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[NX Gamer] PS5 Pro - Hardware Review, performance, image and boosts

Lunatic_Gamer

Lunatic_Gamer

Member

​


It was a mere 4 years ago when the PS5 generation started, and here we are with a mid-generation refresh. And like the PS4 Pro before it, the PS5 Pro looks to enhance, enrich and improve PS5 games but not transform them, the question is how good the professional shades are this time around.
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God Of War Ok GIF by PlayStation
 
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Physiognomonics

Member
Gaiff said:
Dragon's Dogma 2 is really good on the Pro. That piece of shit game cannot run well on anything, so it's great to see it close to 60 in the PSSR Performance Mode on the Pro.
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Yes, one of the most impressive game according to him. He still hasn't noticed the graphical bugs DF are obsessed with LOL. But this game seems to perform very well on Pro and seems to outperform similar specced PC.

The most disappointing game is Alan Wake 2, a lot of PR but results are not great.
 
Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
His review isn't super positive overall. He's saying it can be very good for those with a big screen TV and who always want the best IQ, but that it's still a bit undercooked and that there aren't enough showcases at the moment. He wouldn't rush out to buy it unless you're an enthusiast.

That's not down to it not being good though. There aren't enough games at the moment that have patches and even among those that do, some such as Star Wars Outlaws are clearly rushed.

He does say that he expects things to improve in the future (how couldn't they?), so stay tuned for that.
 
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Vince_H_

Neo Member
Gaiff said:
His review isn't super positive overall. He's saying it can be very good for those with a big screen TV and who always want the best IQ, but that it's still a bit undercooked and that there aren't enough showcases at the moment. He wouldn't rush out to buy it unless you're an enthusiast.

That's not down to it not being good though. There aren't enough games at the moment that have patches and even among those that do, some such as Star Wars Outlaws are clearly rushed.
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And some info is the complete opposite with digital Foundry. They are very positive about Stellar blade and less enthousiast about dragon age.
 
Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
CompleteGlobalSaturation said:
Crap value proposition.

Yes you'll have improved IQ but I genuinely do not see the point of this when the CPU is insufficient to help push games to 60FPS.
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The CPU is rarely the bottleneck.
CompleteGlobalSaturation said:
If this console gave PSSR + 60FPS - no brainer.

As it stands you're better off building a PC, or, wait for the PS6.
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Oh, boy. Here we go again.

Vince_H_ said:
And some info is the complete opposite with digital Foundry. They are very positive about Stellar blade and less enthousiast about dragon age.
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Yeah, this was strange. I was expecting a glowing review for Stellar Blade’s PSSR implementation. I think by far the best two showcases are F1 24 for RT and Rebirth for IQ.
 
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Loboxxx

Loboxxx

Member
I agree with your conclusions, it shows promise, and there is room for improvement, but it's not a product that can be recommended without any doubt today.

What is considered a premium product today offers similar, slightly better quality, for a much higher price.
 
Hugare

Hugare

Member
CompleteGlobalSaturation said:
Crap value proposition.

Yes you'll have improved IQ but I genuinely do not see the point of this when the CPU is insufficient to help push games to 60FPS.

If this console gave PSSR + 60FPS - no brainer.

As it stands you're better off building a PC, or, wait for the PS6.
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I believe they really should have created a proprietary tech for frame generation to go along with PSSR

Imagine system wide frame gen. Would be absolutely nuts. And would help with those cases of an unstable 60 FPS.

As it is today, it's definitely a crap value proposition imo
 
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CompleteGlobalSaturation

CompleteGlobalSaturation

Member
Gaiff said:
The CPU is rarely the bottleneck.

Oh, boy. Here we go again.


Yeah, this was strange. I was expecting a glowing review for Stellar Blade’s PSSR implementation. I think by far the best two showcases are F1 24 for RT and Rebirth for IQ.
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Digital foundry showed instances where the frame rate was virtually identical in some PS5 and PS5 Pro instances.

You can often brute force higher frames with a better GPU but I can only assume the CPU is the limiting factor here.
 
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Lysandros

Lysandros

Member
Gaiff said:
Rarely*

Yes, BG3 is completely CPU-limited, but this is the exception, not the norm.
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I think the main culprit is the bandwidth and the number of shader engines (based on leak). The thing i don't like with Playstation mid generation upgrades at the elementary technical level (i don't like mid-gen concept in itself by the way) is that they don't have nearly enough bandwidth even with the helper bits to match the increase in raw GPU metrics. This reminds me of PS4 PRO's 'wasteful' design with its paltry 218 GB/s. This leaves us with PSSR and plausibly enhanced RT capabilities as redeeming factors. With the image quality being the main selling point. Still the base PS5 remains the better balanced, more efficient machine i think.
 
Hugare

Hugare

Member
CompleteGlobalSaturation said:
I am not a fan of frame gen. Games do not feel as snappy when enabled.
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They feel as snappy as they do at 30 FPS, but looking like 60

So I would rather have 60 FPS fluidity and 30 input than 30/30

But I mentioned it mainly to be used for 60 FPS games that cant hold a stable 60 even on the Pro (like Alan Wake II, for example)
 
Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Lysandros said:
I think the main culprit is the bandwidth and the number of shader engines (based on leak). The thing i don't like with Playstation mid generation upgrades at the elementary technical level (i don't like mid-gen concept in itself by the way) is that they don't have nearly enough bandwidth even with the helper bits to match the increase in raw GPU metrics. This reminds me of PS4 PRO's 'wasteful' design with its paltry 218 GB/s. This leaves us with PSSR and plausibly enhanced RT capabilities as redeeming factors. With the image quality being the main selling point. Still the base PS5 remains the better balanced, more efficient machine i think.
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I was thinking something similar in regards to the bandwidth. DD2 is an interesting case because everyone agrees it's CPU-limited on PC, yet the Pro seems to be able to fix or somewhat circumvent those limitations. I was previously speculating that this was due to the consoles being more bandwidth-limited in the big city and that the extra bandwidth on the Pro perhaps helps the CPU which was fighting with the GPU over bandwidth on the regular PS5. This might explain the larger than expected improvements. Whatever the case, I think Capcom did a lot more work for DD2 than just adding PSSR on the Pro. They likely reworked a few things to rebalance the different loads, unlike Larian.

I do agree that 28% more bandwidth with a GPU that has 67% more compute is somewhat unbalanced in a less extreme way than the PS4 Pro. I wish they would have gone with an Infinity Cache, but this was probably not feasible.
 
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Physiognomonics

Member
Gaiff said:
I was thinking something similar in regards to the bandwidth. DD2 is an interesting case because everyone agrees it's CPU-limited on PC, yet the Pro seems to be able to fix or somewhat circumvent those limitations. I was previously speculating that this was due to the consoles being more bandwidth-limited in the big city and that the extra bandwidth on the Pro perhaps helps the CPU which was fighting with the GPU over bandwidth on the regular PS5. This might explain the larger than expected improvements. Whatever the case, I think Capcom did a lot more work for DD2 than just adding PSSR on the Pro. They likely reworked a few things to rebalance the different loads, unlike Larian.

I do agree that 28% more bandwidth with a GPU that has 67% more compute is somewhat unbalanced in a less extreme way than the PS4 Pro. I wish they would have gone with an Infinity Cache, but this was probably not feasible.
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But PS4 Pro unpatched games were not having 30-40% better performance.

Only patched games were having better IQ at the same 30fps framerate. But one could argue PS5 Pro patched games will bring much better improvements.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Gold Member
Gaiff said:
Rarely*

Yes, BG3 is completely CPU-limited, but this is the exception, not the norm.
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I mean...there is a 99,99% chance that the 2 most hyped\big games of 2025 are gonna be super heavy on the cpu, mh wilds is already a certainty after dogma 2 and wilds beta and gta 6...well, it's an open world game in a modern city with a lot of cars and npcs with hopefully the most advanced ia routine ever made, advance physics etc. so yeah, hard to think that the cpu is not gonna get costantly hammered by that game...

If pro can't help for shit with these games, A LOT of people are not gonna be happy to say the least...
 
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Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
GymWolf said:
I mean...there is a 99,99% chance that the 2 most hyped\big games of 2025 are gonna be super heavy on the cpu, mh wilds is already a certainty after dogma 2 and wilds beta and gta 6...well, it's an open world game in a modern city with a lot of cars and npcs with hopefully the most advanced ia routine ever made, advance physics etc. so yeah, hard to think otherwise.

If pro can't help for shit with these games, A LOT of people are not gonna be happy to say the least...
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Wilds is all over the place and they retooled an engine not meant for open world games into one for them.

GTA VI, I’m quite confident Rockstar will be able to deliver use the CPU to the fullest. I’m willing to bet it will be far more GPU-limited. 60fps isn’t off the table, but this would require huge visual/resolution sacrifices.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Gold Member
Gaiff said:
Wilds is all over the place and they retooled an engine not meant for open world games into one for them.

GTA VI, I’m quite confident Rockstar will be able to deliver use the CPU to the fullest. I’m willing to bet it will be far more GPU-limited. 60fps isn’t off the table, but this would require huge visual/resolution sacrifices.
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I wish i was as optimist as you, rdr2 on console was kept up with duct tape and spit, the game was prone to lose a lot of fps with fire or explosions on screen or during hectic moments in saint denis, i don't think a much larger, demanding game with much better fidelity like gta 6 is gonna be fine on console...rockstar is ambitious, they are ok if their game goes into the 20s from time to time if they have to deliver the perfect city simulation.

I think hobo consoles are gonna suffer a lot and the pro situation is not gonna be that much better.

Best outcome i can see is a 40hz mode on pro.
 
Lysandros

Lysandros

Member
Gaiff said:
I do agree that 28% more bandwidth with a GPU that has 67% more compute is somewhat unbalanced in a less extreme way than the PS4 Pro. I wish they would have gone with an Infinity Cache, but this was probably not feasible.
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I was thinking more about 624 GB/s of bandwidth for the main pool, a ~40% increase over the base model. I really think that Sony should have gone with it, even at the cost of a few CUs and a little higher BOM. A three shader engine PS5 PRO at 624 GB/s bandwidth would outperform the current one most of the time even with something like 54 CUs i think. But it would be more difficult to market because of those damned teraflops.
 
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shamoomoo

Member
Gaiff said:
His review isn't super positive overall. He's saying it can be very good for those with a big screen TV and who always want the best IQ, but that it's still a bit undercooked and that there aren't enough showcases at the moment. He wouldn't rush out to buy it unless you're an enthusiast.

That's not down to it not being good though. There aren't enough games at the moment that have patches and even among those that do, some such as Star Wars Outlaws are clearly rushed.

He does say that he expects things to improve in the future (how couldn't they?), so stay tuned for that.
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That makes sense for someone who's impartial but hoping for the best given Sony's track record.
 
Y

yogaflame

Member
The bottom line is reviews is always subjective. But reading and seeing reviews by users, majority saw a big improvement and satisfied. And it just recently launch and it's just 1.0 update for pro so very new. PSSR ML will still continue to evolve and improve and that is the good news. Next year will be the key were games will not be build with ps5 pro in mind.
 
SweetTooth

SweetTooth

Gold Member
For the usual suspects who grace us with their concern in every PS5Pro thread, I say that maybe not finding the most powerful console on earth good for you means that "console" gaming is not for you? Maybe try to build a $5000 PC?

And please... don't forget to keep your concern consistent when Switch 2 releases, or PS6 outperforms whatever MS puts.. or Nvidia releases a card with less uplift than from previous gens than PS5 to PS5PRO.

Consistency is king here 🤣
 
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OverHeat

OverHeat

« generous god »
For a 1150 CAD I can honestly say it sucks…I was expecting better performance from this. Fucking zen 2 CPU
 
DenchDeckard

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
SweetTooth said:
For the usual suspects who grace us with their concern in every PS5Pro thread, I say that maybe not finding the most powerful console on earth good for you means that "console" gaming is not for you? Maybe try to build a $5000 PC?

And please... don't forget to keep your concern consistent when Switch 2 release, or PS6 outperform whatever MS puts.. or Nvidia release a card with less uplift than 5Pro from equivalent previous gens.

Consistency is king here 🤣
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Nearly every review for this box questions the value proposition. It's like some of us have an issue with how much it costs and that it doesn't include a disk drive. That is literally all it is for me.

First console I've not bought day one in years upon years.
 
SweetTooth

SweetTooth

Gold Member
DenchDeckard said:
Nearly every review for this box questions the value proposition. It's like some of us have an issue with how much it costs and that it doesn't include a disk drive. That is literally all it is for me.

First console I've not bought day one in years upon years.
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You have full right to question anything, just keep it consistent when Nvidia slaps $2000 on repackaged 4090
 
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