The PS5 Pro gives console players the guilt-free 60 fps that PC players have enjoyed for years
It's been years since I've had to endure playing a game at a glacial 30 frames per second, and I don't think I'd survive going back. Most gaming PCs have been able to hit 60 fps without much trouble for years now, as long as you're not cranking the settings up to ultra on a 4K screen. Consoles, on the other hand, often still have to sacrifice a lot of visual fidelity to make games run as smoothly as our eyes deserve.
The PlayStation 5 Pro doesn't get rid of all the trade-offs for playing games at a high frame rate, but it removes enough of them to make the choice a no-brainer in any game with a proper "performance" mode.
I've been using a pre-release PS5 Pro from Sony for the last week, and the biggest upgrade it has over the original console is how good games look in their new 60 fps modes. Every game I tested had an improved "performance" option with fewer knocks to image quality than before. With the extra horsepower in the PS5 Pro and Sony's homemade AI upscaling tech, PSSR, you have to squint to notice what you're giving up from the 30 fps "fidelity" modes. I'm happy for everyone with a deep library of games tied to a PSN account.
The PS5 Pro is no threat to your gaming PC though. The Pro still can't match a decent graphics card, nor does it offer enough graphics options to let you find your own balance of frame rate and image quality. You're stuck with presets outside of some first-party games like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Spider-Man 2. But it's nice to finally have a console that doesn't smear Vaseline over the screen when you ask it to output some extra frames.
To be clear, my PS5 Pro tests weren't scientific. I don't have the kit to measure frame rate on a console, so I don't have the kind of in-depth performance analysis that we do for PC games. If you want to see real-time comparisons, I'm sure Digital Foundry will have you covered. But after primarily playing PC games at 60 fps (and higher) for years, I'm pretty confident I can identify the frame rate for each game and pick up on dips when they strike.
The Last of Us Part 1's new "Pro" mode uses the PS5 Pro's Nvidia DLSS equivalent to hit a steady 60 fps without a ton of visual degradation. The game is rendered at 1440p and upscaled to 4K using PSSR, and the biggest downside seems to be softer edges on things like blades of grass and bricks. Details like the fronds of ferns, however, are surprisingly accurate to the native 4K mode without PSSR. Naughty Dog's head of technology Travis McIntosh told IGN that PSSR's "neural network is trained to do foliage really well," and it shows.
The soft layer over the detailed objects and edges is tough to notice in motion, so keep that in mind when flipping back and forth between the screenshots. While I was playing through the game's harrowing opening sequence in the city, I was more struck by the smoothness of 60fps than the blurry objects I was running beside.
This effect isn't uncommon with upscaling tech on PC either. AMD's FSR is particularly problematic when it comes to image distortion. In my tests, PSSR generally looks better than FSR, but worse than DLSS on a PC. Distant buildings in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's intro have the "fizzle" you get with FSR where pixels distort during motion because the upscaler fails to accurately fill those spots in. But, again, it's hard to notice while smacking enemies with an oversized wrench at a high frame rate.
Spider-Man 2 is a similar story. Its 60 fps "performance pro" mode also uses PSSR and has raytraced reflections enabled. It's only when you're fighting down on the ground that the raytraced shadows and ambient occlusion make a difference in its 30 fps "fidelity pro" mode, giving scenes more realistic lighting on the buildings and streets. The smaller crowds and fewer shadows in performance mode didn't bother me. I was much more impressed that the game maintains close to 60 fps during its bombastic opening battle against the Sandman, which makes the combat feel way better than it does in fidelity pro mode.
If your monitor or TV supports a 120Hz refresh rate, Spider-Man 2's fidelity pro mode can be boosted up to around 40 fps with its raytracing settings knocked down to medium. As a Steam Deck user, I've learned to appreciate how close 40 fps can feel to 60 fps as long as it's consistent. I obviously can't speak to performance for the entire game, but it's a neat option if you have the setup for it. And screens that support variable refresh rates can use the "unlocked" setting to add some extra fps overhead to keep the game from getting choppy at the cost of the resolution dipping when it needs to.
Both Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Horizon: Zero Dawn Remastered hit a solid 60 fps in their performance modes, and I still only really noticed what I was giving up by searching for it in screenshots. Alan Wake 2, one of the few third-party games I tested, suffered the biggest visual quality drop when touring the town of Bright Falls. I suspect the slower pace and increased focus on dynamic lighting makes losing raytracing hurt more than in other games.
The jump in frame rate with Alan Wake 2's performance mode, especially during fast-paced action sequences, felt worth it to me, but it's a good example of the limits of the PS5 Pro compared to a PC. On a PC, I can flip on exactly the settings I want. Maybe I want raytracing set to low but view distance on high for Spider-Man 2, and for all that stuff to be cranked up to max in Alan Wake 2 because the action isn't as constant. The PS5 Pro simply isn't going to offer that kind of customization. You're at the whim of however each mode is designed by the developers.
The PS5 Pro is a big step toward console players joining the 60 fps party that PC players have enjoyed for years, and a lot of it is due to PSSR. I don't think these improvements are worth $700, though, especially if you own a gaming PC or even a PS5. Unless you're desperate to play the Sony games that haven't been ported over yet, PC is still the way to go. But hopefully it means Sony's next console won't make it look like you're playing the Wish.com version of a game to reap the benefits of a silky smooth 60 fps.