Sony PlayStation 5 Pro launched: Five things to know about PS5 Pro

Sony launched the PlayStation 5 Pro in select markets on Thursday, months after it was announced in September. The spruced-up version of the PS5, the new PS5 Pro offers advanced ray tracing capabilities, artificial intelligence-based upscaling technology, and upgraded hardware that, the company claims, can run over 50 titles, which will be available at launch.

Sony PS5 Pro price

The new PS5 Pro costs $699.99 (approximately Rs 58,750) in the US, while its counterparts in the UK, Europe, and Japan sell at £699.99, €799.99, and ¥119,980, respectively. An attachable disc drive is available separately at $79.99, while a vertical stand costs $29.99 as an add-on. Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro is retailing at PlayStation's online and offline stores and participating retailers. But no word from Sony on when the PS5 Pro will go on sale in India.

Indian buyers can continue to buy the Sony PS5 and PS5 Slim models, meanwhile.

Sony PS5 Pro specifications

The new Sony PS5 Pro features several hardware upgrades that Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS5 Pro, claims will enhance rendering speeds by 45 per cent. This improvement will provide better detail in select games at specific frame rates. According to Sony, there are three key advancements:

1. An upgraded GPU that has 67 per cent more compute units than the existing PS5 Slim and 28 per cent faster memory.
  
2. Advanced ray tracing capabilities, which allow for more dynamic reflections and refractions of light in supported titles. Cerny stated that this enables rays to be cast at double, and sometimes triple, the speeds of the current PS5 console.

3. New AI-powered upscaling technology called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, which utilises machine learning to deliver sharper images in select games.

Additionally, the PS5 Pro includes a Game Boost feature that makes over 8,500 backwards-compatible PS4 games playable on the new console. It also supports Wi-Fi 7 in certain regions and variable refresh rates (VRR) and 8K resolution.