PS5 Pro — 3 reasons to buy and 2 reasons to skip

The PS5 Pro is real and it’s arriving soon. This mid-gen refresh console promises to enhance the best PS5 games with faster performance and sharper visuals. Though it carries a hefty price, the system should offer the best gaming experience on a home console. For some, this could be the best PlayStation system so far.

Sony’s PS5 Pro has a lot going for it, especially if you’re already an avid PlayStation gamer. Based on what we know, this system packs enough power to potentially deliver gaming experiences on par with the best gaming laptops and best gaming PCs . However, the PS5 Pro might not be for everyone — even some PlayStation devotees.

Below, I’ll go over 3 reasons to buy the PS5 Pro and 2 reasons you’d want to skip it.

PS5 Pro: Reasons to buy

Faster performance

At launch, the PS5 offered excellent performance for a gaming console. While the system still gets the job done, it has fallen behind even lower-end gaming PCs over the years. Like the PS4 Pro before it, the PS5 Pro promises to deliver better performance over the base console.

The PS5 Pro’s upgraded GPU has 67% more Compute Units than the PS5, along with 28% faster memory. Because of that, the console has up to 45% rendering for gameplay, according to Sony. All that’s to say that the system will have faster performance than PS5.

Again, the PS5 offers fairly smooth gameplay. However, you often have to choose between performance mode (60 fps) and fidelity mode (30 fps) in many games. And in some cases, even 60 fps mode might not always hit that frame rate consistently. The PS5 Pro’s upgraded GPU should help stabilize frame rates and potentially deliver more than 60 fps in some titles.

Better visuals

Sony says the PS5 Pro will offer better visual fidelity than the PS5. Not only does the new system promise 4K resolution for more games, but it does so without sacrificing performance. Other visual enhancements should also make games look their best.

PS5 Pro features enhanced ray tracing that will deliver stronger dynamic reflection and refraction of light. If you’re swinging around Times Square in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 , you should see better reflections on the glass-covered buildings, for example. Enhanced ray tracing will also lighten or darken shadows, depending on the lighting.

Then there’s the AI-driven PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which is the PS5 Pro’s answer to Nvidia and AMD’s respective frame-boosting technologies. With this tech, the system should deliver sharp graphics while maintaining high frames. That way, you won’t have to sacrifice visuals for performance (or vice versa).

More storage

The PS5 packs an 825GB SSD. This wasn’t much storage even four years ago when the system launched, and it’s certainly not enough now if you want to play games like Grand Theft Auto V (86GB) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (235GB). Thankfully, the PS5 Pro packs much more storage.

Out of the box, the PS5 Pro has a 2TB SSD. Even accounting for games with huge file sizes, that's a lot of storage for games. And since you get that much storage from the jump, you might not need to upgrade to a bigger SSD — though you can if you want. For most players, 2TB of storage should be plenty.

The only question I have is, will it have a full 2TB? Considering how the base PS5 is marketed as having 1TB when it actually offers 825GB of available storage, the PS5 Pro likely won't have a full 2TB. However, you’ll still get significantly more storage than on the vanilla console.

PS5 Pro: Reasons to skip

The steep price

Let’s get right to the main reason you might want to skip the PS5 Pro… its hefty price.

While the current PS5 with a disc drive costs $499 ($449 without a disc drive), the PS5 Pro will cost $699 at launch. For that, you get the console, a DualSense controller and a digital copy of Astro’s Playroom . This console doesn’t have a disc drive, so if you want to play physical games, you’ll need to plunk down an additional $79 for the PS5 Pro disc drive. And if you want to (safely) stand the system vertically, you’ll need to spend another $29.

I haven’t seen a console cost this much since the Neo-Geo back in the mid-’90s. Like that system, the PS5 Pro targets enthusiast gamers and first adopters. While that’s small consolation for people’s wallets, the high price somewhat makes sense in that regard. Still, if you’re like me and were considering getting a PS5 Pro, the price will probably make you think twice.

PS5 is still good

The PS5 Pro is undoubtedly an impressive console, but it won’t make the regular PS5 obsolete. In fact, Sony’s current-gen system is still worth considering for most people looking for a console with a robust game library.

While the PS5 doesn’t feature many exclusives games, the ones it does have are some of the finest games out there—including first- and third-party titles like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart , Stellar Blade , Returnal , Demon’s Souls , Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and more. On top of that, you get almost all third-party games also available on Xbox Series X , including the likes of Elden Ring , Dragon’s Dogma 2 , Baldur’s Gate 3 , Hi-Fi Rush and countless more.

And though the PS5 often makes you choose between performance and fidelity modes in many games, you still get a decent gaming experience regardless.

Fidelity mode mostly does a great job hitting 4K resolution to bring you sharper visuals. Conversely, performance mode in most games tends to deliver a smooth 60 frames per second. And with titles from Insomniac Games, you’ll sometimes get a middle-ground option featuring 1440p resolution and 40-45 fps. In the end, the PS5 still offers sharp visuals and strong performance, even if you have to choose between the two.

PS5 Pro: Outlook

We’ll know what the PS5 Pro is truly capable of when we get one in for testing. Right now, it seems like it will be a worthy mid-gen refresh of the PS5; a nice stopgap before the inevitable PS6 arrives. If you can justify spending $700, you’ll likely experience PS5 games at their very best. And if the PS5 Pro's price is too high, you can still have a good time playing games on the current PS5.

More from Tom's Guide

• PS5 Pro — 3 features that will make the upgrade totally worth it
• These are the best PS5 games you can play right now
• PS5 vs Xbox Series X: What should you buy?