What does an upgraded PS5 represent for players and game developers alike?

What, exactly, does £220’s worth of visual upgrade look like? That is the question on the mind of anyone considering the upgrade to PS5 Pro from a base model that nowadays retails for £480, after a 2022 price bump (although, given the Pro model’s lack of disc drive, perhaps the £390 digital-only PS5 model would be a more accurate comparison). The specs don’t lie – this is a clearly superior piece of hardware than its predecessor, particularly in terms of extra GPU headroom. Having tested a good chunk of the ‘PS5 Pro Enhanced’ titles on offer at launch, though, we have to squint more than we expected to see evidence of that extra power on screen.

This is, generally speaking, a compliment to the original versions. Storming that opening village in 2023’s Resident Evil 4 remake remains a delight across both machines, even if we’re not convinced we can detect much sign of the Pro-exclusive ray-tracing feature at play. Similarly, the use of PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) upscaling in Demon’s Souls only really hits home after the fact, when examining capture and blowing up images to three or four times their native size gives an appreciation of the crisper edges of a castle’s detailing – not something you’re likely to take in while being mobbed.

Indeed, on a 50” 4K display, viewed from about six feet, in almost all cases it’s not easy to tell the Pro and base PS5 editions apart – at least when both are running in a mode that prioritises graphical fidelity. Get up to 65” and naturally the benefits are more evident, making your choice of display more important than ever. There’s probably a bit more clear blue sky between games’ performance modes, with resolution less often having to be sacrificed in order to keep framerates steady. Broadly, though, if you weren’t dissatisfied with a game’s performance on PS5, playing via Pro is hardly about to shine an unflattering spotlight on its flaws. But what of the games that don’t satisfy entirely? It’s here where we get a more tangible uptick.