PS5 Pro: One Year Later - Performance and PSSR Review
The PS5 Pro First-Year Retrospective
One year into the PlayStation 5 Pro lifecycle, the performance landscape remains nuanced. While the hardware offers significant potential, the real-world experience is defined by a mix of impressive gains and implementation inconsistencies.
Successes and Performance Highlights
• Resolution and Frame Rate: The console excels at taking games that struggled on the base model (e.g., Armored Core 6, Elden Ring) and delivering them with improved stability and higher target resolutions.
• The PSSR Shining Moments: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Assassin’s Creed Shadows are highlighted as benchmarks where PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) provides a cleaner, sharper, and more stable presentation than previous methods.
• Native Improvements: Titles like Gran Turismo 7 showcase what the hardware can do when fully tapped, offering features like native 4K at 60 FPS or 120 FPS modes with ray-traced reflections.
The PSSR and Software Challenges
"In these games, oftentimes in first-party PSSR Pro software, we don't tend to see those issues as much... PSSR itself just is not, doesn't match other ML upscalers in terms of its general qualities."
• Artifacts and Instability: Many third-party developers have struggled with PSSR implementation, leading to undesirable shimmering, sub-pixel flickering, and poor resolving of Lumen GI in Unreal Engine 5 titles.
• The Need for Toggles: The hosts emphasize that mandatory PSSR can be detrimental. Games like Alan Wake 2 and The Outer Worlds 2 saw improvements only after developers allowed for toggles or reverted to more stable upscaling techniques like TSR.
Future Outlook and Verdict
• Build Quality: The physical design is noted as quieter and more reliable, though the removal of front-facing USB-A ports is a point of contention for accessory users.
• Final Thoughts: While the PS5 Pro is not a "transformative" necessity for most, it serves as a quality-of-life upgrade for the dedicated console enthusiast looking to bridge the gap between console limitations and a premium visual experience.