What the PS5 Pro Means for Games Like GTA 6

The long rumored PS5 Pro has been (somewhat) confirmed after specifications and internal documents leaked online. Codenamed ‘Trinity’ in a nod to the PS4 Pro’s original codename, ‘Neo’, the PS5 Pro offers an expected sizable spec increase over the almost four years old base model PS5 . While many may focus on how many teraflops the PS5 Pro will cram in, we will cover the leaked specifications and explain how this will impact games running on the machine, along with explaining the new “PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution” secret sauce. CPU Undoubtedly the smallest change over the base model is that the PS5 Pro apparently uses the same Zen 2-based, 8-core 16 thread AMD CPU as the current PS5. According to the leaked documents, the PS5 Pro will offer a small boost via a ‘High CPU Frequency Mode,’ providing an approximate 10% increase above the base 3.5Ghz speed of the original. This new 3.85Ghz is achieved at the small cost of 1% off the top of the new GPU clock speed. Despite that cost, in reality, games will still perform identically to the base machine when CPU limited. In short, this upgrade feels more like a marketing statement to allow Sony to brag about having the fastest console CPU clock speed than anything else. Nothing to see here. GPU The graphics processing unit is where the real magic happens. Similar to the PS4 Pro, Sony has spent the lion's share of the budget on increasing the graphical quality, resolution, and performance of the PS5 Pro. The specific architecture changes are not listed, but we have some data from the leaks that we can extrapolate. Based on the notes, the PS5 Pro is likely to have 60 compute units (CU) over the PS5’s current 36 CUs. This is, on paper at least, a smaller leap than the doubling of CUs the PS4 Pro had over the base PS4. What we end up with in theory is a 67% increase in graphical performance compared to the “standard” PS5. But wait, we have more! The GPU itself is almost certainly based on the latest RDNA3 Architecture of the current AMD Radeon 7000 cards and this offers up some architectural improvements over the old RDNA2-based PS5 GPU. The proposed teraflop number on the documentation adds some weight to this as it states the PS5 Pro has 33.5Tf as opposed to the 10.28Tf of the standard model. This is almost certainly due to the dual FP32 (Floating Point) operations the latest GPU can process rather than a single issue on the older console. Using these numbers we can surmise a clock frequency of approximately 2335Mhz of 56CUs are active and 2180Mhz of the full 60CUs are in operation. In reality though it is going to be rare and isolated occurrences where double the compute can be pushed through the GPU. However, the biggest issue with the PS4 Pro was that the pure compute increase never matched the bandwidth. Memory On the memory side, Sony has boosted the PS5’s old 14Gbps 16GB RAM to the latest 18Gbs for the PS5 Pro, which is likely just a benefit of buying the latest nodes available. The hike brings system bandwidth up by 28%, from 448GB/s to 576GB/s, putting it above the Xbox Series X and many current PC GPUs. Although not confirmed, sources have indicated to IGN that approximately 1GB of game RAM has been added to the total allocation, opening up 13.5GBs available for games. This will be vital for the biggest boosts and secret sauce the PS5 Pro offers with its ray tracing enhancements, as well as Sony’s own competitor to FSR3 and DLSS: PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which is hardware accelerated with dedicated machine learning hardware (ML). The 'Secret Sauce' In summary, then, we have a PS5 that offers nearly the same CPU performance across eight cores and 16 threads as its non-Pro predecessor, paired with faster memory to feed a 67% faster GPU. Sony’s own numbers state an approximate 45% increase in raw rasterization performance (rendering 3D objects into pixels on screen) with the PS5 Pro. In layman's terms, a current 1080p title on PS5 would move to 3840 x 2160, or a game that is GPU limited to 42 fps would now be able to hit 60 fps. But the biggest boost comes in that PSSR and dedicated ML hardware, which will be able to increase image quality resolutions without requiring double or more pure hardware muscle. Much like the Tensor cores on Nvidia’s GPUs, this dedicated GPU silicon will take a lower target resolution output – say, 1080p – and upscale that via machine learning reconstruction to a 4K output, all for only the cost of a few milliseconds in rendering time. Not only does this machine learning system provide a vast increase to all games’ image quality, unlocking 4K (and possibly even better) resolution, but it also solves the issue for higher bandwidth and GPU performance, as this data is inferred rather than rendered. All this means that the PS5 Pro will provide a better-than-4K quality output to your screen at a far lower performance and bandwidth penalty. The other piece of the graphical pie is, of course, ray tracing. Based on Sony’s own patent and developer documents, the PS5 Pro’s new GPU also offers a base 2x increase to ray tracing performance via improved hardware. In specific circumstances, it can even reach up to a 4x increase. What about the games? So enough specs, what does this mean for the games? In reality much of this will come down to how developers use the hardware and new features the PS5 Pro offers. I suspect we will see three main improvements for current games on the PS5 Pro and two more for new titles, with the first being the most exciting. Dynamic Resolution and Unlocked Frame rates Dynamic resolution and unlocked frame rates would come for free, tapping into the increased performance and latest SDK that will likely ship with a PS5 firmware update just before the PS5 Pro launches. These benefits could take current games that run at an uneven frame rate and use dynamic resolution scaling (DRS) to instantly run faster and smoother on Sony’s new console. Games such as Alan Wake 2, which struggle to hit 30 fps and 60 fps in quality and performance modes respectively, could now lock to 30 and 60fps without a developer laying hands on the code. Spider-Man 2’s unlocked VRR mode, which generates frame rates that hover around the 70s, could now leap up into 100s. These are immediate boosts players can expect to see applied to their back catalog. Developer Update Patch Via development update patches, studios could easily go back to older games (even PS4 titles) and add an update to the engine code to increase visual quality via the SDK aligned PSSR libraries, or even just by using the increased hardware performance. If they use both, this could mean that an older game that was GPU bound on the PS5 could leap up to 4K/60fps… or maybe even higher, if the headroom was available. Games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 could easily be patched with a 4K/60 fps update that could lean into the PSSR solution to improve image quality, while also leaving enough head room on the table to boost visual quality and match the highest levels available on the PC version. By leveraging the ray tracing increases in conjunction with PSSR reconstruction, a game could have a PS5 Pro version that could target 1440p/60 with an increased level of ray tracing effects. Cyberpunk 2077, for example, seems a perfect fit for a potential update here that could finally bring the console version close to the high-end PC version. PSVR2 could also be the beneficiary of these increases, with the PSSR and increased ray tracing capabilities offering up the chance to bring performance better than the current PS5 quality into the VR headset. Gran Turismo 7 could gain the ray tracing effects used in replays during races, but now in VR. The development team could also choose to boost image quality and performance to 120fps and over 4K to improve the immersion of one of the best games on the platform. New Games The best thing about new hardware is new games, and with the PS5 Pro I can see a big increase in games pushing harder on frame rates and/or ray tracing as the potential market for them becomes bigger. And here may be a reason why we have not seen new first party titles so far this year, as the PS5 Pro will likely be a tent pole machine to show them off looking their best. We may also see new titles that ship on both PC and consoles come with a ‘PS5 Pro mode’ that offers either a PSSR reconstructed 4K image and ray tracing effects that aren’t possible on the base PS5, or visuals and performance increased overall to be closer to the PC version. Forthcoming games Black Myth: Wukong and Star Wars: Outlaws have been recently announced to support RTX increases on PC. Some or all of these could now ship on the PS5 Pro and offer a closer alignment to the high end PC version, opening the door for more developers to push harder on ray tracing in games. We could even see older releases such as Doom, Quake, or even Tomb Raider come with a path traced version on PS5 Pro, creating a slew of cheaper remasters that offer a vast increase in quality and true next-generation enhancements for a far lower investment. But unfortunately due to that CPU, Rockstar’s next visit to Vice City is likely to be capped at 30fps. The Mid-Cycle Refresh Is Coming The PS5 Pro may still not make much sense from a pure market place – this is no surefire hit. But the information leaked shows that, with the hardware and software solutions Sony has developed, the increases across current and future games could be transformative. Cost will likely be around the $499 mark, which may be with or without the detachable optical disc drive we saw last year in the PS5 Slim. The design is likely to mirror that aesthetic, just with a bulkier figure. Based on the specs, it could even be on the same 6nm node as power use is vital, although a smaller 4nm is possible. Whatever the final design and price, the PS5 Pro could breathe new excitement into the console gaming market, as well as the potential for game visuals. But what about GTA 6? I hear you scream. You will probably expect a beautifully ray traced world in 4K that looks even better than the reveal trailer. But unfortunately due to that CPU, Rockstar’s next visit to Vice City is likely to be capped at 30fps. As before on the PS4 Pro, developers could still ship a single SKU on PS5 base and Pro models and just let the boosted hardware smooth out any performance wrinkles and sharpen the pixels over the base model. This is almost certainly going to happen, but I suspect between now and when the PS5 Pro is inevitably announced at an event later this year, Sony will be working hard to ensure the developers that take this route are in the minority.