Insider Gaming and IGN both corroborating the scoop. According to this significant leak, the PS5 Pro could boast 67 teraflops of compute power equating to a "mere" 33.5 Tflops of “Floating Point” performance in real-world gameplay terms.
To put that into perspective, the PS5 has just 10.28 Tflops. So, in plain English, that would be a massive technical leap, and would allow the PS5 Pro to compete with even top-level gaming PCs. These rumored specs would be worthy of the Pro name.
Insider Gaming has expanded on Moore’s original story by providing further PS5 Pro spec details. The source suggests the Pro will get a big boost to system memory performance, leaping from the 448GBs of memory on the base PS5 up to 576GBs.
The same report claims the design of PS5 Pro’s CPU will be identical to the OG PS5, but the new PlayStation console will have a “High CPU Frequency Mode” that ramps up the CPU’s clock speeds to 3.5GHz. This would give the Pro’s processor a 10% clock boost over the standard PS5 — which is pretty significant.
Other rumored specs that come by way of Insider Gaming include audio improvements (as much as a 35% uptick to the console’s Audio Compression Manager), 45% faster rendering speed and a huge boost to ray tracing performance. While this all sounds exciting, be sure to note, it’s still an unconfirmed rumor.
Tom Henderson also suggests that the PS5 Pro will have a strong focus on ray tracing and that legendary PlayStation console architect Mark Cerny is involved in the creation of the hardware. The latter is no surprise, but is still welcome news.
Adding in our own speculation, there’s been a big push for player choice this console generation with many PS5 and Xbox Series X games offering either a “Performance” or “Quality” mode. The former typically targets a higher framerate, the latter a better resolution.
We'd love to see the PS5 Pro build even further on this element of player choice. We don’t expect a Pro console that would be capable of running the best PS5 games in 8K at 120 fps with full ray tracing enabled. But instead, players may be able to individually choose which elements are most important to them.
PS5 Pro possible features
We think it’s highly unlikely that the PS5 Pro will offer any exclusive features persé. As discussed above, it will likely boast more powerful internal components, but we don’t expect its upgrades will extend further into exclusive features or games.
The PS5 Pro is pretty much guaranteed to play all the same games as the PS5, and the current DualSense controller will almost certainly be the primary way you interact with the console. There is perhaps a possibility that the PS5 Pro will come packing the high-end DualSense Edge controller. But we wouldn’t bet on it as Sony likely wants to sell this $199 accessory separately to dedicated PlayStation fans.
It’s also been theorized that the PS5 Pro will work in harmony with the recently released PSVR 2 headset. This would make sense as virtual reality is clearly an area of great interest for Sony, and we expect its latest VR device will be supported for many years to come.
There is a reasonable chance that PSVR 2 will also be able to take advantage of the increased power of the PS5 Pro for improved performance levels or sharper visuals.
PS5 Pro early outlook
The PS5 celebrated its fourth birthday last November, but, it still feels like this console generation is only just beginning. After more than three years of cross-generation releases, it’s only now that the biggest new games are opting to launch exclusively on the PS5.
Publishers have opted to release their biggest games on both PS5 and PS4 over the past few years, and this includes heavy-hitting PlayStation exclusives like Horizon: Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök. However, the latest flagship exclusive titles like Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Helldivers 2 and Rise of the Rōnin are PS5-only.
After more than a decade on the market, the PS4 is finally being left behind, but it still feels like we’re at least a couple of years away from the base PS5 console hitting its stride. If a PS5 Pro is truly set to release in 2024, it would arguably come too early, launching just as the potential of its predecessor is being fully unlocked.
However, some recent high-profile games have been released in a frustratingly poor technical state (Last year’s Star Wars Jedi Survivor is a prime example). So there are reasons to believe that developers could do with a little bit more power to play with, and the PS5 Pro could give them plenty of extra juice.
Sony would also pitch the PS5 Pro as a product designed specifically for the most enthusiastic gamers. It would not be intended as a replacement for the regular PS5, which would likely continue to be Sony's main console.
The PS5 Pro is highly likely to be marketed towards players who want the highest possible resolution, with the most stable framerates, and wouldn’t be designed to replace the standard PS5 hardware. The two could co-exist, as the PS4 and PS4 Pro did for several years. And as lovers of cutting-edge gaming ourselves, the various PS5 Pro rumors floating around the internet have got our full attention.
