Who should buy a PS5 Pro? Tech experts weigh in

Who should buy a PS5 Pro console? The performance-conscious gamer will benefit the most with Sony's new console, Digital Foundry asserts.

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The new PS5 Pro is a somewhat confusing device. It packs a serious performance punch in the right hands, with first-party Sony developers even doubling FPS in some games. But it also packs a hefty punch in the wallet too thanks to the eye-watering $700 MSRP. The Pro offers lots of upside, including 60FPS with greater fidelity and better-looking raytraced visuals, but Sony's recent videos and posts don't always do the best job in exposing the system's capabilities.

There's where Digital Foundry comes in. The team recently put together an hour-long video showcasing the PS5 Pro's upgrades across 11 games, with side-by-side footage to match. After a lengthy hands-on series of demos at a Sony event in San Francisco, DF's Oliver Mackenzie offered his thoughts on who would benefit the most from the PS5 Pro.

"I think that, especially with these console games, it does depend on how you like to play these games. Because I think if you like playing games at higher frame rates, it's much more worth it.

"Especially if you like playing games in 60FPS performance modes that are more demanding, like where we see 1440p resolution facilitated by FSR2 or FSR3 and image quality isn't quite there. Which is that class of that really advanced game that might also have raytracing in there, might be more intensive, and might struggle a lot of on base PS5. Getting those games to 4K output with a reasonable stable image can make a huge difference, can make a really big difference.

"It's just tough, because this generation we've seen developers push out visual features, and in a world without upsampling, we'd probably be looking at a lot of games at 1080p at 900p pushing out more advanced visual features.

"But I think that's the #1 area, if you're a gamer that likes to play at 60FPS, likes to play the more demanding games, that's where I really mostly see the benefit being--in at least existing titles."

Sony's PS5 Pro releases November 7, 2024 for $700, and pre-orders begin tomorrow, starting first on PlayStation Direct.