Highlights

  • Leaked details on the PS5 Pro's GPU reveal impressive specs, including 33.5 teraflops and a new image upscaling solution.
  • The PS5 Pro's upgraded GPU focuses on ray tracing performance, with improvements in clock speed and cache structure.
  • Sony's rumored PS5 Pro may feature DirectX 12 Ultimate features and a machine learning-based reconstruction technique.

Additional details surrounding the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro's graphical processing unit (GPU) have leaked. The technical specifications of the heavily-leaked mid-generation upgrade of the PS5 have been out there for a while, but a new report sheds light on the more intricate details of its GPU.

A stronger version of the PS5 has been widely speculated to be a reality since the back half of 2023, but leaked documents from Sony's official developer portal unofficially confirmed the PS5 Pro back in March 2024, codenamed Trinity. The leaked specs show a much beefier GPU than the current PS5, tipping the scales at an impressive 33.5 teraflops while utilizing AMD's newer RDNA 3 architecture. Although the CPU sees a milder 10% clock-speed upgrade on the same Zen 2 architecture, exciting details about Sony's brand-new image upscaling solution, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, also surfaced from the documents.

Explaining the possible 60 FPS issue with GTA 6 on PS5 Pro
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Thanks to some sleuthing from Digital Foundry, new details about the PS5 Pro's GPU have been procured. The earlier leak showed that PS5 Pro has 30 WGP (Work Group Processors) churning out 33.5 teraflops, which translates to a 227% jump over the standard PS5's 10.23 teraflops. However, Sony's estimations in the documents claimed a 45% improvement for the Pro, leading to a discrepancy. The latest information clears this up by taking the PS5 Pro's newer GPU architecture into consideration, which counts teraflops differently (dual-issue FP32 support).

Ray Tracing is a Big Focus for the PS5 Pro

The PS5 Pro's GPU will also have a base clock speed of 2.18 GHz, which can be boosted up to 2.35 GHz, an 8% improvement over the vanilla PS5. The GPU also features an improved cache structure, with the L1 cache doubled from 128KB to 256KB and the L0 cache doubled from 16KB to 32KB. These optimizations are apparently for maximizing ray tracing performance, reportedly a big push for PS5 Pro. Lastly, DirectX 12 Ultimate features like mesh shaders, hybrid MSAA, and hardware support for variable rate shading, which are all absent from the standard PS5, will be available on the PS5 Pro.

With leaks this severe, one can only wonder why Sony is still keeping its lips sealed about the PS5 Pro, but the rumored PlayStation Showcase this month may break the silence. Nevertheless, more than the substantial hardware upgrade over the standard PS5, the Pro's machine learning-based reconstruction technique, PSSR, is a very noteworthy technology that could carry over well into future PlayStation console generations. With the demanding nature of native 4K, and 8K slowly on the rise, sophisticated image upscalers for consoles are the need of the hour.

sony-playstation-5-console-game-system
PS5

Sony's PlayStation 5 ninth console generation and debuted with a launch lineup that included Demon's Souls and Astro's Playroom. The console comes with a Blu-ray disc, although a digital-only edition is also available for a cheaper price.

Brand
Sony
Original Release Date
November 12, 2020
Original MSRP (USD)
Disc Edition: $499.99; Digital Edition: $399.99