PS5 vs PS4 Pro: what should you buy? As the PS5 release date approaches, it remains to be reckoned with the current mid-gen upgrade, the PS4 Pro. This upgraded PlayStation 4, released in 2016, accounts for a good chunk of the 100 million PS4s sold in this season. generation. Many basic PS4 owners have switched to Pro for 4K power, and it's still the best way to play exclusives like God of War, Uncharted 4, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. But now we come to the end of this generation, and the PS4 Pro vs PS5 dilemma is a good question. Here's a breakdown of what we know about the two boxes so far, including their prices, specs, and flagship games, to help you determine if it might be worth switching from the PS4. Pro on PlayStation 5.
PS5 vs PS4 Pro price
(Image credit: Shutterstock.com) The hardest part of assessing the price of the PS5 is that even Sony doesn't know it yet. That being said, there are ideas. It seems that the price of the PS5 will not be as bad as you think. PSErebus, which correctly estimated The Last of Us 2's release date, said in November 2019 that the PS5's retail price would be €499 (around €380 and AUS$745). And, while Sony admits that not knowing the price of its next box in February 2020 is undermining the leak, it certainly wouldn't be a bad price considering the power of its components.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) will launch PlayStation®5 (PS5™) in various countries during the 2020 holiday season and will make PlayStation®5 (PS5™) available in North America on November 20, 2020 at recommended retail price (MSRP). from €499 pic.twitter.com/fe4jKlHmrHNNovember 19, 2019 The leak puts the price of the PS5 at €100 more than the cost to launch the PS4 Pro of €399 (£349, AU$559), but Amazon currently lists the Pro for around €320, €300 and AU$484 in the US, UK and Australia, respectively. That being said, you can always do better than this. Thanks to recent Black Friday PS4 deals, the Pro dropped to just $299 with the recently released Death Stranding. Either way, the PS4 Pro is probably the cheaper option, and its price will drop further once its bigger brother comes out later this year.
PS4 Pro vs PS5 Specifications
(Image credit: Insomniac Games) There's still a lot to discover about the PS5's internals, but here's what we know so far:
- GPU: Custom AMD Navi - capable of ray tracing
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 8 cores, Zen 2 2 7 nm
- Storage: SSD
- Optical: 4K Blu-ray media player
- Images: Native 4K 120Hz + 8K
- Audio: 3D
One of the highlights is the GPU and AMD CPU mating, which PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny has confirmed to Wired that he is trackable. Seen in some of the most beautiful PC games like Control, Metro Exodus, and Battlefield V, ray tracing is an innovative way to restore light and shadows. But since each "beam" of light has its own simulated source, it's only now that the required power has become feasible on a console. In other words, ray tracing will give the rumored God of War 2 and Horizon: Zero Dawn 2 a next-gen look. And if that wasn't enough for your corneas, there's 8K support too. But when it comes to whether you should choose between 4K or 8K consoles, keep in mind that 8K won't be a common prospect for a few years yet.
(Image credit: Microsoft; Remedy) Big news for PlayStation gamers is the PS5 SSD, an upgrade that PC gamers have long enjoyed. Games are supposed to load 19 times faster, but we don't know how much storage we'll have yet. Meanwhile, the PS4 Pro is still being held back by its old mechanical hard drive. Although the PS4 UI design is seamless, you can easily resume a game you stopped sleeping on or after visiting other apps, eventually you'll be envious of the few loading screens PS5 gamers will enjoy. The Pro also doesn't have the 4K Blu Ray media player that the PS5 will have. Cerny also told Wired that PS5 audio would reach a new "gold standard" thanks to its improved audio engine. Whether or not you extend to a Dolby Atmos-style system, you'll want to invest in the best gaming headset. In the meantime, here are the specs for the PS4 Pro:
- CPU: Jaguar AMD x86-64 eight-core
- GPU: AMD Radeon with 4.2 teraflops
- RAM: 8GB GDDR5 memory
- Storage: 1TB hard drive
The updated mid-gen model has proven to be a decent jump on the base PS4: it supports 4K streaming from Amazon and Netflix, but native 4K gaming isn't possible on all titles, and only at 30 frames per second. Naturally, expect the PS5 to be a nice leap in power over the Pro, but if you're looking for the best graphics, don't want a PC, and are platform agnostic, the most powerful Xbox One X console on the market today is worth considering. .
PS5 vs PS4 Pro games
(Image credit: Ubisoft) If you buy a PS4 Pro now, we hope you'll have some free time figured out: Bloodborne, God of War, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us, The Last Guardian and Marvel's Spider-Man are exclusives to the box. Sony, with other cross-platform death experiences like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Control. However, we still don't know much about the PS5 launch lineup. There's not much to get players excited about yet, so it might be worth holding your fire until there's something to really excite you about. Here's what's been confirmed (so far): With that being said, backward compatibility for the PS5 with the PS4 has been confirmed for the upcoming console. This means that those who skip a generation will not fail: it seems that you will be able to play most PS4 games on the new box, since they are based on a similar architecture to the PS5.
PS5 vs PS4 Pro Verdict
(Image credit: TechRadar) While there's still a lot to learn about the PlayStation 5 - arguably the most crucial price tag - there's little reason to buy a PS4 Pro right now. Not only will the PS5 be the most powerful and fastest box, but Sony's efforts to enable backwards compatibility mean that even if you buy a PS5, you probably won't miss out on the best PS4 experiences - and probably the older ones. also. If you've been waiting this long to buy your first PS4, you might as well go a little longer and skip a generation and buy a PS5, or treat yourself to an even cheaper PS4 Pro once the new console launches. That being said, upgrading from a Pro is a more difficult dilemma. The Pro already supports native 4K for many decently performing games, and you'll need deep pockets for an 8K TV to get the most out of the PS5's power. And only when 8K gaming is fully supported. As always, early adopters pay more, so it's worth waiting for the next-gen exclusivity you really can't do without.