The PlayStation 5 Pro rumor mill is currently on overdrive, but this early on, we already have one analyst calling out the need for realistic expectations.
We had recently reported on such PlayStation 5 Pro rumors ourselves. The key detail in our report is that the console is getting multiple improvements across the board, including a faster clockspeed mode for the CPU. However, it will still use the same CPU as the original PlayStation 5 model.
Now the reasons for this should be self-evident. Even if this is an upgrade to the hardware, it isn’t an upgrade to a new console generation. If Sony were to use a new CPU completely, even if the difference in power isn’t that high, it could lead to complications down the line. Developers may fail to make their games compatible across the two different SKUs, because that would amount to making the same game for different hardware. Again, even if the hardware would be mostly the same in power, if the CPU itself was changed, it opens up the possibility of breaking compatibility.
So there’s a reason Sony is actually leaving that aspect of the console alone. But, those choices also come with consequences, and we’re learning about them now.
As Tech4Gamers have summed up, Digital Foundry tacked the same rumors we reported on above. They opined that if these specs were true, the new console would not actually be able to run Grand Theft Auto 6 on 60 FPS.
To get to this conclusion, they pointed to the new things that Rockstar Games is doing with Grand Theft Auto 6 as well. Improvements in simulation, physics, and NPC density will take some of the power that the PlayStation 5 Pro’s CPU has, and that cumulatively will constrain it from performing better.
So we may be looking at a situation where the older library of PlayStation 5 games may perform better on the PlayStation 5 Pro, but the newer games will be designed around the improved specs, and so they won’t be improving performance as much as we hope.
While not all modern day games are forced to go to 30 FPS on console, because many AAAs push the envelope on so many ways, developers do decide not to go for 60 FPS. For them, it’s more important to get other things right on their games, such as particle physics, or global illumination.
But hey, maybe Digital Foundry is wrong, in part or in full, and Rockstar will achieve this somehow. It may be too early to make this call right now, since we don’t know if the rumored specs are correct. Of course, we don’t know if this mid-gen refresh is really true later.
For those of us invested in this console and game, we may have to wait a little bit longer to find out what the actual situation is between them.
