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The recently released PlayStation 5 Pro is a significant upgrade over the four-year-old PS5, thanks to its faster processor, additional storage, and graphics upscaling features. Sony took a similar route with the PlayStation 4 Pro, so it isn’t a surprising move. That said, the $699.99 PS5 Pro is the priciest PlayStation to date, which begs the question: If you already own a PS5, is it worth upgrading? And if you don’t, which one should you buy? We’ve reviewed both consoles and are here to show you what to expect from each system.
PlayStation 5 Pro (Credit: Will Greenwald)
Price
At $699.99, the PS5 Pro is the most expensive home console in some time. It costs more than the highest-end PS3 did at launch ($599.99). It’s $200 more than the PS5 Slim with an optical disc drive (or Xbox Series X) and $250 more than the digital-only PS5. You can buy a Nintendo Switch and two Switch Lites for the same price.
Winner: PS5
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Credit: Sony)
Ray Tracing
The PS5 has enough muscle to bring ray tracing to games, but the PS5 Pro is better at it—for optimized titles. Ray tracing is a 3D rendering technology that models how light works to produce realistic reflections and lighting effects. The PS5 Pro has a more advanced version of the PS5’s ray tracing tech, which translates into more realistic light and reflections (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart are standout titles). However, the effects only appear in select titles specifically enhanced for the PS5 Pro, and not every game on that limited list uses it.
Winner: PS5 Pro
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Credit: Sony)
AI Upscaling
The PS5 Pro introduces PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). Sony calls it “AI-enhanced resolution,” and the tech boosts games to 4K while maintaining a high frame rate. It wasn’t exactly clear when PSSR was working during testing, but the PS5 Pro produced consistently higher frame rates and a sharper 4K picture than the PS5 under the same conditions. Again, games must be PS5 Pro Enhanced to use PSSR.
Winner: PS5 Pro
Performance With Regular Games
Here’s the rub for the PS5, and it’s the same one we saw with the PS4 Pro. If the game you want to play isn’t on Sony’s list of PS5 Pro Enhanced titles, it won’t receive much, if any, improvements when it comes to graphics or frame rate. The PS5 version of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt falls into that category. More games will be added to the enhanced list in the future, but for now there are only a few dozen games among the hundreds in the PS5’s library that show off what the Pro can do.
Winner: Tie
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Wi-Fi
The PS5 Pro has a firm upgrade worth highlighting: support for the newer Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) wireless standard. The PS5 only supports up to Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax, which is very fast, but not exactly future-proof).
Winner: PS5 Pro
Storage
The PS5 Pro has a 2TB SSD, significantly more memory than the PS5 Slim (1TB SSD) and the original PS5 (825GB). More storage is better, especially if you plan to go digital-only or play incredibly large games like the 149GB Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Winner: PS5 Pro
The standard PS5 has an optical drive (Credit: Will Greenwald)
Optical Drive
This is where the PS5 Pro represents a step down from the base model. The $499.99 PS5 Slim has an optical drive; the $699.99 PS5 Pro does not. Instead, you must pony up an extra $79.99 for the Sony Disc Drive if you want physical game support with the Pro. That’s nearly $800 in total!
Winner: PS5
And The Winner Is…
The PS5 Pro is unquestionably the more powerful of the two consoles, which is why it wins many categories in this head-to-head comparison. However, it isn’t the system we recommend to most people. The standard PS5 still packs a punch, with strong 4K performance and ray tracing effects, for $200 less. It would be a more difficult decision if the PS5 Pro had an optical drive, but its exclusion means playing another $80 for the external disc drive if you’re already invested in physical media. Plus, there’s no guarantee that the PS5 Pro will make your games look better since just over 50 titles currently support Pro-based enhancements. That’s a lot of ifs to justify a hefty premium. With that in mind, we think most PlayStation buyers will be plenty happy with the regular PS5—with an extra $200 in their pocket to buy games.
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