• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Digital Foundry - Do we actually need a PS5 Pro?

Corndog

Banned
Because that's how manufacturing works The prices go down with the more that can be made .
You didn’t answer what I asked. Ps5 has 2 skews. Xbox has 2 skews. So why not treat them similarly?
Maybe once Sony goes to a single skew it would make sense, but so far they haven’t.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
The original Pro consoles came out to take advantage of the 4K TVs that were rolling out. We are still using 4K TVs and will be for at least the next few years. Also, at least with the PS4, you had games that, you know, took real advantage of the hardware. Right now 90% of the big games are still running on last gen machines. I don’t see the point of pro systems this time around. It’s completely unnecessary.
 
Last edited:
I highly doubt there will be a "Pro" refresh this gen. They barely sorted out demand, 95% games a re still cross-gen. We have not come even close to these consoles hitting some wall that they need extra power. People forget that PS4 Pro introduced 4K. What is PS5 Pro going to introduce....more power? Ok, so just give us PS6 then. Its going to be a slim for sure down the line but I highly doubt there would be a mid gen refresh like last time.
 

AGRacing

Gold Member
Because of the architecture leaps in graphics AMD is making it could and would be a larger technical jump than the one between PS4 and PS4 Pro. Especially if it was between fall of 2024 and 2025 which is where I think it would land.

So 2024 or 2025.... Let's say 72 RDNA4+ cores on the TSMC N3E process. Same base strategy as the PS4 Pro. Double the cores at higher clocks than base. Better architecture. The ray tracing performance would definitely be there at higher resolutions and 60fps. FSR 3 or better available. It would be marketable for sure. I believe ray tracing would become a PS5 Pro exclusive feature at that point forward.

It would get whatever "free" performance the CPU ends up with at that time (like the PS4 Pro it probably wouldn't be much but this time it isn't even needed). So higher clocks basically.
 

Justin9mm

Member
We haven't hit the performance ceiling with current gen consoles yet, optimisation is a thing! I think it's the developers that are holding the current performance potential back. We see it at the end of every console life. What they need to do is stop developing for previous gen and start focusing on current gen. This is not to say we don't need a Pro but the current gen console hardware is not 100% to blame here.
 

Corndog

Banned
Are you crazy? All PS5's use the same chips
They use different enclosures. Ship in different packaging.
Why do you think they are rumors of them switching to 1 skew with an attachable Blu-ray? What would be the point of doing that?

This will be my last post.
 

Grechy34

Member
PC Gaming will never have one thing that consoles have, that is convenience. I have all current gen consoles a gaming laptop and a gaming desktop, and to me nothing beats switching on a console and just playing. No crashes no driver updates no stuttering when an update is running in the background it just works, as an adult with a life and limited time to spare for gaming that is what i care about just being able to play hassle free.

Claims to be adult with limited spare time. Proceeds to purchase gaming desktop, laptop and every current gen console.
 

OZ9000

Banned
Claims to be adult with limited spare time. Proceeds to purchase gaming desktop, laptop and every current gen console.

Funny GIF
 

Corndog

Banned
Neither the PS5 and XSX have been exploited yet. No games uses primitive shaders on the PS5 or mesh shaders on the XSX.
No game engines yet take full advantage of the SSDs.
No game uses SFS on XSX yet.
Until devs have pushed these new capabilities on the OG consoles I don't see any real need to bring out a Refresh.
I think next year is the earliest. Also game development seems to be getting slower and slower. I hope both hold off for a good while.
 

onQ123

Member
They use different enclosures. Ship in different packaging.
Why do you think they are rumors of them switching to 1 skew with an attachable Blu-ray? What would be the point of doing that?

This will be my last post.
You never should have posted to begin with you never made any sense.
 
The OP is from 2022 but what we really need is a smaller PS5 redesign with a die shrink on the SoC to use less power and generate less heat and therefore the console unit doesn't need to be bigger than the Empire State Building
 

Drew1440

Member
Well the Pro/One X main selling point was the 4K capability. Since the current gen consoles are 4K out of the box then both Sony and Microsoft will need to focus on 60/120fps rendering if they choose to release updated models, otherwise marketing them will be an issue.
 

TonyK

Member
I wish there was the opportunity to pay 1.000€ for a higher version of consoles. I hate to be stuck in a low graphical profile for 7 years. I want the accessibility and functionality of consoles but the quality of a medium PC.
If they build 200€ controllers for the enthusiast, why not build 1.000€ versions of the consoles?
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
I'm not seeing anything running on a 4090ti that makes me go fuck me i want some of that on my PS5 Pro, so far i've been more than happy with what the base Ps5 can do.. i mean have any of you even played Forbidden West?? how the fuck do you make that thing look any more gorgeous?
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
Better Raytracing and for 4k/60.
Apparently around 20% of PS4s sold were pro. And this is in a world of 4K TVs where the PS4 was maxing out at 1080p for the most part. If those are the main selling point, the PS5 Pro is going to struggle to hit even half of that.

Nowadays the trend is to use lower resolutions with reconstruction/FSR to look like higher resolutions, even with a 4090. So a console that is advertised as 4K is just stupid, especially since the past two Sony consoles were advertised as 4K. Raytracing is neat but still ultimately a gimmicky feature. These are horrible selling points.
 

gothmog

Gold Member
As long as we have resolution and frame rate modes, yes, we need pro models.
Resolution and frame rate modes on consoles basically started when the pro models came out. Before that you basically got the experience the developer wanted with almost no exception.
 
Maybe at first, but as always, the games end up matching the hardware over time. For example, a lot of PS4 games run at 4K/60fps on PS5 with no problem. These are fixed consoles, they’ll never do everything.

Not sure how that relates to the capability of a PS5 Pro to compared to a PS5.

We're not talking about a PS6 here. We're talking about a PS5 Pro enabling you to have 4K resolution and 60 FPS rather than 30 FPS.
 
I don't think so. Too much cross gen, games taking longer to develop and it's also difficult and costly to exploit the power available. I'd really like to see a whole shift to PS5 a base, look to lower the cost of the machine and get more out there rather than chucking in more things for the devs to do for a Pro model and devaluing the PS5, it's on a roll in demand and really needs to be the showcase focal point.

The PS4 came out weak, the Xbox One even more so but the PS4 Pro was a year too early, pretty much a 1440p 1800 reconstruction machine that was a little disappointing. One X was more like it after the pitiful Bone.

They should try to plan for a PS6 that the few elite devs teams can land on for their next game but with all that said I just feel the companies will chase any dollar and we'll see pro models with repeated re-released games and so on for PS6 as well.
 

Azurro

Banned
No. Build games around the spec for fucks sake. They're going to cost $700 and make regular console games run at 30fps. :(

That's how game devs will give us next gen visuals anyway, by going to 30 FPS. The easy 60 FPS, >= 1440p at higher settings is due to the cross gen games we have been getting, we won't get Matrix demo visuals at 60 FPS with the existing hardware.
 
Why not unshackle developers from last gen and we might actually see what these current generation consoles can do.

The idea of a pro version when people still can't easily source a regular console on the high street, and when we haven't seen enough current gen only games to know what we are really dealing with, seems asinine to me.

We never needed a mid gen upgrade in any other console generation before PS4 and Xbox, and I don't feel instinctively positive about it.
 
Last edited:

RickMasters

Member
We are still getting cross gen games and I for one have been a late adopter this gen. I dont want to hear about mid cycle refreshes for atleast another two years.
 
If you have to choose between performance or visuals, the hardware isn't powerful enough.
That's true, but then again most people don't have hardware that can offer max settings and high refresh rate gaming, do they?
I mean, unless you are running a new GPU you'll invariably have to lower some settings or sacrifice frame rate to compensate for a lack of power.

That's something most pc gamers understand.

Yes, if you have a 3090 or a 40 series and you are only playing at 1080 or 1440 then I suppose you could have everything on ultra settings and maintain a 120+ FPS... depending on the game, of course.
You've only got to look at the Forspoken debacle to see how demanding it is because of its un-optimised state.
In that game they recommend a 4080 for 4k60, which is obviously ridiculous.

My point being, 95% of gamers will have to make compromises because the hardware, be it consoles or a GPU that isn't brand new, can't do everything.

For me, frame rate is king.

I'll turn everything to low before I'll sacrifice a minimum 60fps on pc.
I feel like a high frame rate makes a game look better than turning up settings anyway.
 
Last edited:

Twinblade

Member
Read a rumor that the ps5 pro supposed to have liquid cooling, new design and was releasing this year, around April.

Sounds like BS.
 

nikos

Member
Imagine not knowing PC gamers with an RTX 4090 still can't max out Portal with RTX unless they use DLSS 3 for reconstruction of 4K and frame generation

I have a 4090 and have played Portal RTX. That game was specifically made to showcase new tech and push hardware. It's not indicative of the gaming experience you get with a 4090.
 

Freeza93

Banned
We don't need it but people love wasting money on overpriced marginal improvements.
Explain. I would love a ps5 upgrade with double its gpu power. How is that marginal? overpriced a console? there is no better value in entertainment than a console. your take is extremely bad and simply false.
 

Freeza93

Banned
We were promised 4k @ 120 fps, so yes.
No we weren’t. Thats the hdmi port spec of 2.1 that doesnt mean it will play the games in that resolution at that fps. It only means it supports it. 8k 60 is maximum afaik. thats why thats on the package. but yes rather spouting nonsense about stuff one has no clue about.
 
I have a 4090 and have played Portal RTX. That game was specifically made to showcase new tech and push hardware. It's not indicative of the gaming experience you get with a 4090.
It's an example of having to choose between performance and visuals. You can't just pretend something doesn't exist because it doesn't fit your definition.

And since only a small number of people on Earth even have a 4090, it's clear that everyone has to choose between performance and visuals and by your own definition there is no hardware on the planet powerful enough. Which is a patently absurd claim to make.

The reason your claim will never be valid is because developers will always be out there showcasing new tech and pushing hardware and it's up to hardware to catch up with developers. This has been true since the days of Crysis for example.
 
Top Bottom