We have a new rumor about the potential specs of the PlayStation 5 Pro.
Insider Gaming has shared a detailed breakdown of what the console could possibly have. For the sake of brevity, we’ll sum it up for you below:
- System Memory: 576 GB/s (18GT/s)
- CPU: the same chip, but High CPU Frequency Mode overclocks to 3.85 GHz
- Audio: Audio Compute Voice (ACV) overclocks to 35 % more performance for Audio Compute Machinery (ACM) library
- Storage: 1 TB
- GPU:
- 45 % faster rendering
- 2-4x ray-tracing
- 33.5 teraflops
- PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution Upscaling)
- AI accelerator
- Custom machine learning
It’s all exciting things promised for Sony gamers, but with all of these promised improvements, some questions do come up.
First things first, what will be the potential price of this highly improved console? While the CPU is clearly unchanged, questions come up about how much all these improvements, that promise better performance on this console compared to the original PlayStation 5, will go to the console’s final price.
Now, to refresh your memory, by the time the PlayStation 4 Pro came around, it went up on sale at the same price as the original PlayStation 4’s launch price, at $ 399.99. The PlayStation 4 Slim came in between the original release and the Pro, and it sold at a minimum of $ 299.99
The situation now is different, as the PlayStation 5 launched at $ 499.99, and $ 399.99 for the digital edition. They made a smaller version of the console, but chose not to brand it as the PlayStation 5 Slim. That’s likely because it isn’t that small at all.
The new smaller PlayStation 5 is still priced at $ 499.99, with a version at $ 449.50 without an optical drive. That cheaper PlayStation 5 can be outfitted with an optical drive after the fact, but that will be an $ 80 upgrade.
We had already reported on these prices for the new version of the PlayStation 5, and fan reaction to it. But incoming PlayStation boss Hiroki Totoki also told investors that the company wasn’t planning a price cut for the console, because in spite of their efforts, the console is not getting cheaper to make.
All of this points to the possibility that the new console will cost more than $ 499.99. We did report on a rumor that Sony will push selling the console at a minimum of that price, but that version of the console won’t have an optical drive.
And so, the second question arises, are fans going to go for the upgrade? While Sony and Microsoft seem to have both accepted the idea of a mid-generation refresh, sales for PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One Pro consoles weren’t really that huge to definitively justify launching these products.
It’ll be even harder now, given the less favorable market conditions the industry is in. Maybe Sony expects this bet to pay off because of the pending release of Grand Theft Auto 6. The thing is, if they’re wrong, it could be another costly mistake for the company.
