Sony is said to be working on a ‘Pro’ version of the PlayStation 5, aiming for a launch later this year. Industry analysts had said last month that a PS5 Pro with updated hardware capabilities will likely be released before Grand Theft Auto 6 launches in 2025. Now, a new report has detailed the specifications of the upcoming console. The leaks reveal that the PS5 Pro will include improvements to system memory, CPU clock speed, in addition to graphical performance.
Insider Gaming reports that the PS5 Pro’s system memory (576 GB/s) will be more efficient than the PS5 (448 GB/s), with a 28 percent increase in bandwidth gain. The ‘Pro’ version of the console will reportedly pack the same eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU as the PS5, but will come with a ‘High CPU Frequency Mode,’ reaching clock speeds of up to 3.85GHz — a 10 percent jump over PS5’s 3.5Ghz.
“In High CPU Frequency Mode, more power is allocated to the CPU and will downclock the GPU by around 1.5 percent, resulting in roughly 1 percent lower GPU performance,” the report said.
New leaks also suggest audio enhancements for the PS5 Pro, claiming “The ACV in the PlayStation 5 Pro runs at a higher clock speed over the standard PlayStation 5, resulting in the ACM library having 35 percent more performance.”
The report also claims that the PS5 Pro would come with a detachable disc drive, same as the slimmer version of the standard PS5, and 1TB storage.
Last week, leaked documents from PlayStation developer portal revealed GPU improvements coming to the PS5 Pro, as well. According to the leak, the new console would feature 45 percent faster rendering than PS5 and “2-3x Ray-tracing (x4 in some cases).” The PS5 Pro would also reportedly feature up to three times the compute power of PS5 — 33.5 teraflops of single-precision compute power compared to the PS5’s 10.28 teraflops. For context, Xbox Series X, which claims to be the most powerful current-gen console, comes with 12 teraflops of computational power.
Sony has not yet announced plans for a ‘Pro’ version of the PS5, but the company launched the PS4 Pro around three years after the original PS4 was released in November 2013. So, a PS5 Pro should likely hit the market sooner rather than later. Sony did launch a slimmer and lighter version of the PS5 with slightly bigger internal storage and a detachable disc drive in November last year. The PS5 slim retains the original console’s processing power, graphical capabilities and pricing.
Last month, industry analysts claimed that Sony was readying the PS5 Pro for launch in the second half of 2024 to boost console sales after the company’s earnings call revealed that it was set to miss PS5 sales target for fiscal year 2023. Analysts believe that Sony intends to have an updated console ready ahead of the launch of Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 6, set to arrive sometime in 2025. The PS5 has sold over 50 million units since its launch in November 2020.