At Tokyo Game Show 2024, hundreds of thousands of people gathered to get their eyes and hands on the latest and greatest in interactive entertainment. Digital Trends was there checking out the hottest titles, including Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Dynasty Warriors: Origins, and The First Berzerker: Khazan (starring industry darling and class clown Ben Starr).
The largest presence at the event may have been Sony, and it was at its booth that I went hands-on with its newest hardware, the PlayStation 5 Pro, for the first time. I put the console through its paces and came away intrigued after seeing the stellar image quality and smooth action for myself. While it may be pricey, this upgrade may be what finally unlocks the graphical promises of this generation.
Tower of power
On the edge of the PlayStation booth is a lit dais surrounded by a velvet rope. Atop it sits a PS5 Pro and the newer, slimmer PS5 base model. There’s a guard keeping watch to make sure no one gets any big ideas. I’m told it’s OK to approach the consoles and look, but not touch. What’s immediately apparent is the Pro is noticeably taller than the updated standard edition PS5. Its height sitting on its stand (which is sold separately) is roughly the same as the original base PS5, though the lack of a disk drive (also sold separately) gives it a skinnier profile.
The black grill near the midpoint of the console is more of a matte black, not as glossy as the shiny veneer on the front of the box. The rear of the Pro has the same LAN, USB, and power connections, in the same order as the base model. The white shells feature the same PlayStation logo engraving as the rest of Sony’s console lineup, and the system utilizes the same controllers as its current generation brethren.
I sit down at the kiosk for my hands-on time, and I’m somewhat skeptical when I see the Gran Turismo logo splash across the screen. That’s not because I think it won’t look good, but because it’s already one of the best-looking games on Sony’s console. What was a Pro model really going to show me that I haven’t already seen in one of the system’s best-looking and performing games? Still, I wanted to put this console to the test, so I jumped in a race in the ultimate driving machine: a shiny, gray minivan. My goal is simple, crank up the weather, stick to the middle of the pack, and see if I can make the PS5 Pro struggle.
As I come across the first turn of the Tokyo Expressway, I have to admit I’m pretty impressed by the detailed reflection off the side of my van. Cars and buildings all around me are bent and warped by the vehicle’s rounded sides just like one would expect. The rain that’s falling is sharp when I switch to the first-person view and watch it run down my windshield. The clouds in the distance looked lifelike and ominous, allowing only a small amount of ray traced light to pass through.
As the race continues and I fight my way through the pack, the action holds on to a buttery smooth 60 frames per second regardless of how reckless I drive or how much I pan the camera. Gran Turismo 7 supports 120 frames per second, and the AI-powered PSSR scaling might be enough for that to work seamlessly, but I didn’t get to see that in action. What I did see was the 60 fps that stayed consistent across three full races at three different times of day, whether it was the minivan, a cherry red sports car, or the enormous black pickup truck
I wasn’t granted the opportunity to play Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on the PS5 Pro, but I did get to watch it in action. While the enhancements to Gran Turismo 7 looked more subtle and lifelike, Rebirth was much more dramatic and apparent. Previously, Rebirth offered a Performance mode for a high frame rate and a Graphics mode for visual fidelity. The Pro has a third option: Enhanced Mode.
This promises the best of both worlds, and it actually works in action. The rich and bright foliage was as crisp as I’d seen it. The action, as Cloud and company dispatched monsters, was smooth and snappy; I didn’t notice any frame dips. That is not to say there weren’t a few graphical hitches, most noticeably pop-in that was visible at the edges as Cloud ran across the open grasslands. That’s the case in the base game and the Pro won’t fix that. Still, for a game that was already a visual feat, the fact that the PS5 Pro squeezes this much more performance out of it is extremely impressive.
It’s still too early to tell if the PS5 Pro will be worth its $700 price tag. That question will largely come down to how many games tap into the extra horsepower and your economics. But after my time both watching and playing, I can comfortably say that it makes a noticeable difference. Its potential is likely to grow as developers learn how best to take advantage of the powerful hardware. Currently, there are over two dozen confirmed Pro-enhanced titles planned to be ready when the PlayStation 5 Pro launches on November 7. We’ll just have to see how many push the console to its limits out of the gate.