PlayStation 5 Pro

Written by John Yan on 6/14/2025 for PS5  

In November 2025, Sony released a refresh of the PlayStation 5. Like Microsoft’s Xbox One X, which was a more powerful console update of their Xbox One, Sony also released a more powerful PlayStation 5 a few years into the console cycle.

Sony reached out and was kind enough to send along a PS5 Pro to have a look. We’ll dive into the differences, the similarities, and whether it is worth it for current PS5 owners, or those new to the Sony console.

Design-wise, the console looks pretty much the same as the launch PS5 except that it has some black intakes on the side. And for those who bought the disc version of the PS5, there’s no Blu-Ray drive included here. The middle area splits the plates for the PS5 Pro and you just need to remove half of a side plate now to access the SSD expansion port. The fins actually serve a purpose as it’s designed to reduce the fan noise. With the console’s front facing towards you, the thought is the sound will now go out towards the side.

For the physical size of the PS5 Pro, it is slimmer than the original even if you don’t include a disc drive in the setup, but not quite as svelte as the PS5 Slim. The smaller footprint is a welcome change as the original PS5 was a rather large console.

Whereas there’s a matte finish on the black inner portion of the PS5, the PS5 Pro opted for a glossier middle for its design. Aesthetically, I’m indifferent to this change, but I know some people prefer a more matte look while others want that shine on their console.

On the interior part of the PS5 Pro now sits a light strip. For those who love their lights, this console can now have accent lighting that looks kind of neat, if you’re into that.

Included with the PS5 Pro is not a vertical stand but small plastic supports. The two supports slot right in and hold the console level. If you are going to add the Blu-Ray drive, that setup has its own plastic supports as the ones included with the console aren’t long enough to make it level. I do like these small plastic supports as they are small and easy to manage instead of having to try to place it on a large plastic disc like the original PS5.

Speaking of the Blu-Ray drive, I was able to pick one up from my local game store to attach to the PS5 Pro. The process is pretty straightforward and easy. Pull off one of the plates, plop the drive in with the connector and snap it into place, and replace the plate with one that has a slot and housing for the Blu-Ray drive. You then attach the longer included feet. Once you turn it on, the system will register the drive and you’re good to go. Pretty simple, but it does increase the cost of the console if you want it to be like the drive version of the PS5.

In front are now two USB-C ports rather than just one USB-C and one USB Type-A. Considering a ton more devices are now sporting USB-C as the standard, it makes sense for Sony to make the two ports on the front USB-C. There are still USB Type-A ports on the back if you have something that needs the older standard.

While the external design has some changes, the upgraded internals is what drives the console. As the name suggests, this is a more powerful PS5.

First up, the CPU is still the same AMD Zen 2 with 8 cores and 16 threads, but the clock speed gets a slight bump on the Pro. The memory size is still the same at 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, but like the CPU, it does get a small clock speed boost.

The big change, though, is the upgrade in the GPU. The original was based on RDNA 2 architecture, but the Pro uses what they call technology between RDNA 2 and RDNA 3. The new ray tracing features provide a large chunk of the improvement in the GPU here. Along with the improved ray tracing technology, the GPU will also improve on the upscaling with what Sony is calling PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, or PSSR for short. For those not familiar, this uses some AI to help improve image quality by rendering at a lower resolution and then upscaling it using the help of AI to generate a better picture. In some instances, it can be an improvement over just general normal video graphics rendering. On the PC side of things, a lot of people use it to run with more features on and at a higher resolution, but still get decent performance. Rather than use AMD’s solution called FSR, Sony developed their own here that is optimized for the PS5’s architecture.

All combined, Sony estimates an improvement of at least 45% in raw performance when it’s all said and done. Having that extra horsepower should offer up some nicely improved visuals on old titles that are upgraded, as well as future titles coming to the console.

Sony has made it so you can easily find games that have upgrades taking advantage of the increased horsepower. Some companies have included patches for older games so that they have higher fidelity and performance. For those who don’t play at 4K, you might not see much of a difference, but those with large screen TVs that can run at a high refresh rate and resolution, the games’ look can improve some over what was previously available.

Storage-wise, the PS5 Pro comes default with 2TB of space whereas the non-Pro version has 1TB. That’s pretty good, and with the ever-increasing sizes of games, it’s nice to see Sony upping the included storage to match the times. You’ll still have access to the extra SSD slot to add more if you desire, but having 2TB available from the get go is a solid upgrade.

The included controller is still the same as what was provided in the original PS5. You can read my review of it back when the console was released. I raved over how great the haptics were. It’s still the same case today, as the Dual Sense is still one of my favorite console controllers out there.

To test out how much better the performance can be for games optimized for the PS5 Pro, I played the entire The Last of Us Part II Remastered, some Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and God of War Ragnarok. At the time of this review, there are over 100 PS5 Pro enhanced titles, which is an increasingly large percentage of the total games available for the platform, and newer games launched after the release of the PS5 Pro should have a good chance of being enhanced out of the box.

Certain games will now default to the higher graphics quality option like in Spider-Man and then give you more on top of that if you so desire. Spider-Man 2 now has Performance Pro mode and Fidelity Pro mode. For those that want even better image quality, though it won’t run as fast, the latter is what you want. And with a title like Spider-Man 2, changing some of these graphical options will display the changes in real time in the menu itself, which is helpful in determining if you want to play with more graphics settings but at a slower performance level, or stick with the fastest it can run with some graphics settings turned down.

For The Last of Us Part II Remastered, you can see it a little more in terms of enhancements when running the Pro Mode. Textures on certain things are sharper and more detailed. The game just looks cleaner and clearer making it one of the titles I tested to really see some nice improvements. Also, for those who play in Fidelity mode on the PS5, you’ll get the same or better image quality and performance in Pro mode on a PS5 Pro.

Just like on the PC, the improvements will be game dependent and how well the developers leverage the increased power. You’ll have some games where if you do have the original PS5 to compare to, you’ll see the differences right away. Other games may be harder to spot on improvements. That said, unless you do have both to compare it to, you might not even know one’s running slower or with less detail than another, and it might not affect you at all if you don’t know. The PS5 Pro is really for those that want to get the best performance in this current generation. For some people, that’s what they want to pay for even if they have the original on hand to play with.

For PlayStation 4 games without some sort of performance improving patch, there is what’s called a PS4 Boost mode that will let the console improve the performance of those games. It’s a great way to give some of the old games a little more uplift and provide maybe a smoother performance than when it was released on the previous console.

Honestly, I couldn’t really see much difference on the image improvement side of things between a PS5 playing a PS4 game versus a PS5 Pro doing the same. I tried a few games connected to the same TV and switching between the two, but it’s really not noticeable in the titles I tested. I don’t have a PS4 hooked up to see about improved framerate, but there’s potential there to keep the performance from dipping in more demanding PS4 titles. Whether it does that, I can’t honestly say. But this is a feature that can improve over time so Sony software engineers could make this feature better and more noticeable in the future.

When the PS5 Pro console first came out, it was listed for $699.99. As you know, a lot has changed in 2025 with tariffs and whatnot. With the competition raising the prices on all their consoles, I expect Sony to follow suit, but it currently is holding steady at the launch price here in the United States. When compared to the price of the competition’s 2TB offering, you’re currently spending $30 less, and the competition’s internals have stayed the same since its inception. Here, you get improved performance, but you are missing out on a Blu-Ray drive, which can be added on for an extra cost.

Is the PS5 Pro a good upgrade to the PS5? That depends on what you prioritize. I would say for those that are happy with what they have now, you can probably wait on this one. But, if you are someone that has to have the best of the best and stellar performance to match your TV, then the PS5 Pro is a good upgrade.

For those coming in without a PS5 and looking to purchase one, that’s a little trickier. It is $250 more than the digital version and $200 more than the Slim which has a Blu-Ray drive included, but slower internals and 1TB of storage. It’s going to be dependent on what you need. If you have games on physical media, you’ll have to weigh in if paying an additional $80 on top of the $699.99 price point is worth it. Also, there’s not a huge library of PS5 Pro enhanced games, but it can help improve ones that aren’t patched for that extra performance. It all comes down to what you can afford, and I know it’s a situation that’s difficult these days for some who just want a great system to game on.

I’m one that wants the latest and greatest and loves to push graphics as much as possible, so I’m definitely in the PS5 Pro camp. It’s a great machine with a great library of games. If you don’t have a PS5 currently and have the TV setup for it along with the money, it’s a solid buy. I’m not even going to get into how bad PC graphics card prices are right now, but here you get a machine capable of doing some great graphics with ray tracing and AI upscaling at a much more affordable price than a comparable PC, and less than the current high-end offering of the competition.