PS5 Pro announcement: When can fans expect upcoming console after PS5 Slim release?

The PS5 Pro is touted as a major mid-cycle refresh over the original console, with better performance and ray tracing features to establish the console's lead in 4K gaming.

It could bring support for the latest technologies in rendering, like path tracing and frame generation. This would add to the console's shelf life and enable developers to push the boundaries of visual fidelity and fully utilize the latest PC hardware.

Though this variant has been in the rumor mill for a long time, there hasn't been any confirmation from Sony yet. The company recently announced the PS5 Slim, a slim-bodied refresh to the original console that improves efficiency while reducing the overall footprint of the machine.

So, take any information about a possible PS5 Pro console launch with a grain of salt.

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When will the PS5 Pro launch?

The PS5 Slim has already been announced, and it will hit shelves later this month. The console is priced the same as the original PlayStation 5 was at launch, $500. Looking at older trends, the PS4 Pro debuted at the same $400 base price as the PlayStation 4. So, Sony will have to wait a while before introducing a much more powerful PS5 Pro at $500.

We expect the PS5 Pro to drop, at the earliest, in the 2024 holiday season. A potential delay to Summer 2025 could make sense because Sony must sell a considerable number of PS5 Slim models before it can drop its price to around $400.

Therefore, we aren't getting the Pro refresh anytime soon, and, for the most part, gamers don't need it. Most modern games don't even properly utilize the full potential of the PS5, so a more powerful gaming console won't help the situation.

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Leaked PS5 Pro specs

The detailed specs list of the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro isn't known yet. However, current leaks suggest the new console will utilize the Zen 4 CPU architecture, which also powers the current Ryzen 7000 series processors. The graphics processor will likely be upgraded to an RDNA 3 or RDNA 3.5-based chip, up from the RDNA 2 GPU in the current PS5.

An overview of the upcoming console's leaked specs is as follows:

• TSMC 5/4nm Process
• 8 Zen 4 cores
• 30 WGP
• 60 CU
• iGPU based on RDNA 3 or RDNA 3.5
• APU with 96 ROPs
• CPU clocks 3.6 GHz
• GPU clocks 2.7 GHz
• 16 GB GDDR6
• 18,000 mt/s memory
• 23.04 TFLOPs

Most leaks suggest the console won't get a bump in the total memory size, despite early developments suggesting 20 GB RAM on the Pro. The upcoming console will, thus, rely entirely on a more powerful CPU and GPU to deliver the extra frames at 4K resolutions.

A possible PS5 Pro looks promising, based on what we know so far. However, the current market doesn't make much sense for a more powerful upgrade to the existing consoles. Hence, neither Sony nor Microsoft are likely planning to introduce Pro upgrades anytime soon.