Sony has announced the PS5 Pro, the most powerful PlayStation ever with new graphics capabilities. How does it compare to an Xbox Series X already swimming in the PS5’s wake?
Sony has been an undisputed winner in this generation’s console war between the PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X.
While Sony has had the better crop of exclusive games yet again, Microsoft has floundered with delayed and disappointing first-party Xbox titles. So much so it has almost given up the ghost and started offering Xbox exclusives on PlayStation consoles.
Ironically, from a hardware standpoint, the Xbox Series X has the edge on paper. But it may have been eradicated by the new mid-generation enhancements from the PS5 Pro. However, you have to be willing to pay for the narrowing of that gap.
PS5 Controller (pre-increase price)
ShopTo has yet to update its prices to reflect the PS5 DualSense price increase, making now the best time to buy.
- ShopTo
- Should be £64.99
- Just £59.85
Eliminating the hardware gap
On paper, the Xbox Series X is a more powerful machine than the original PS5 and PS5 Slim. Its 12 teraflops of graphical power is joined by a max memory bandwidth of 560Gbps. The PS5 had 10.23 teraflops of GPU power with 448GB per second of memory bandwidth. The AMD Zen 2 CPU rocked by both consoles has a faster clock speed on Xbox (3.8GHz to 3.5GHz) and both have 16GB of GDDR6 RAM.
However, Xbox’s advantage hasn’t played out in the gaming sphere with experts like Digital Foundry pointing out various configuration elements that have allowed the PS5 to match and even exceed the performance in some ways.
Now Sony is pressing home its advantage with a new GPU. We don’t have the tech specs yet but Sony says it offers 65% more Compute Units than the existing PS5. while the memory is 28% faster. 45% faster rendering unlocks smoother gaming.
The Xbox Series X is likely to hold on to its significant advantage when it comes to loading times, including the brilliant Quick Resume feature that enables you to rapidly jump back into the previous game state.
A holy trinity achieved on PS5 Pro
Both the Xbox Series X and PS5 has allowed gamers to hit new heights with native 4K HDR gaming and high frame rates of up to 120fps, while the advent of ray tracing has added untold realism in terms of shading and lighting.
However, those things haven’t regularly been available all at once. Developers who need to make choices over resources prioritise top notch visuals over the frame rate when creating the games. Gamers too have to make choices over resources; whether they want the smoother experience of higher frame rates and ray tracing in ‘performance’ modes, or greater visual fidelity.
Xbox Series X games with 4K, 60fps graphics enabled tend to sacrifice ray tracing. Dropping resolution can boost frame rates and add ray tracing, so it’s a balancing act.
On the original PS5, games running in 4K with ray tracing enabled have struggled to keep up with a steady frame rate. That could be about to change with the PS5 Pro promising to deliver a combination of the the highest resolution visuals at 60fps with ray tracing and with far fewer compromises overall.
It’s made possible by that new GPU as well as two other key features; AI-Driven upscaling through the new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution technology (performing a similar super sampling function to AMD’s FSR upscaling on Xbox) and Advanced Ray Tracing. Sony explains the finer details in its blog post. You can see PS5 Lead Arcitect Mark Carney explain the new features below too.
The best games library is getting better
Sony has an enviable array of top games Xbox owners can only look at with envy. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Now some of those will carry as PS5 Enhanced label that indicates support for the PS5 Pro’s improved hardware. Those games include: Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Demon’s Souls, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Gran Turismo 7, Hogwarts Legacy, Horizon Forbidden West, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, The Crew Motorfest, The First Descendant, The Last of Us Part II Remastered.
More supported titles will be announced in due course and new titles will support the Enhanced standard out of the box.
PS5 Pro Game Boost vs Xbox FPS Boost
The PS5 Pro includes a new Game Boost feature that the company says will boost thousands of backwards compatible PS4 games by stabilising or improving performance and may boost resolution too.
The Xbox Series X benefits from a similar FPS Boost feature that retrofits older Xbox One games with improved frame rates for hundreds of backwards compatible games. It’s automatically applied to some titles and, in some cases, can quadruple the original frame rate.
The PS5 Pro has an eye-watering price-tag
If you thought Microsoft was extracting the urine with the price of its newer Xbox Series X with a 2TB hard drive, Sony just said: “hold my hoppy alcoholic beverage”
Sony is asking £699.99 / $699.99 / €799.99 for the PS5 Pro, which is a Digital Edition as standard. If you want a disc drive, that’ll be an extra £99.99 / $79.99 / €119.99.
The forthcoming Xbox Series X console with a disc drive and a 2TB hard drive costs £549.99 / $599.99 / €649.99.
