Trusted Reviews is supported by its audience. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission.Learn more.
A PS5 Pro could finally deliver on Sony’s broken promise
In This Article
OPINION: During the lead up to the PS5’s launch, Sony threw a lot of exciting buzzwords our way to drive up hype.
We were told that the console would be capable of4K, frame rates beyond 60Hz and emergingray tracingtechnology. The latter was the most exciting of the bunch, allowing for high-fidelity lighting, reflections and shadow effects, which had never been possible on a console before.
But once thePS5turned up in our homes, we all found out that while the PS5 was indeed capable of such features, it wasn’t powerful enough to deliver on all three simultaneously for the vast majority of AAA games. That, at least from my point of view, was a huge disappointment.
Spider-Man: Miles Moraleswas the launch game that best showed off the stunning ray tracing effects, with skyscrapers seeing jaw-dropping reflections and puddles glistening in the sunlight. However, such effects came at a significant trade-off, locking the game’s frame rate at a low 30fps. That had a detrimental effect on the performance of the game, with high-speed motion (whether that was for swinging or combat) looking jarring.
As a result, I personally preferred to switch ray tracing off to ensure a smooth performance, but it was a great shame that I had to miss out on one of the PS5’s most exciting features in order to do so. Insomniac did at least release a new RT performance mode for Miles Morales which enabled both ray tracing and a higher frame rate simultaneously – but it then reduced the screen resolution as a compromise, wasting the powers of my 4K TV.
This isn’t a problem unique to Spider-Man. Very few AAA games on the PS5 have been able to achieve the holy trinity of 4K visuals, 60fps performance and activated ray tracing effects at the same time. And so despite being one of the most powerful gaming consoles in history, the PS5’s limitations are clear.
Step in the fabledPS5 Pro. While Sony has not confirmed the existence of the PS5 Pro console just yet,Inside Gamingreports that a recently-published patent indicates that a new PlayStation console (apparently set to launch in 2024) will look to “accelerate” ray tracing performance.
By improving the efficiency of the ray tracing performance, it’s possible that a future PS5 Pro would be capable of running these realistic lighting effects, while also being able to maintain a 4K resolution and high frame rate performance.
This would represent a huge improvement to the PS5, no longer requiring gamers to make compromises to either the visual quality or performance of a game.
But whether Sony is actually able to achieve this is another matter entirely. EvenNvidia’s RTX 4090graphics card, which costs an extravagant £1679/$1599, is only able to hit 44fps when playingCyberPunk 2077in 4K with max-out graphics and ray tracing activated.
It’s going to be a difficult task for Sony to create a new affordable gaming console that makes it possible to benefit from ray tracing without forcing users to make sacrifices. But if Sony can finally deliver on its new-generation promises, then a PS5 Pro will be a very tempting upgrade indeed.
You might like…
Formerly the Staff Writer at Stuff Magazine, Ryan’s been writing about tech since he graduated from Cardiff University. At Trusted Reviews he is focused on everything computer-related, giving him a va…
Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Why trust our journalism?
Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
