Everything the Rumors Say About the PS5 Pro

The PlayStation 5 has been out for nearly four years, and still has a lot of life in it, but Sony may be eyeing a mid-cycle refresh of the console in the form of a more powerful PS5 Pro. In fact, some rumors suggest we could see the new console as soon as this year, and that it will include some pretty hefty upgrades.

Of course, Sony has yet to officially confirm anything, or even openly admit it is working on a successor to the PS5. But based on the timing of the release of the PS4 Pro in November 2016, three years into the life of that console generation, it seems likely Sony is also looking to iterate on its newest console. Until we get official news, of course, at's all rumor and speculation, but that can be fun, too.

Potential specs for the PS5 Pro: Increased performance and 8K gaming

There isn't much to go on when it comes to the PS5 Pro's potential price and specs. However, recent rumors and possible leaks suggest the PS5 Pro will offer 33.5 teraflops of power. Yes, that is actually the name of the measurement, and that's nearly three times the power as the PS5 today.

Additionally, the scuttlebutt is that the GPU in the PS5 Pro will offer 45% higher rasterization performance, and that it could use AI upscaling in a method similar to Nvidia's DLSS, which would result in smoother gameplay and optimization across even the most demanding titles. (DLSS absolutely saved Star Citizen's performance on PC, and it would be great to see similar functionality on the PS5 Pro.) This feature is called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), as reported by Inside Gaming.

Inside Gaming suggests that the PS5 Pro will also offer system memory speeds up to 28% faster than the base PS5 (an increase to 576 GB/s from the current 448 GB/s). The new system is also said to feature a high CPU frequency mode" that will offer a 10% increase in performance over the existing console. Further rumors hint that the PS5 Pro will be future-proofed to handle 8K gaming after a firmware update, and will be equipped with a custom machine-learning architecture.

Reports from The Verge suggest that the PS5 Pro will also include a standard mode, which targets CPU speeds of 3.5GHz, in addition to this high CPU frequency mode, which targets 3.85GHz. Standard mode will perform similarly to the regular PS5, while the new high-performance mode is where the PS5 Pro will really shine. This new mode will allow for more power to be allocated to the CPU, which means the GPU will be downclocked around 1.5 percent, according to The Verge's report.

Sources have also told The Verge that Sony has asked developers to target a 60 fps frame rate with ray-tracing effects using the new upscaling technique the PS5 Pro will offer. It should provide similar gains as those seen in games that utilize Nvidia's DLSS or AMD's FSR systems, both of which render the game at a lower resolution and then upscale it to increase performance without taxing the system as much.

Games that fully take advantage of the PS5 Pro's new specs will allegedly get a special PS5 Pro "Enhanced" label. However, reports indicate that Sony will use this label on more than just games targeting the 60 fps mentioned earlier. They'll also appear on games that target 30 fps, but take advantage of the PS5 Pro's other upgrades.

This could mean that we see PS5 Pro Enhanced games that can run anywhere from 1280p and 2160p on the PS5 Pro at 30fps and only between 1080p and 1440p at 30fps on the base PlayStation 5. And, if developers enable ray-tracing, their games may also be able to apply the PS5 Pro Enhanced label despite not improving performance in any way.

A label like this certainly opens room for some confusion, as anyone seeing the PS5 Pro Enhanced label is likely to expect to see some kind of performance gains with the new console. However, this is actually similar to what Sony did with the PS4 Pro back when it started releasing games enhanced for the more powerful version of its console. Thankfully, The Verge says that Sony is not going to let developers use the Enhanced label just for providing a more stable frame rate. The games will need to take advantage of some new features that the PS5 Pro offers in order for the label to apply.

Much like the PS4 Pro, the PS5 Pro is also expected to have an "ultra-boost" mode or "performance" mode that should improve performance in games even if developers don't update them to the new PS5 Pro SDK and take advantage of any of the new features.

When will the PS5 Pro be released?

With the PS5 already in the latter half of its lifecycle, at least according to Sony's financial results call in February, it makes sense for the PS5 Pro to release sooner rather than later. Speculation suggests that we could see a release of the beefier PlayStation 5 as early as fall of 2024. Like the PS4, which was superseded by a Pro model three years in, the base PS5 was released in the fall, so it seems sensible to assume Sony will likewise try to position the PS5 Pro as a must-have holiday gift.

While it doesn't shed light on the timeline, journalists are reporting that developers know the PS5 Pro is closely approaching. Mashable reports that a developer told Italian journalist Lorenzo Fazio of Multiplayer they put their game development on pause because the PS5 Pro was on its way, while a different developer told Wccftech the same thing. Analyst Colin Moriarty revealed that publishers from third-party studios have already been briefed on the specs for a PS5 Pro, offering even more support for an imminent release.

Of course, all of this is subject to change, as Sony has yet to offer up any official confirmation of or information about the PS5 Pro, though the rumors are definitely widespread enough to suggest it's not entirely wishful thinking. Of course, there have also been rumors about a follow-up to the Nintendo Switch since before the Switch OLED dropped, so rumors and speculation don't always play out as one might assume.