Sony PlayStation 5 Pro with advanced ray tracing, AI features launched

Sony has unveiled the PlayStation 5 Pro (PS5 Pro), its next gaming console after months of reports and leaks. The PS5 Pro is more powerful, has a larger GPU than the regular PS5, and supports new artificial intelligence-based upscaling. It is exactly the rumours said it would be. That also means the PS5 Pro looks identical to the PS5 and PS5 Slim, except for more frills at the centre for better heat management. The company said the PS5 Pro caters to players and game creators who “have asked for a console that runs even higher fidelity graphics with smoother frame rates at 60FPS.”

Sony PS5 Pro price

The PS5 Pro costs $699.99, £699.99, €799.99, and ¥119,980 in the US, the UK, Europe, and Japan where it will be initially available from November 7. The pre-orders will start on September 26. The package includes a 2TB SSD, a DualSense wireless controller, and a copy of Astro’s Playroom pre-installed on the PS5 Pro unit. The disc-less version will be available by default, but customers can ask for the Disc Drive option for an additional price.

Sony PS5 Pro features

The new Sony PS5 Pro features several hardware upgrades, which Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS5 Pro, said will offer 45 per cent faster rendering. It will result in better detailing in select games running at certain frame rates. There are three key improvements, according to Sony:

An upgraded GPU that has 67 per cent more compute units than the existing PS5 Slim and 28 per cent faster memory.

The PS5 Pro has advanced ray tracing, which the company said provides more dynamic reflection and refraction of light in supported titles. “This allows the rays to be cast at double, and at times triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.”

Sony has also equipped the PS5 Pro with an AI-powered upscaling technology called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, which uses machine learning to deliver sharper images in select games.

The Sony PS5 Pro also has PS5 Pro Game Boost, which makes over 8,500 backward-compatible PS4 games playable on the new console. It also has Wi-Fi 7 in “supported territories,” while VRR and 8K resolution are also supported.